Cannes Day Five

I managed to arrange my schedule today so that only twice did I have to pass through a security check before a screening.  It is a tedious and nerve-racking procedure inching along with the crowd waiting to have one’s pack perused for contraband, never knowing how picky the guard will be, so it’s always a relief to avoid it.  I was able to  slip into the Palais complex of theaters from the Debussy after the day’s first film bypassing the guards out front.  Then I was able to see three films in the complex without further frisking.  The only headache was being blocked by a  massive clog of people scrummaging to get into the Christopher Nolan conversation at four pm.  I would have joined them if it looked possible to get in, but instead opted for the lone Depardieu film playing in the Market, missing the first few minutes due to the pileup of humanity.

The day began with the much dreaded Godard film “The Image Book.”  It was rumored to be ninety minutes of silence.  How was I  to manage to stay awake through that after getting less than six hours of sleep the last few nights.  Only the stream of people walking out could keep me awake.  The stream of people exiting the theater didn’t need to keep me awake, as the film surprisingly held my attention with its array of film clips and concocted images and monologue.  What it all meant I can’t say, nor could any of the early reviews.  They all agree that it will take months of study by academics and Godardomaniacs to find whatever meaning or sense there may be in it. It was another French film with the mention of Rimbaud. The critics gave it the benefit of the doubt.  It is the first film that earned an aggregate score of three from Screen’s panel.  Only Michel Simone, the noted French critic, gave it less than two stars.

For the first time I hadn’t been granted an invitation to a Competition film, so I saw “Ash is Purest White” from China, in the Soixante rather than the Lumiere.  My 45-minute wait was rewarded and my pack was spared review.  If I hadn’t gotten in I would have had to attempt to see it at the Olympia at ten pm, something I didn’t want to do as it was 144 minutes long. Usually I’m out of my last screening around midnight, late enough.  The length wasn’t objectionable in this superbly told tale of a small-time mobster and his devoted girl friend, who is someone not to be trifled  with. Zhao Tao’s charismatic performance puts her in contention for the best actress award.  The film abounds with energy and style while giving  a fine portrait of present day China. The film is given a jolt by three scenes with people dancing to “YMCA.”

“My Favorite Fabric” gave an even better view into its country—Syria.  A suitor comes from the US to marry one of three daughters living with their widowed mother in a cramped apartment in Damascus in 2011 with the country in chaos.  He declines the 25-year old somewhat dumpy daughter for the younger prettier one.  The mother doesn’t care, as she just wants a ticket out of the country for her family any way she can get it.  This will be in contention for an award from the Un Certain Regard jury.

Marion Cotillard is always a threat for an award.  She is superb as a gorgeous blond party-monster in “Angel Face.”  So is her eight-year old daughter, who is left alone for days at a time when her mother goes off on one of her benders.  She loves her daughter very much but likes partying even more.  If Coltillard weren’t such an unredeemable character this film would have been slotted into the Competition category rather than Un Certain Regard.  

Gerard Depardieu is similarly deluded and waylaid by his lusts in “The Other Woman” playing in the Market.  He has left his wife of twenty years for a younger, gorgeous woman.  His best friend, played by another French heavyweight, Daniel Auteil, who directed this farce, lusts without restraint after her when she comes over for dinner.  Auteil’s wife is initially adamantly opposed to having the woman in her house, and is outraged by her at first when she meets her, but comes to accept her.  Auteil is made into a bumbling fool by the young woman and is continually launched into fantasies with her.  The only redeeming fragment to this movie was a brief bicycling scene with Depardieu and Auteil coasting down a dirt road on mountain bikes in very baggy clothes to camouflage their girth.  Man-mountain Depardieu looked as if he’d never been on a bike.

Guys smitten by a woman was the premise of the Japanese film “You, Your, Yours.”  Three young goofballs who live in a very cramped apartment overlooking the apartment of a young Korean girl obsessively watch her every move.  They discover she is enamored by Brad Pitt, the rock legend Yutaka Ozaki and 19th century samurai icon Sakamoto Ryoma and assume their identities.  She is totally oblivious to them and they remain in the background, happy to simply regard her as their princess.  A Japanese audience might relate to the exaggerated buffoonery of the guys.  This wasn’t the wild romp I imagined it might be. 

The Italian drama “Youtopia” examines an 18-year old girl addicted to the internet engaged in a cyber-relationship with a guy she only knows through his cyber character.  She also earns money on the side stripping for internet lusters.  When she learns from her mother that she has to come up with 27,000 eruos or they will be out on the street she turns over a wad of money she has earned and encourages her mother to earn on the side as she does.  When they are still well short of what they need, the girl decides to auction off her virginity on line.  Her mother doesn’t object.  This Market offering had the relevance and disquieting impact that Cotillard’s movie lacked.  It was a nice little find amongst the mass of Market offerings.