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Our Man in Cannes: “Two Lovers” and more
CANNES, France — It’s shaping up to be quite a race for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
U.S. director James Gray premiered “Two Lovers” Monday night, and it’s one of the most sensitive portrayals of the vagaries of love to hit the screen in recent years.
Much of the credit goes to Joaquin Phoenix, who stars as a depressed young man who moves back in with his parents after a failed engagement and becomes romantically involved with two women.
Gwyneth Paltrow portrays a confused woman who lives nearby and is involved in an affair with a married man. Vinessa Shaw stars as the daughter of family friends who is considered a nice match for him by his parents.
It may be predictable that Phoenix’s character, Leonard, would fall for the least available of the two. But Phoenix gives such a heartbreaking, thoughtful, understated performance that any predictability seems not to matter.
While the movie was excellent, the Cannes Film Festival should be chastened by the way it treated the premiere. Members of the press lined up outside the Salle Debussy before the 10 p.m. screening, only to find that it had been delayed. And when 10:30 rolled around, another unscheduled movie was still playing in the Debussy theater.
Unsuspecting critics were herded into yet another line and ushered into a much smaller venue, Salle Bazin. And as the delays dragged on, critics from major publications around the world were stomping around the theater, uttering profanities. The publicist, meanwhile, was glued to her Blackberry, trying to sort things out.
(As you may have gathered by now, critics in Cannes are not the most patient, pleasant bunch.)
By the end of the movie, however, it’s unlikey that even the most jaded critics were unmoved by Phoenix’s performance. He seems like a leading contender for best actor.
Two other movies that debuted in the last couple of days are getting high marks. The most notable is “Lorna’s Silence,” from the Dardenne brothers of Belgium. It revolves around a young Albanian woman who becomes an accomplice with a mobster in a sham marriage. The wedding will allow her to get citizenship. Then she and her mobster friend can kill the husband, get married and be married, giving the mafios citizenship as well.
There are lots of twists and turns, which won’t be revealed here. But the Dardenne brothers are Cannes favorites, having won two previous Palme d’Ors. So they can’t be counted out.
The other standout is “Gomorrah,” which is based on a highly popular novel about the Mafia in Naples. The movie, directed by Matteo Garrone, weaves five stories together, and some critics have complained about the confusing storyline. But it’s gaining a strong following in Cannes and seems like a contender.
With three such movies in recent days, the Cannes festival is shaping up to being one of the best of the last decade.
Still to come are Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling.” (The press kit for the movie arrived in the mail Monday night, and its name has mysteriously been changed to “The Exchange.” We’ll find out Tuesday when the movie premieres whether the name change is real.) Also ahead are such highly anticipated films as Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration,” Wim Wenders’ “The Palermo Shooting,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” and Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York.”
Fasten your seatbelts.
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