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Our Man in Cannes: “The Changling”
CANNES, France — Hollwood’s Old Master of cinema unveiled his latest portrait Tuesday in Cannes, with a highly nuanced portrayal of a mother under siege by Angelina Jolie.
Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” or “L’echange” in French, tells the true story of Christine Collins, a 1920s Los Angeles single mother who comes home from work to find her 9-year-old son has disappeared.
Despite the mother’s pleas, L.A. police come up with nothing for five months, when a child claiming to be her son is returned by police amid a hoopla designed to boost the corrupt department’s image.
When Collins tells officials the boy is not her son, they insist that she take him home and “try him out for a couple of weeks.”
Confused, she relents, but returns to the officers three weeks later, insisting that her son is still missing.
The police, anxious to avoid any kind of embarrassment, decide to throw Collins in the county psych ward.
Anyone familiar with Jolie’s past knows that she’s no stranger to onscreen psych wards. But the movie doesn’t dwell on her incarceration. Instead, it focuses on a woman who refuses to stop asking the question: “Where’s my son?”
At a press conference Tuesday after the press screening, Eastwood said he was attracted to the script by former journalist Michael Straczynski because “crimes against children are the most heinous of crimes. … They make you question humanity.”
Jolie agreed, saying the film was a “good study of a mother fighting against a city.” In addition to directing, Eastwood also wrote the melancholy, jazzy score for the film. He greeted reporters Tuesday with graciousness and seemed to be enjoying the Cannes limelight.
When asked why he allowed his film to be entered in the official competition, rather than screen more safely out of competition like many Hollywood movies here, Eastwood said simply: “It seems like if you’re going to go to a film festival that has a competition, you might as well be in it. … Playing out of competition is playing it safe.” Eastwood had no predictions about how his movie would fare in the race for the Palme d’Or. “A lot of good films have won, and a lot of good films haven’t. That’s the same case with the Oscars,” he said.
Eastwood, however, has never won a Palme d’Or.
If “Changeling” doesn’t take the top prize, it has a good shot of getting a best actress award for Jolie. And at the least, Eastwood should be in the running for best director. The cinematography is lush, and the sets are jaw-dropping. There’s nary a technical flaw, yet another tribute to Eastwood’s quality and longevity.
On a side note, Amy Adams of “Gone Baby Gone” has an outstanding supporting role as a prostitute who has been locked up in the psych ward with Jolie.
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