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A Sunday in Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival has to have one of the most unusual lineups in its history this year. A day at the movies in Cannes can be quite bizarre, simply because of the range of genres in the official selection.
Sunday started off rather normally, with a screening of the competition film, “The Princess of Montpensier,” directed by the French master Bertrand Tavernier. It’s set in 1562, amid the wars between Catholics and Protestants. And it deals with two star-crossed lovers. The girl Marie, played by Melanie Theirry, is in love with Henri (Gaspard Ulliel), an impetuous soldier. But she’s promised to the Prince of Montpensier (Gregorie Leprince-Ringuet).
The marriage doesn’t go smoothly, and when Henri arrives with the king’s brother for a visit, their old passsions are rekindled. It’s a thoroughly traditional costume drama, sumptuously filmed and reminiscent of “Madame Bovary” by Flaubert.
But the rest of the day was far from traditional. Next up was “Adrienn Pal,” which follows the recent Eastern European traditions of slow, long takes that border on boredom but actually have a point. Directed by Agnes Kocsis, it focuses on a obese woman who works in a hospital ward where all the patients are terminally ill. She wears ill-fitting clogs with wooden soles, and when she clomps down a corridor, it’s like the clanging of the death knell.
When she’s not tending to bedsores and changing diapers, she’s eating cream-filled pastries, chocolate, and just about anything else available. We watch her eat and eat and eat, and go to the bathroom. Increasingly lonely, she becomes obsessed with finding her childhood friend, Adrienn Pal, who moved away in the fourth grade. And her quest takes her across Hungary, leading her to meet a surprising cast of characters, all of whom have conflicting stories about the past.
It’s the kind of arthouse film that rarely makes it to the U.S. but gets attention in Cannes in part because of its empathic nature and in part because of its realistic, almost documentary-like style.
“Adrienn Pal” was followed by director David Berbeek’s Dutch drama, “R U There.” Dutch actor Stijn Koomen stars as Jitze, a world-champion video game player who travels the world to compete in tournaments. While in Taiwan, he begins to have shoulder pains and asks a woman whom he thinks is a prostitute for a massage. Although not a prostitute, she still massages his shoulder and begins to break down a wall that Jitze has put up around himself. He’s been living in the game world for so long that he has forgotten how to touch other human beings. And Verbeek handles this tale of becoming human again with compassion and nuances.
Nothing was nuanced about Sunday night’s last film, “Outrage,” directed by Japanese action guru Takeshi Kitano. It’s a tortured tale of fights to the death among various yakuza families, all of whom are being manipulated by “the chairman.” The only question becomes which man will be left standing. (If you think that phrase is sexist, well, let’s just say that the women in these kinds of movies never survive). Very few men survive either.
Kitano’s movies are all about the inventive nature of killing someone else. Dental drills, check. Chopped-off fingers, a matter of course. Multiple gunshots wounds to the head, fairly routine. But Kitano comes up with several new methods, each time with a foreshadowing, such as “Stick out your tongue.” You know it’s gonna be bad.
“Outrage” is in competition for the Palme d’Or. And it will probably be one of the most controversial entries this year. Reviews will be wildly at odds. But “Outrage” is assured of a U.S. release. It’s that kind of market.
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