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Women make a splash in Cannes
CANNES, France - Four women have films in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and it’s making the race much more interesting than usual.
In last year’s lackluster affair, no female directors were in competition. But this year’s lineup includes Scottish director Lynne Ramsey, with “We Need to Talk About Kevin”; Australian director Julia Leigh, with “Sleeping Beauty”; French director Maiwenn’s “Polisse”; and Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s “Hanezu No Tsuki.”
And in a big change of pace, the first three movies to screen for the competition were directed by Leigh, Ramsey and Maiwenn.
Of those, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” stands out. It stars Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller in an unusual adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s best-selling novel of the same name.
Early press buzz focused on how Ramsey would handle the key moment when a mother (Swinton) realizes that her son (Miller) has gone on a killing spree with a bow and arrow at an American high school. But the movie isn’t really about that. Instead, it focuses on the tragic relationship between a mother and son who have never bonded.
“Generally speaking, when a son is violent, it’s usually viewed as the mom’s fault,” Swinton said at a press conference following the Thursday screening. But Swinton noted that it’s really a horror story about family relationships. “Even more frightening than giving birth to an alien violence is the idea of giving birth to her own violence,” she said, referring her character, named Eva.
In the movie, Swinton temporarily gives up a promising writing and traveling career to give birth to a son who constantly screams at her and seems to be in a tug of war. As the kid turns 7, he is still wearing diapers and using his refusal to be potty-trained as a weapon. He infuriates his mother, but the father tries to pretend that nothing is wrong.
As the kid grows up, the tensions mount, and the son takes out some of his rage on a much younger sister, as well as on the mother.
Ramsey avoids showing the eventual killing spree at the school and maintains the viewpoint of the mother throughout. And this strategy produces a haunting portrait of guilt, sacrifice - and eventually, the chance of redemption.
The movie will probably produce a divisive reaction among critics. But it looks like an early contender for the Palme d’Or.
“Sleeping Beauty,” which screened Wednesday night, was equally divisive but for different reasons.
Leigh’s first movie deals with a young college student who sells her body, but she is never awake for what happens. She enters a mansion, drinks a mixture of drugs, then is placed naked in a bed. Various old men then enter the room and act out various scenes. One is tender with her body. Another is sadistic. And another tries to cradle her like a baby.
Predictably, such scenes cause uneasiness for the viewer. But Leigh says she sees the character Lucy, played by Emily Browning, as being possessed by “radical passivity.” To set up this passivity, Leigh uses an early scene to show Lucy in a bar, where she lets the flip of a coin to determine her sexual partner for the evening.
Lucy’s only close friend is an odd duck named Birdmann, a recovering addict who seems on the verge of suicide. And Lucy seems driven to people who embrace death, as if she were sleep-walking through life, waiting to either wake up or die.
The press screening at the Palais on Wednesday evening ended with almost near silence, just a bit of applause and at least one whistle of derision. Outside the theater, however, critics gathered, trying to dissect various scenes. And even if the movie did not inspire immediate admiration, it at least started a debate that is sure to rage throughout Cannes in the coming days.
That’s part of what makes Cannes so interesting. People from around the world actually argue about art.
Coming up tonight: Maiwenn’s “Polisse,” which focuses on a female photographer’s relationship with the policemen in the Juvenile Protection Unit.
From left, actresses Rachel Blake, Emily Browning and director Julia Leigh pose during a photo call for Sleeping Beauty, at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short)
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By Joy Cooper
May 12, 2011 7:12 AM | Link to this
Your description of “We Need to Talk About Kevin” would send me to the theater - but trust some movies reviewed and/or screened at Cannes will be void of violent themes.