I hope everyone has had a lovely and relaxing weekend. This weekly report comes in quite late, but as you'll see in just a bit, it's simply because I've seen more films than I initially expected. Cannes is always a marathon, and this year hasn't been any different. Between attending public speaking sessions about upcoming genre films and seeing some really cool productions arriving from Hong Kong, I've watched a total of 17 films during the first five days, and I've still got another five to go.
So, without further ado, here are the films so far.
Day 1.
Cannes kicked off with a pre-show screening of Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece, Pan's Labyrinth, which has lost none of its power in the 25 years since its release. This beautifully tragic story of fairy tales coming to life under the rule of fascism feels as timely as ever, and the new restoration was absolutely gorgeous.
Del Toro was there to celebrate the anniversary, and it's always a pleasure to hear him talk about what cinema means to him.
The festival itself opened with the interminable La Vénus Électrique, or The Electric Kiss, which, despite an interesting setup, turned out to be a colossally boring dud. I wrote about it more extensively here:
Joonatan Itkonen
Day 2 began far better with an unexpected screening of The Match, a documentary about the history of the 1986 football game between England and Argentina. Now, I don't understand anything about football. In fact, I didn't know about this game, and when the doc began, I actually wrote a note to myself asking, "Why didn't they interview this Maradona guy?"
Yeah, I know. I've heard it before. But here's the thing: this wonderful documentary, which charts over 200 years of history leading up to the game, arguing that everything is connected to the sport on some level, at least for these two cultures, is so compelling that even I was swept away by it.
At one point, watching the 40-year-old game unfold, I hear audience members gasp and cheer, as if it were happening right now, and not in the distant past. That's quite an achievement.
Joonatan Itkonen
Less effective was A Woman's Life, a wonderfully acted but frightfully dull portrait of a midlife crisis. The usually reliable Léa Drucker again gives a great and nuanced performance, but the film doesn't find a gear to stick with.
Joonatan Itkonen
The evening then called for another anniversary screening, this time of The Fast and the Furious, which is one title I never thought I'd see at Cannes, but here we are. Vin Diesel was obviously having a ball on the red carpet and at the Grand Lumiere theater, causing the film to start almost an hour late because he couldn't stop signing autographs or posing for the cameras. It got so silly, in fact, that the announcers had to beg for him to get a move on!
The film itself still isn't great, and while I can appreciate its place as a product of its time, the entire hubbub was kind of wasted on me.