Winners unclear as Cannes nears end
The Cannes Film Festival will come to an end on Sunday, with the awarding of the Palme d’Or and other prizes, but after more than a week of screenings there is little consensus on whom the Coen-brothers-led jury will choose to reward.
About the only thing on which critics agree is that Gus Van Sant misfired mightily with his latest, The Sea of Trees, with Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe as two suicidal men who get lost in a Japanese forest known as “the perfect place to die.”
That film earned a painful 0.6 out of four from the magazine Screen Daily, which runs a critics’ poll each year and hadn’t seen such a low score since Bertrand Blier earned a 0.3 with his film Les cotelettes in 2003.
Even The Sea of Trees has its defenders, mind you. This critic was moved and impressed with the magical and spiritual elements of the movie, and feels compelled to note that googling “booed at Cannes” brings up such films as Inglourious Basterds, Taxi Driver, Pulp Fiction and The Tree of Life, the last two of which went on to win the Palme d’Or. Tout est possible.
But the best bets heading into the final few days are two films that couldn’t be less alike. Carol, which will be released in Canada this December, is a glossy treat from Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) that tells the story of a 1950s lesbian romance. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star, and it’s not impossible to imagine them sharing the festival’s best actress award. It’s based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith; racy for its time, it was published under a pseudonym.
The other leading contender is Son of Saul, a first feature from Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes, and featuring a first-time actor (Geza Rohrig) as its star. It tells the story of a concentration camp inmate who discovers a body he believes to be that of his son, and tries to give it a proper Jewish burial. It features long takes and a main character who never leaves the screen, and it is one of several competition films to use an almost-square aspect ratio, like an old TV screen.
After what many considered a weak opening — early Palme d’Or contenders included a lurid English-language Italian fairy tale (Tale of Tales) and a sci-fi headscratcher about people forced to find love or be turned into animals (The Lobster) — the festival seemed to find its footing in the second half.
Sicario, directed by Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, has received praise for the moral ambiguity of its plot, and a strong turn by Emily Blunt as an FBI agent thrown into a Mexican drug war. Dheepan, by France’s Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone), is a strong story about Sri Lankan refugees trying to leave their past behind after moving to France.
And one ignores Shakespeare at one’s peril. Macbeth, directed by Justin Kurzel and featuring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, will screen on Saturday as the final competition film to unspool at the festival.
After that, what’s done is done. The source material may be more than 400 years old but its author knew what festival critics can be like.
After all, he wrote: “There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”