Cannes 2019: The 10 best films of this year's festival



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Quentin Tarantino and "Rocketman" did not disappoint, but there was much more cinema to celebrate at Cannes this year.

On arrival at the Cannes Film Festival, several films already generated a lot of buzz, and they certainly delivered for many audiences. "Rocketman", Elton John's biopic, delighted the singer's frequent fans, who roamed the red carpet with fanfare. "Once upon a time in Hollywood", by Quentin Tarantino, brought Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt to Cannes to present their best performances so far, as a stunt-stunt duo in 1969, struggling with a changing era. As a platform for studio films generating a craze before their releases in the United States, Cannes has not disappointed.

However, the festival offers a lot of cinema beyond the most obvious ingredients. With 69 films in official selection and dozens more in the Directors 'Fortnight and Critics' Week, Cannes has had many opportunities to celebrate new works inspired by authors and major discoveries of new talents. Here are the highlights.

"A hidden life"

Terrence Malick is back. The lone Texan filmmaker traveled to Cannes to offer (limited) support to his ninth feature film, "A Hidden Life," picked up by Fox Searchlight, distributor of "The Tree of Life," the 2011 winner of the Gold Palm. "After Malick's following films failed to seduce critics or the public, Malick created a meticulously assembled masterpiece, nearly three hours long. This time, Malick's trademark voice, editing rhythms and breathtaking cinematography serve up a captivating, moving, romantic, witty and scary narrative against the Second World War.

"A hidden life"

August Diehl and Valerie Pachner play an Austrian couple in love with three little girls who lead a bucolic existence in the Austrian Alps and practice farming in harmony with nature, until the intervention of Hitler. When the peasant Franz Jägerstätter is called to serve, he realizes that he can not make the oath of loyalty required to Hitler. "It's more of a private and silent choice," Diehl told Cannes, "not something visible, not exceptional, he's not a hero. It's a personal and spiritual choice. "

The actors appreciated Malick's usual working methods: long and uninterrupted improvisations of 20 to 30 minutes filmed in English with German and German accent, in 2016, followed by a lengthy editing process and demanding that lasted three more years. Michael Nykvist and Bruno Ganz died in the meantime after shooting their latest movies with Malick.

Disturbingly, the film is all too current and resonates with the rise of the extreme right in Europe and America. Searchlight, which has raised $ 12-14 million for global rights, has announced that the film would hit hard the global audience (and Oscar voters). -AT

"Bacurau"

Nothing in the drama "Aquarius" Sonia Braga Kleber Mendonça Filho could not prepare the public for this dream dystopian fever unclassifiable, co-directed by Juliano Dornelles. "Bacurau" takes place in a nearby desert, while the remote community, struggling with enormous problems, faces a water crisis and a mysterious pack of American vigilantes who put their people to death one by one. The mysterious plot of the film is both John Carpenter and Sergio Leone, while it is a bloody confrontation between warring factions from "Seven Samurai". In other words, it's exactly the kind of love letter to first-class film making that an old critic like Filho would do, as well as a visionary filmmaking in his own words.

"Bacurau"

Among the many joys of "Bacurau": Sonia Braga as a flawless doctor; Udo Kier as a mad killer; a frenetic neighborhood guitarist who follows the locals and sings songs about their lives; and a local fixation on psychedelics, which enter the plot more than once. "Bacurau" advances with remarkable inspirations ranging from fun explorations of community support and progressive relationships to violent clashes and ideological struggles. In addition, there are UFOs and ghosts. What else do you need?

"Bacurau" is the kind of film that is part of the Cannes Competition: a very original achievement that uses the power of art in an innovative way and is not afraid to take crazy turns. -ek

"Beanpole"

Inspired by Svetlana Alexievitch's book "The Non-Feminine Face of War," Kantemir Balagov's heartbreaking "Beanpole" tells an icy but beautifully told story about two Russian women – best friends – who grow up so desperately for any kind from personal agency after the siege of Leningrad that they start using each other to meet the insoluble arithmetic of life and death. Iya (newcomer, Viktoria Miroshnichenko) suffers from post-concussion syndrome after fighting at the front. She is now working as a nurse in a moldy Leningrad hospital, which is full of deaths and deaths.

"Beanpole"

Even before Iya accidentally chokes a young boy during a post-concussion paralysis crisis – and even before Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina), his mother, comes back from the army and discovers that Iya " he owes his life "-" Beanpole "has already painted a portrait of a bitter city and extraordinary texture that is just beginning to cope with its trauma. These people were mutilated by a war in which few survived and escaped; The fighting may be over, but peace does not necessarily wait for them on the horizon. And although Iya and Masha are the only family left, one or the other is gone, it turns out that they may not be very comforting. Taking place with a steel resolution and a brutal honesty reminiscent of Cristian Mungiu's "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days", Balagov's film becomes more powerful (and transcends its slight traces of misery) while Iya and Masha try to control themselves without having to stand. -OF

"The climb"

The premise of "The Climb" has been so often repeated that it is a small miracle that it works: two long-time friends test the limits of their friendship when a woman separates them. Yet Michael Covino's captivating director debut challenges this challenge with a breathtaking cinematic ambition, resulting in a brilliant reinvention of comedy boyfriends. Testosterone-driven dudes have taken up every facet of the film landscape in recent years, from the Duplass brothers to Step Brothers, but The Climb turns the trope into a new vision of boozy clashes and clumsy lamentations. , resulting in a gain tragicomic vision of his own design.

"The climb"

Cannes Film Festival

The starting point of "The Climb" dates back to a short film of Sundance 2017, with an ingenious scenario so economic that it would never have been possible to guess the great design to follow: long-time friends, Mike (Covino) and Kyle (co-author, Kyle Marvin). Ride a bike on a steep hill while Mike, the installer of both, speeds up, while admitting that he is sleeping with Kyle's fiancé. In seven short minutes, the short film imagined a pair of dopey, breathless men-kids whose close connection was being tested in the most silly circumstances. Where could he go from there? It turns out that: many exciting places, as this vehement two-handed man evolves devoid of acrobatic filmmakers, following the ups and downs in the years to come with the same intelligent and concise ways of depending on their relationship. This is not just a good example of the genre; it's a model of form. -ek

"Diego Maradona"

The first five-minute "Diego Maradona" film depicts the dizzying story of the Argentinean footballer's spectacular rise and is just beginning to emerge. Maradona has been regarded as the greatest player in history for his reputation as a great talent in history. Maradona was seen as the greatest talent in history: "I am more interested in fame than in money," he said. , while the prologue follows his exuberant hard-core lifestyle, his local reactions and his recovery from injury – he is finally sold to Napoli, less glamorous, in 1984. It's a dramatic bend, but only a point of departure for this breathtaking conversation. Saga of football legend falls of grace.

"Diego Maradona"

HBO

While Maradona's controversial triumph, "The Hand of God," at the 1986 World Cup has already been captured in a "30 for 30" slice of ESPN, director Asif Kapadia is bending this major chapter in a tapestry much wider. You can not ask for a better match between the filmmaker and the subject, because the directors of "Senna" and "Amy", who have won Oscars, have already proven themselves in terms of intimate capture of unlucky characters from pop culture . As for "Amy", "Diego Maradona", which covers a decade, avoids speaking for a pure archival story, mixing media coverage with tons of video material to turn the story of Maradona into a great opus. The granular videos of the 80s, helped to reveal the narration in voice-over of his subjects, become a remarkable portal to the past. -ek

"Wretched"

French documentary maker Ladj Ly begins with a video clip showing jubilant Parisians celebrating France's victory in the 2018 World Cup. This is the last time the film reveals a kind of unity. Developed from the short film nominated at the Ly Césars and co-written with Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti, performed by Chris, one of the three police officers of the anti-crime squad on patrol at the Montfermeil patrol, this police officer The film presents the different factions governing this pressure cooker infested with crimes.

After hundreds of hours of filming, Ly and her editor-in-chief, Flora Volpelière, reinforced the tension throughout the film, while Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), a trained police officer from outside Paris, joined the film. team and watched the police's often aggressive interactions with new eyes. The first day of his mission, the police captain reminds him that teamwork is essential, but as a first day is followed by a second day even more troubling, the newcomer, Stéphane, disapproves of the violent methods of his partners . They test it and throw it into unusual meetings with dangerous men. There is the corrupt mayor, the Muslims, a Romani circus with a lion cub at rest, raging, ferocious and angry inhabitants trying to protect their children, and the children themselves, who are rising up en masse against the trio of cops, who have limited weapons can use on minors.

"Wretched"

Things go wrong when Stéphane's partner Gwada (Djebril Zonga) gets angry and punches a kid's face with a flashball. Suddenly, the police realize that a drone has recorded the incident and, when they take care of the deceased child, they have to find the video before it falls into the wrong hands. Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots, Ly's film shows how frenzied sparks can become a raging hell. Ly's management is so assured that CAA quickly signed him (he will learn English), and Amazon beat Netflix with a theatrical release. Look for the film for fall festivals. -AT

"Lighthouse"

"The Lighthouse", Robert Eggers' striking black and white nautical psychodrama, is inspired by a sea of ​​powerful references. The director's hypnotic sequel in "The Witch" evokes the ghosts of Herman Melville and Andrei Tarkovsky, with ample doses of Stanley Kubrick and Bela Tarr for good measure. For Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, it's a great showcase to unleash their extreme extremes, placing them at the center of a two-handed strategy on a descent into madness in the middle of nowhere. It's the best movie about bad roommates.

"Lighthouse"

"Lighthouse"

As in "The Witch", the second edition of Eggers is once again centered on a small group of characters surrounded by elements and consumed by invisible forces, surrendering each other crazy. And again, the title says it all: in the 1890s, "The Lighthouse" finds Thomas Wake (Dafoe) and Efraim Winslow (Pattinson) arriving at this remote post, where the water lighthouse stretches from a small rocky island to in a chalky sky. They spend the duration of the movie wandering through its muddy and haunted crevasses, and while the film telegraphs their destiny very early, the thrill comes from watching their erratic downward spiral unfold. -ek

"Pain & Glory"

Pedro Almodóvar's self-fiction "Pain & Glory" could bring the Spanish author back to the Oscars. Antonio Banderas (star of the film "Labyrinth of Passion" and "Law of Desire" of Almodóvar has long been waiting for an Oscar nomination) in the role of Salvador Mallo, a Spanish director of the art of music based on Almodóvar, and winner of an Oscar, Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona"), in the role of her young mother, is a navel gaze on the roots of desire, loves of the past and the deterioration of aging body. Banderas delivers a quiet, subtle and moving performance unlike any other. He abandons his old acting habits to inhabit this isolated filmmaker, suffering from back pain, anxiety, migraines, block from a writer and a sensitive esophagus who fell under a powerful cocktail of pain medication, alcohol and heroin snorted to cross the day. . "Without filming, my life does not make sense," Mallo says.

Accompanied by an adjusted score of Alberto Iglesias and various stages of altered consciousness, Almodóvar transparently recalls the youth of Mallo in Valencia with his mother (Cruz), who orders him to teach a painter to read a book. when he sees the muscular young man undressing to take a bath, the boy feels desire for the first time. Later, Mallo accidentally reconnects with the old love Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), who had painfully left him years ago; the two men discuss, remember and, when they kiss at the door, revive their old passion.

Banderas is particularly naked and exposed in a series of quiet paintings between Mallo and her elderly mother (Julieta Serrano) as she prepares herself for death. Thanks to Almodóvar, the future career of mature Banderas shows enormous potential. -AT

"Parasite"

Bong Joon-ho, director of "Snowpiercer", offers another parable that is both compassionate but comically violent, showing that society can not be as strong as his own. most vulnerable people. The difference with this tender of a film is that it does not rely on its metaphors, nor even that it lets them survive; on the contrary, he attacks them with a wide variety of household items until it is clear how just "Parasite" is actually possible.

"Parasite"

A story anchored enough on the members of a poor family from Seoul (led by the great Song Kang-ho) who, one after the other, start working for a new rich family in their elegant mansion at the top of the hill, begins "Parasite" as an extraordinary comedy before sinking into something wild, unclassifiable and burning helplessness. As exalted as "Okja", but as realistic as "Mother", Bong's latest one is a senseless excoriation of life under the veil of late capitalism, leaving us all a little richer in the end. -OF

"Portrait of a lady on fire"

As in each of Sciamma's three previous feature films, "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" tells a deeply tender story about the process of self-discovery and becoming. This one – Sciamma's most perfect and powerful one to date – features a brilliant Adele Haenel, a reluctant future bride of the 18th century, and a Noémie Merlant, violently portrayed as the woman who was hired to realize her wedding portrait in secret.

"Portrait of a lady on fire"

But while all the other works of the filmmaker have been flawless in one way or another, it is the first of his films that could be described as "pictorial". And even if all his previous offers were on the images projected by his characters, this one is more concerned by those that they leave behind them. Austere where "Tomboy" was worried, and hesitating where "Girlhood" was recklessly careless, "Portrait of a lady on fire" is an old-fashioned romance that is traditional in some respects, progressive to d & # 39; others and quite so true that she might seem more like looking in a mirror than running your eyes along a canvas. And all this is built like an absolute blow of the club. -OF

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