The 2015 Festival de Cannes wrapped up this weekend with a call to arms for climate change. Closing the festival was the nature documentary Ice and the Sky by The March of the Penguins director Luc Jacquet who returns to Antarctica to tell the life story of 83-year-old French glaciologist Claude Lorius. “Showing this film in the world’s largest film festival is contributing to highlighting this huge challenge facing humanity as quickly as possible to secure its future and the future of the planet,” Jacquet told the press in Cannes.
The Festival also concluded with the announcement of various competition winners. This year, Jacques Audiard surprised pretty much everyone by winning the Palme d’Or with this film Dheepan, a low key study of Tamil Tiger refugees trying to build a new life in France.
Not so surprisingly, the runner up Grand Prix Prize went to László Nemes for Son of Saul and in “third place”, Yorgos Lanthimos won the Prix du jury for The Lobster. The Directors Prize was awarded to Hou Hsiao-hsien for The Assassin, Vincent Lindon (La Loi du Marche) won best actor and Rooney Mara (Carol) and Emmanuelle Bercot (Mon Roi) shared the best actress accolade.
In the Un Certain Regard section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival, the jury awarded the top prize to Iceland’s Rams, by Grímur Hákonarson. The High Sun by Croatian director Dalibor Matanić picked up the jury prize, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Journey to the Shorewon the best direction award.
So many wonderful films to look forward to, however in the meantime, enjoy these must see films of the week, all of which have screened at the prestigious Festival de Cannes in the past.
The 2015 Festival de Cannes wrapped up this weekend with a call to arms for climate change. Closing the festival was the nature documentary Ice and the Sky by The March of the Penguins director Luc Jacquet who returns to Antarctica to tell the life story of 83-year-old French glaciologist Claude Lorius. “Showing this film in the world’s largest film festival is contributing to highlighting this huge challenge facing humanity as quickly as possible to secure its future and the future of the planet,” Jacquet told the press in Cannes.
The Festival also concluded with the announcement of various competition winners. This year, Jacques Audiard surprised pretty much everyone by winning the Palme d’Or with this film Dheepan, a low key study of Tamil Tiger refugees trying to build a new life in France.
Not so surprisingly, the runner up Grand Prix Prize went to László Nemes for Son of Saul and in “third place”, Yorgos Lanthimos won the Prix du jury for The Lobster. The Directors Prize was awarded to Hou Hsiao-hsien for The Assassin, Vincent Lindon (La Loi du Marche) won best actor and Rooney Mara (Carol) and Emmanuelle Bercot (Mon Roi) shared the best actress accolade.
In the Un Certain Regard section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival, the jury awarded the top prize to Iceland’s Rams, by Grímur Hákonarson. The High Sun by Croatian director Dalibor Matanić picked up the jury prize, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Journey to the Shore won the best direction award.
So many wonderful films to look forward to, however in the meantime, enjoy these must see films of the week, all of which have screened at the prestigious Festival de Cannes in the past.
Monday 25th May… Two Days, One Night
From Cannes favourites, the Belgium Dardenne brothers comes Two Days, One Night, an understated social drama filled with tension thanks to stunning performance by Marion Cotillard. Nominated for best actress at the 2015 Oscars, Cotillard plays a Sandra, a factory worker who loses her job after a bout of depression. According to management, the only way she can get her job back, is if she can convince her co-workers to sacrifice their much-needed yearly bonuses. This is a simple but loaded film from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. It not only captures the stress and struggles of those struggling to survive financially, but it’s also a heartfelt story of redemption, solidarity and human kindness. A fabulous way to start the week – don’t miss it.
Tuesday 26th May, 8.30pm… Renoir
Renoir, as you’d expect, is a film about painting and the great impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, but it’s also a film about the relationship between an artist and his muse. Set on the French Riviera near the end of the WWI, Renoir introduces us to the beautiful, fiery red head Catherine Hessling (born Andrée Heuschling) who was Renoir’s final model and responsible for giving the ailing artist a new zest for painting in his later years. She’s also the catalyst for Renoir’s middle son, Jean, home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I, to pick up a camera and become a filmmaker. French actress Christa Théret was chosen by director Gilles Bourdos to play Andrée, a role that required her to pose in the nude for quite a lot of the film. Fortunately her upbringing as the daughter of a painter and an artist’s model, prepared her for what to expect as Andrée. “I got very used to seeing how the models would come, how they would pose, and what the relationship was between a painter and his model” she explained to Elle Magazine. “There is a kind of fusion that takes place between the two… and understanding the relationship between an artist and a model made those scenes easier to do.”
Thursday 28th May, 8.30pm… Seduced and Abandoned
In Seduced and Abandoned, filmmaker James Toback and actor Alec Baldwin travel to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival to secure financing for a movie. A remake of Last Tango in Paris called Last Tango in Tikrit staring Baldwin and Nev Campbell, it’s a movie I doubt anyone will ever fund, and yet its hard to work out whether the two are serious or not. As we all know, it’s hard to get films funded regardless of who you are these days, so nothing new is revealed there. However, the pair has some interesting conversations about filmmaking and acting with a variety of veteran filmmakers and actors such as Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain. Trying to fund a film and take us behind the scenes of the Cannes Festival as well as industry itself makes for rather chaotic documentary. Still, Tobeck and Baldwin are a funny, entertaining duo, and while they might not have the kudos to pull off their ambitious film, they don’t have any problem accessing people to talk to.
Saturday 30th May, 8.30pm… Blue is the Warmest Colour
Kechiche’s romance film caused a sensation when it screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, thanks to a graphic, seven-minute-long sex scene. It went on to win the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest accolade, and in an unusual move the award, which is normally presented to the director, was split between the director and his two lead actresses, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. Cannes launched this coming of age story about a French teenager’s sexual awakening around the world, but its success was quickly overshadowed by a war of words between the director and his actresses. Seydoux and Exarchopoulos spoke out about the demanding and “horrible” shooting conditions, in particular during the sex scene, which took ten days to shoot. The bickering went on for months, including between Seydoux and Kechiche, with threats of legal action for slander. The one thing they can agree on is they probably won’t work together again, which is a shame, as, aside from the controversy, Blue is the Warmest Colour is a daring, intense and quite extraordinary film.
Sunday 31st May, 8.30pm… The Selfish Giant
OK, so this is a pretty sad, devastating film to finish the week on, but Clio Barnard’s debut feature film The Selfish Giant is also extraordinary. It was hugely well received when it screened in Cannes in 2013 and went onto be nominated for a Bafta. A contemporary fable, the film tells the story of two young 13-year-old misfits who leave school and begin working for a local scrap dealer – the Selfish Giant. Set in contemporary Bradford, Barnard’s film borrows it’s title and inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s children’s story, and yet this stark and moving story about the desperation of Britain’s underclass is told with Ken Loach realism. Clio Barnard’s script is compassionate and honest and the genuine performances she elicits from her young cast are excellent. It might not be the cheeriest of films, but it’s a stunner that will linger with you for days.