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Francesca’s Picks of the Week

Posted on Monday 13/05/2013 May, 2013 by Francesca Rudkin
This week the 2013 Festival de Cannes kicks off. There’s a good chance we’ll all hear about it at some point - be it a Borat-like attention seeking stunt, incredibly expensive clothes given the thumbs up or down in magazines, or a swinging comment from an indie director about the state of the film industry.

But, more importantly, the Festival gives us a sneak peak of the films and filmmakers who will rock our world over the coming year. The highlights I have selected this week all premiered at Cannes in previous years, and we’ve been enjoying them ever since.

This week the 2013 Festival de Cannes kicks off. There’s a good chance we’ll all hear about it at some point - be it a Borat-like attention seeking stunt, incredibly expensive clothes given the thumbs up or down in magazines, or a swinging comment from an indie director about the state of the film industry.

But, more importantly, the Festival gives us a sneak peak of the films and filmmakers who will rock our world over the coming year. The highlights I have selected this week all premiered at Cannes in previous years, and we've been enjoying them ever since.


LOVERBOY

Starring: George Pistereanu and Ada Condeescu
Directed by: Catalin Mitulescu
Screening: Tuesday 14th May, 8.30pm

This is the second feature film from Romanian New Wave writer/director Catalin Mitulescu. It’s filled with good looking, sultry young men wearing dark glasses and riding scooters, which is in stark contrast to the gritty reality of their lives and behaviour. A tragic romantic drama about a young man willing to prostitute his girlfriend, it premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2011 Festival de Cannes. Mitulescu allows his characters to pretend they’re indifferent to the destruction they’re causing, but they’re far too complex to get away with it, and it’s a heartbreaking and engaging drama. Mitulescu is a director to keep an eye on.


WE HAVE A POPE
Starring: Nanni Moretti
Directed by: Nanni Moretti
Screening: Wednesday 15th May, 8.30pm

Writer/director/actor Nanni Moretti is regarded as the Italian Woody Allen. Moretti has made a name for himself with both smart comedies, often involving religion, such as The Mass is Ended, and serious dramas like The Son, which won Moretti the coveted Palme d'Or prize at the Festival de Cannes in 2001.

When he made this film, about a recently elected Pope who has a crisis of confidence and is unable to continue the job, he wouldn’t have expected Pope Benedict 16th to resign and provide such a topical edge. A quietly amusing film, 83 year-old veteran Michel Piccoli plays the Pope and, as we’ve come to expect, Moretti himself turns up, this time playing a psychiatrist brought in to help the Pope.

If you’re Catholic and worried Moretti’s film will be offensive, it’s not; it’s hardly even satirical. There’s the occasional dig, but you’ll be so caught up in the intricately created interiors of the Papal conclave you’ll be too distracted to worry.


RESTLESS
Starring: Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Screening: Saturday 18th May, 8.30pm

American director Gus Van Sant is all over Rialto Channel this month. He’s the featured director in the May Director’s Series, with Rialto Channel screening a collection of films from his early and mid-career on Sunday evenings. He also qualifies for this Saturday movie screening as part of Rialto’s celebration of the Cannes Film Festival throughout May.

Gus Van Sant is a favourite at the Cannes Film Festival. He was first nominated in 1995 for To Die For, and was awarded the Palme d’Or in 2003 for Elephant. He was also the recipient of the festival’s 60th anniversary award for Paranoid Park in 2007.

Restless is a return to his indie roots; a small, intimate film shot in his home state of Oregon. It tells the love story of a terminally ill young lady, played by Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska, and a young man with an unhealthy interest in death, played by the late Denis Hopper’s son, Henry Hopper. Sweet and whimsical, this deliberately paced film strangely is not as desperate and sad as you may expect from Van Sant.

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