Our Man at Festival de Cannes

Mexican actress Salma Hayek says she was right to demonstrate on the Cannes Film Festival to highlight the plight of the 200 captive Nigerian school children, despite breaking the rules of the red carpet.

I've seen a few films recently. A couple of festival films and a couple of complete indies. I keep having to learn that even if a film is in a prestige festival it may not have much commerciality.

Mexican actress Salma Hayek says she was right to demonstrate on the Cannes Film Festival to highlight the plight of the 200 captive Nigerian school children, despite breaking the rules of the red carpet.

I've seen a few films recently. A couple of festival films and a couple of complete indies. I keep having to learn that even if a film is in a prestige festival it may not have much commerciality.



One such film was The Kindergarden Teacher an Israeli Film in Un Certain Regard. The pitch is promising - a kindergarden teacher who finds one of her students is an extraordinary poet. Could be interesting and heartwarming.

Well it's interesting all right, in that the kid is a genius but it's really about the teacher's increasing obsession with the boy as she finds the boy's dad is disinterested in art and she distances herself from her husband, has sex with a poetry teacher, kidnaps the child, etc. Further the director chooses long static shots that although emphasising the scene they take away from any dynamics. While the themes surrounding the value of the artist are important for me the heaviness undermines the drama. I'm not a film critic, but I do try and understand what is sellable and this one is limited.



On the other end of things is a promo for a kids animated movie Ratchet & Crank based on a Playstation game. The sales company intro'd the 15 min of footage with stats on the marketability of the franchise and it's cross-platform potential. Needless to say it won't be in a festival near you but might play on a thousand screens.