The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival took place under heavy rain and a beautiful blue sky from Tuesday 16 to Saturday 27 May 2023. Covered by KillerS7ven and the celest wolf During its second week, the event was worth the trip since the festive atmosphere, the fairy décor of the Bay of Cannes, the encounters in queues and at the Press Room, the gourmet cuisine and the discussions between movie fanatics were arranged on the Croisette.
A varied selection of films where the richness and diversity of international cinema could shine, beautiful and unexpected encounters (such as David Grumbach, CEO of LAC Films), more or less watered evenings leading from one place to another of the city in the presence or not of celebrities (Martin Scorsese, Takeshi Kitano), a cinema-concert « Cannes will sing the cinema » on deckchair feet in the sand, climbs of the steps next to stars in clothing of light (Adele Exarchopoulos, Brie Larson, Quentin Tarantino, etc.), sessions the ass screwed to some chairs of technical teams (the actor and director Alex Lutz, director Robert Rodriguez), strong informative press conferences (such as The Passion of Dodin Buffant and Last summer) where actors agree to be photographed (Benoît Magimel, Juliette Binoche, Léa Drucker), and unforgettable Closing Ceremonies will thus have rhythmized the slow Cannois marathon (a heavy sleep debt) but intoxicating our two companions in the streets crowded with busy journalists/professionals/passionates.
Between two articles of our always well-wounded « Tarzan » Strasbourg and before our podcast 🎙️ In suit, it's around our lupus canis of the Pyrenees to tread the red carpet with its afternoon... Foremost dedicated to the Cannes 2023 Festival. Follow the laurel leaves!
Contents
Mambar Pierrette
(2023 / Cameroon / 93 min) from Rosine Mbakam
Viewed on Monday 22 May at 7 pm at the Théâtre Croisette. Filmmakers' Fortnight
In the rain of Douala, Mambar, resigned, emptied water into his house with the help of his children. Arriving in his sewing workshop, the same calvary begins again. In turn, clients walk through their studio with a single word in their mouth, preparing for the school year. Mambar hasn't bought anything yet for his children. His days are long, his children are waiting long, but will the rain of Douala let the sun shine on Mambar and his children?
Weared by a great interpreter, this « docu-fiction » on the precarious daily life of a mother-courage succeeds, with pieces of string, in drawing a subtle portrait of Cameroon's economic situation and confiding in the hopes of the women who inhabit the country. In the rain of Douala, visit the dressmaker's workshop and open the windows! 🌿🌿🌿
Acid
(2023 / France / 90 min) from Just Philippot
Viewed on Monday 22 May at 10:30 pm in Salle Agnès Varda. Midnight session
Selma, 15, grew up between her two separated parents, Michal and Elise. Clouds of acid rain and devastating rain fall on France. In a world that will soon sink, this broken family will have to unite to face this climate catastrophe and try to escape it.
Addressing many aspects World War of Spielberg, this solid hexagonal survival at man height in which Guillaume Canet excels, probes family ties under an ever more corrosive horror (graphic). And as the color fades gradually, this hopeless future alarms us about the future of our Earth! 🌿🌿🌿
Club Zero
(2023 / Austria, United Kingdom, Germany, France & Denmark / 110 min) from Jessica Hausner
Viewed on Tuesday 23 May at 09:00 at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. In Competition
Miss Novak joins a private high school where she initiates a nutrition course with an innovative concept, shaking eating habits. Without awakening the suspicions of teachers and parents, some students fall under his control and enter the very closed circle of the mysterious Club Zero.
« Arrested » in an image to the malady precision, this corrosive satire on our food consumption and the dangers of indoctrination is under the cut of a Mia Wasikowska magnetic food guru. With this idol of fasting, hard to stay on his hunger! 🌿🌿🌿🌿
>>> KillerSeven's Criticism <<<
Augures
(2023 / Belgium, Congo, Netherlands, Germany & South Africa / 90 min) from Baloji
Viewed on Tuesday 23 May at 1:30 p.m. in Bazin Hall. A Certain Look
Considered a Zabolo (sorcerer), Koffi was banished by his mother. After 15 years of absence, he returned to Lubumbashi to pay his dowry. Accompanied by his future wife Alice, he will confront prejudice and suspicion of his own.
While he sees his shimmering colours contrasting with the whiteness of the desert and his characters haunted by the deuils of the past, this choral drama on determinism is freed from injunctions with a « magical realism » which belongs only to him. Truly enchanting, this other reality is in no way a bad omen! 🌿🌿🌿
Kubi
(2023 / Japan / 131 min) from Takeshi Kitano
Viewed on Tuesday 23 May at 7:45 pm in Salle Debussy. Cannes First
In the 16th century, Japan was tormented by conflicts between governors of rival provinces. Among them, Lord Oda Nobunaga, determined to take over the country, is at war against several clans when one of his generals, Araki Murashige, initiates a rebellion before disappearing. Nobunaga then assembled his other vassals, including Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi, and ordered them to capture the fugitive Murashige, promising them that « He who trims most will become his successor »...
This film in costumes with murderous jokes diverts archetypes from the shabara to better decorate the cynical mechanics of power games. And in the continuity of his works on the Yakuza, ‘Beat « Historical » without morals or honour despite appearances and codes. Far from the epic, the filmmaker invites us to a tragic farce! 🌿🌿🌿
>>> KillerSeven's Criticism <<<
Asteroid City
(2023 / United States / 105 min) from Wes Anderson
Viewed on Wednesday 24 May at 08:30 at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. In Competition
Asteroid City is a tiny town in the desert in the southwest of the United States. It's 1955. The site is best known for its gigantic meteorite crater and its nearby astronomical observatory. This weekend, the military and astronomers welcome five gifted children, distinguished for their scientific creations, to present their inventions. A few kilometres away, beyond the hills, we see atomic fungi caused by nuclear tests.
At the top of his art, Wes Anderson expands his (magnificent) framework to evoke the uncertainty of creation in a funny as well as melancholic choral narrative where the characters, whose desire to exist is palpable despite the existential void of their life (the crater), meet in meta scenes that do not turn empty. You can't wake up if you don't sleep! 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿
>>> KillerSeven's Criticism <<<
Firebrand
(2023 / United States & United Kingdom / 120 min) from Karim Ainuz
Viewed on Wednesday, May 24 at 12:00 at the Cineum Screen X. In Competition
Catherine Parr is the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, whose previous wives were either repudiated or beheaded (only one died as a result of illness). With the help of her company ladies, she tries to thwart the traps that the bishop, the court and the king set for her...
Composed of (sublime) paintings straight out of the 16th century, this portrait of powerful woman(s) of sorority dynamite the patriarchate and turn away from the « historical reality » written by men. And in the dresses of this great figure of history, Alicia Vikander (in flame) does not bend before the repugnant croquemitaine Jude Law (Harvey Weinstein of the Middle Ages) In mirror of our present society, beautiful feminist cinema. 🌿🌿🌿🌿
>>> KillerSeven's Criticism <<<
Colons
(2023 / Chile, Argentina & France / 97 min) from Felipe Gálvez Haberle
Viewed on Wednesday 24 May at 3:30 pm at Cineum Aurore. A Certain Look
Land of Fire, Republic of Chile, 1901. A vast, fertile territory that white aristocracy seeks to « civilize ». Three riders were hired by a wealthy landowner, José Menendez, to dispossess the indigenous peoples of their lands and open a road to the Atlantic. Under the orders of Lieutenant MacLennan, a British soldier, and an American mercenary, the Chilean Métis youth, Segundo, discovers the price of building a young nation, that of blood and lies.
As she digs the tropes of the western to explore Chile's colonial past, lift up the veil of the Serkenam genocide and recall the bloody birth of the nation, this uncompromising and committed wild fresco designates the guilty without trembling. Nevertheless, even if it makes the best use of its claustrophobic exteriors and the unexpected eruption of violence, it is at the step that this ride towards the limits of the world (more and more dark) is advancing! 🌿🌿
>>> KillerSeven's Criticism <<<
The Passion of Dodin Buffant
(2023 / France / 134 min) from Tran Anh Hung
Viewed on Wednesday 24 May at 6:45 pm in Salle Bazin. In Competition
Eugenie, an outstanding cook, has been serving the famous astronomer Dodin for 20 years. By spending time together in the kitchen, a love passion was built between them where love is closely linked to the practice of gastronomy. From this union all dishes are born more tasty and delicate than the others who go so far as to wonder the greatest in this world. Yet Eugene, eager for freedom, never wanted to marry Dodin. The latter then decides to do something he has never done before: to cook for her.
In this sweet and sensory culinary romance, featuring as refined as a great wine, French gastronomy is celebrated with a choice cast on the menu (the old couple). Juliette Binoche – Benoît Magimel). And since the feast is laborative, it is without moderation that it should be tasted! 🌿🌿🌿🌿
Hopeless
(2023 / South Korea / 133 min) from Kim Chang-hoon
Viewed on Thursday 25 May at 09:00 at Cineum IMAX. A Certain Look
To escape a life without future and hope, a young man is drawn into a spiral of violence that will lead him to the heart of a criminal organisation led by a charismatic leader.
Ejaculated with memorable scenes and fascinated by the mafia, this drama crime of absolute darkness knows its classics. And despite themes far from being new, it's a well-executed and well-interpreted first film (the casting is inhabited) where the violence is on screen that we are dealing with. Does a great Korean filmmaker come out? 🌿🌿🌿
>>> KillerSeven's Criticism <<<
Last Summer
(2023 / France / 104 min) from Catherine Breillat
Viewed on Thursday 25 May at 6 pm in Salle Debussy. In Competition
A renowned lawyer endangers her career and threatens to break her family by having an affair with her 17-year-old son-in-law.
Penetrated by the light of the summer, this drama with perfume forbids where a fifty-year-old lawyer is imprisoned for a desire defended for her 17-year-old son-in-law, unfolds his truth fervently (the carnal becoming love) without any moral judgment (which will divide the spectators). Yet, no doubt that such a burning theme (an incestuous romance) would certainly have deserved to be less avoided... But it's well known, cinema has always enjoyed flirting with taboo subjects! 🌿🌿🌿
In the Web (Cobweb)
(2023 / South Korea / 135 min) from Kim Jee-woon
Viewed on Friday 26 May at 08:30 in Salle Bùnuel. Non-competition
Seoul, 1970 : Kim wants to remake the end of his film Cobweb. But the censorship authorities, the complaints of the actors and the producers continue to interfere and a great mess is taking place on the shoot. So Kim must overcome this chaos, to complete what he thinks to be his ultimate masterpiece...
In this American night coming from the quiet morning country where the director has fun as a little fool to introspect his own work in chaos and good mood, the effervescent comedy on artistic creation takes an optimistic look at the 7th art which, despite unforeseen and other difficulties, will continue to exist and unleash passions. Rejoice, cinema is still full of life! 🌿🌿🌿🌿
Perfect Days
(2023 / Germany & Japan / 123 min) from Wim Wenders
Viewed on Friday, May 26 at 2:15 p.m. at Cineum IMAX. In Competition
Hirayama works on the maintenance of Tokyo's public toilets. It flourishes in a simple life, and a very structured daily life. He has a passion for music, books, and trees he likes to photograph. His past will reappear in unexpected encounters...
With absolute serenity and poetic simplicity, this quasi-mutical feel good movie where playlist acts as a soliloque personifies the « Komorebi ». The walk is intimate, the little nothings rhythm the daily and the moment lives in the present. Kōji Yakusho Didn't steal his male performance price! 🌿🌿🌿
One night
(2023 / France / 90 min) from Alex Lutz
Viewed on Friday 26 May at 6 pm in Salle Debussy. Non-competition
Paris, crowded subway, one night like the others. A woman pushes a man, they fight. Very quickly the electric current changes... in burning desire. The two unknowns come out of the row and make love in the cabin of a photomaton. The night now belongs to them. In this Paris with the deserted streets, in the extended hours, should we say goodbye?
Rhythmed by words and interspersed with beautiful suspended moments, this melodramatic walk where the contradictory emotions clash owes its encounter to a « couple » Inseparable whose alchemy is so strong that it jumps to the eye. And if the outcome of this parenthesis is not a surprise, it allows to remake the world with as much humour as tenderness while wandering the streets of Paris. 🌿🌿🌿
Hypnotic
(2023 / United States / 93 min) from Robert Rodriguez
Viewed on Saturday 27 May at 00:15 at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Midnight session
A detective, who investigates a series of large-scale robberies, finds himself in a case involving his missing daughter and a secret government program.
As the memories of cinema mix « Nolanian » (Mento and Inception in mind), this B series uncomplexed and joyfully pulled by the hair mixes the genres (action, thriller and SF) during such a frantic race that one might think that she has death with the kits! Not a great movie in truth but a haunting suspense and high-voltage characters for a tribute to Hitchcock (dix his real) somewhat muffled whose ultimate efficiency keeps consciousness awake. 🌿🌿
Nothing to lose
(2023 / France / 112 min) from Delphine Deloget
Viewed on Saturday 27 May at 11:00 at Cineum screen X. A Certain Look
Sylvie lives in Brest with her two children, Sofiane and Jean-Jacques. Together, they form a welded family. One night, Sofiane gets hurt while he is alone in the apartment and his mother at work. A report is made and Sofiane is placed in a shelter. Armed with a lawyer, her brothers and her children's love, Sylvie is confident, persuaded to be stronger than the administrative and judicial machinery...
A social drama on the sensitive subject where Virginie Efira, upsetting as a mother courage faced with certain dysfunctions of the justice system (and especially those related to child protection), moved deeply. Not good or bad here, just a mom who has nothing to lose to get her son placed a little abusively. And despite an easy ending, the front was so well conducted that it was said that there was no acceptable solution. In the face of « abuse » social, all battles must be fought! 🌿🌿🌿
The Old Oak
(2023 / United Kingdom & France / 113 min) from Ken Loach
Viewed on Saturday 27 May at 2.30 p.m. at Cineum IMAX. In Competition
TJ Ballantyne is the owner of "Old Oak", a commercial that is threatened with closure after the arrival of Syrian refugees in the village without any notice. Soon, TJ meets a young Syrian woman, Yara, who owns a camera. A friendship will be born between them...
Looking to the future without closing your eyes to the darkness of our time, the latter (?) turned humanism for the « Old oak » is invigorating even if naive. And in this ultimate place of social bond where the relationships between the customers are authentic (a duo with the tuning) and the artisanal beauty of the certain frame (a magnificent 35 mm Kodak capture), everyone needs a « Marra » when society remains indifferent to poverty. 🌿🌿🌿🌿
>>> KillerSeven's Criticism <<<
Elementary
(2023 / United States / 102 min) from Peter Sohn
Viewed on Saturday 27 May at 8:30 pm at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Closure
In the city of Element City, fire, water, land and air live in the most perfect harmony. It is here that resides Flam, a fearless and lively young woman, with a well tempered character, and Flack, a sentimental and fun boy, rather a follower in the soul. The friendship they make challenges Flam's beliefs about the world in which they live...
If Zootopia and Vice versa in this 27th feature film animated by studio Pixar (which therefore remains in its element), it does not recycle the peripetias and touches the heart when it concentrates on the states of soul of its very fond couple. Visually sublime and declaring its flame in a diverse city, this beautiful love story on the background of acceptance of difference can neither extinguish nor evaporate! 🌿🌿🌿
The charts
In Competition
Palm gold : Anatomy of a fall
Grand Prix : The Zone of Interest
Award for staging : The Passion of Dodin Buffant
Jury Prize : Dead Leaves
Scenario price : Monster (the Queer Palm 2023)
Price of female interpretation : Merve Dizdar in Dry Herbs
Price of male interpretation : Kōji Yakusho Perfect Days
Golden camera : Gold butterfly tree
Gold eye
The Girls of Olfa ex aequo with Kadib Abyad (Mother of all lies)
A Certain Look
Un Certain Regard Prize : How to Have Sex
Jury Prize : The Packs
Award for Stage Design : Asmae El Moudir for Kadib Abyad (Mother of all lies)
Freedom Prize : Goodbye Julia
Overall price : Crowrã
New Voice Award : Augures
Critical Week
Grand Prix : Tiger Stripes
French Touch Jury Prize : It rains in the house
Louis Roederer Revelation Foundation Award : Jovan Ginić in Lost Country
Gan Foundation Award for Broadcast : Pyramid Distribution for Inshallah a son
SACD prices : The Ravisation
Leitz Cine Discovery Prize : Bolero
Canal+ price : Bolero
The Citizenship Prize
The Girls of Olfa with Special Mention to Youth
Price
La Chimera with Special mention Dead leaves
Positive film price
The Girls of Olfa
The Palm Dog
Palm Dog : Snoop, the sticky border of the film Anatomy of a fall
Grand Prix du Jury : Chaplin, the dog of the Dead leaves
Price of Incredible Performance : Sultan, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier of Vincent must die
Palm Dog honour : Ken Loach with a special mention for Marra, the bitch of The Old Oak
The Filmmakers' Fortnight
Body of gold : Souleymane Cissé
SACD prices : A Prince
Cinema Europa Label : Creatura
I've never seen the Palm Dog before, I'm bent! ^^^