Manohla Dargis on Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void, in the New York Times:
"Although he remains dedicated to shaking up viewer s, to getting under their skins and into their nervous systems, Mr. Noé [above, top photo] has mellowed. Despite its unpromising title, Enter the Void, his entry at this year’s festival, is an exceptional work, though less because of its story, acting or any of the usual critical markers. What largely distinguishes it, beyond the stunning cinematography, is that this is the work of an artist who’s trying to show us something we haven’t seen before, even while he liberally samples images and ideas from Stanley Kubrick and the entirety of American avant-garde cinema."
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In his Le Monde blog, Thomas Sotinel on Enter the Void:
"Those who remember Irreversible (and Irreversible is a film that one remembers, in my case because I hated it) will have an idea of what Enter the Void is about. It's necessary to imagine the previous film distorted by every synthetic psychedelic drug available in the market. There are pregnant women, disreputable nightclubs, paroxymsms of violence, a very mean homosexual, and Tokyo replacing Paris."
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In Variety, Justin Chang on Ciro Guerra's (above, top photo) Los Viajes del viento / The Wind Journeys, screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar:
"The rugged majesty of the Colombian landscape forms a spectacular widescreen backdrop for a simple, bittersweet tale of regret and companionship in The Wind Journeys. Awash in scenic vistas and infused with a touch of the supernatural, this beautifully judged two-hander tells the story of an aging accordion player and the young wannabe musician he's reluctantly allowed to accompany him on his long trek north."
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Via Reuters, 2007 Palme d'Or winner Cristian Mungiu on Tales from the Golden Age, an episodic Romanian satire set during that country's communist era:
"What I wanted was to choose stories that were as much as possible about people and about these strange decisions that the party would take and the effects they had on people. You never knew if you were right or wrong in the last years of communism. This is why people avoided taking responsibility."
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes