Cannes 2009: Gaspar Noé, Cristian Mungiu, Ciro Guerra
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 [...]
by Massimo David | May 22, 2009
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Tags: Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Ciro Guerra, Cristian Mungiu, Enter The Void, Film Festivals, Gaspar Noé, Le Monde, Manohla Dargis, Stanley Kubrick, Tales from the Golden Age, The Wind Journeys, Thomas Sotinel
Cannes 2009: Jane Campion, Alain Resnais, Brillante Mendoza, Johnnie To, Lou Ye
Peter Bradshaw on Bright Star (with Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw, above) in The Guardian:
"Jane Campion has put herself in line for her second Palme d’Or here at the Cannes film festival with a film which I think could be the best of her career; an affecting and deeply considered study of the last years in the short life of John Keats, and the ecstasy of loss which suffuses his love affair with Fanny Brawne – a love thwarted not due to illness, but to a pernicious web of money worries, social scruples and irrelevant male loyalties."
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Maggie Lee on Kinatay in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Festival darling Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay is a long night’s journey into the [...]
by Massimo David | May 20, 2009
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Tags: Abbie Cornish, Alain Resnais, André Dussollier, Ben Whishaw, Bright Star, Brillante Mendoza, Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Fanny Brawne, Film Festivals, Gay Interest, Howard Feinstein, indieWIRE, Jane Campion, Jean-Pierre Melville, John Keats, Johnnie To, Johnny Hallyday, Kinatay, Les Herbes folles, Lou Ye, Photos, Screen Daily, Spring Fever, The Hollywood Reporter, Thomas Sotinel, Vengeance, Wild Grass
Cannes 2009: Pedro Almodóvar’s BROKEN EMBRACES
Broken Embraces: Pedro Almodóvar on the set (top); Penélope Cruz as the heroine (bottom).
In the mystery-melodrama, a director and his female star begin a passionate love affair that leads to all sorts of trouble.
Wendy Ide in The [London] Times:
"Certainly, it is unmistakably an Almodovar film. Nobody else does richly-textured melodrama quite like him; nobody else can encourage such overwrought performances without unbalancing the film; nobody else shoots Penélope Cruz with a reverence which borders on fan-worship. But what’s missing here is the warmth and emotional honesty that infuses Almodovar’s most successful features. What’s missing is, arguably, Almodovar himself."
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Eric Kohn in indieWIRE:
"Pedro Almodovar offers nothing new in his [...]
by Massimo David | May 20, 2009
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Tags: Broken Embraces, Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Eric Kohn, Film Festivals, Gay Interest, indieWIRE, Kirk Honeycutt, Los Abrazos rotos, Melodrama, Mystery Movies, Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz, The Hollywood Reporter, Thomas Sotinel, Wendy Ide, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
