Cannes
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Cannes 2015: ‘Tale of Tales’ review
★★★★☆ Once upon a time, fairytales were folk tales. Then they became children’s stories, were made into Disney cartoons and now star Angelina Jolie or Charlize Theron. Into the woods (and in competition at the Cannes Film Festival) strides Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales (2015), an anthology of 17th century folk tales by Giambattista Basile…
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Cannes 2015: ‘Our Little Sister’ review
★★★☆☆ Japanese director and Cannes favourite Hirokazu Kore-eda enters the race for the Palme d’Or with Our Little Sister (Umimachi Diary, 2015), adapted from the Akimi Yoshida’s manga. It tells the story of three grown women who live in their late grandmother’s house and fend for themselves, as if a version of the family from…
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Cannes 2015: ‘An’ review
★★★☆☆ “Everything in the world has a story to tell,” explains a character in Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s new film An (Sweet Red Bean Paste, 2015), which opened the Un Certain Regard sidebar here at the 68th Cannes Film Festival earlier today. Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase) is the manager of a small bakery which specialises in…
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Cannes 2015: Our picks of the Competition programme
It’s that time of year again when the enormous poster outside the grand Palais is unveiled and, for this year at least, the beautiful face of Ingrid Bergman will glance down at the red carpet, ready for the opening of the 68th edition of the most glamorous film showcase in the world, Cannes. Over ten…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Winter Sleep’ wins Palme d’Or
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan this evening won Cannes’ top prize, the coveted Palme d’Or, for his latest film, Winter Sleep. A worthy award winner after previously coming close with such past efforts as 2011’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) and Three Monkeys (2008), Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders and Bennett Miller’s Oscar hopeful Foxcatcher had…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Winter Sleep’ review
★★★★☆ Having carried home the Grand Jury Prize for Best Film back in 2011 with the exceptional Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, celebrated Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to both the Croisette and the Official Competition with Winter Sleep (2014). Aydin (Haluk Bilginer) is a landlord and hotelier in a remote mountain region…
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Cannes 2014: ‘White God’ review
★★☆☆☆ The recently crowned winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes is Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó’s sixth feature, White God (2014), a sort of canine Rise of Planet of the Apes (2011). Following a short surreal opening which sees a girl cycling through a deserted Budapest, pursued by a large pack…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Spartacus & Cassandra’ review
★★★★☆ A real gem hidden deep in the Cannes’ ACID sidebar, Spartacus & Cassandra (2014) follows two Roma children in France coming to terms with the fact that their parents – and their living situation – may not have their best interests at heart. At four years old Spartacus was begging on the streets. At…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Snow in Paradise’ review
★★☆☆☆ Showing in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes, film editor Andrew Hulme’s directorial debut, Snow in Paradise (2014), is a brave attempt to inject new life into the tired genre of the London gangland thriller. However, the original twists and a certain visual flair struggle to overcome a sense of familiarity and implausibility…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Jauja’ review
★★★☆☆ Viggo Mortensen takes a leisurely stroll through South American arthouse territory in Lisandro Alonso’s oddly compelling peculiarity Jauja (2014). From a screenplay by poet Fabian Casas, the film tells the story of Danish captain Gunnar Dinesen (Mortensen), something of a wanderer who has in tow his 15-year-old daughter, Ingeborg (Viilbjork Mallin Agger). We begin…