Festivals
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Cannes 2012: ‘Mystery’ review
★★★☆☆ A film festival wouldn’t be a film festival without Chinese director Lou Ye. Ye’s been a regular feature at the Cannes Film Festival countless times and only last September was premiering his French language film Love and Bruises (2011), starring none other than A Prophet (Un Prophète, 2009) star Tahar Rahim. A down-at-heel drama,…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Rust and Bone’ review
★★★★☆ French director Jacques Audiard’s last film A Prophet (Un Prophète, 2009) was a huge critical hit at Cannes 2009 (where it won the Grand Jury Prize), and so expectations were high for his follow-up Rust and Bone (De Rouille et d’Os, 2012). Based on a series of short stories by the Canadian author Craig…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ review
★★★☆☆ The opening film of the 65th Cannes Film Festival is Wes Anderson’s summery, nostalgic comedy Moonrise Kingdom (2012). Set on a small island off of the New England coast in the summer of 1965, the film tells the story of two 12-year-olds: Sam (Jared Gilman), an orphaned khaki scout, and Suzy (Kara Hayward), the…
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Cannes 2012: ‘The Dish & the Spoon’ review
★★★☆☆ Alison Bagnall’s witty and original romance The Dish & the Spoon (2011) is a gutsy independent love story which belies its modest budget, whilst also showcasing Damsels in Distress (2011) star Greta Gerwig’s unique ability to be quirky, whilst also profoundly beautiful. After last year’s BFI LFF screening, it has also made the film…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Like Someone in Love’ preview
In a world dominated by sequels, reboots, remakes and even films based upon amusement park rides and board games, the death of original filmmaking and the concept of cinema as an art form seems closer than ever. Yet Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who returns to the 65th Cannes Film Festival this year with Like Someone…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Rust and Bone’ preview
Swelling the ranks of the French directorial presence at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Jacques Audiard returns this year with Rust and Bone (De Rouille et d’Os, 2012), his follow-up the triumphant prison drama A Prophet (Un Prophète) – which picked up the Jury Prize in 2009 along with a host of other awards, nominations…
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Cannes 2012: Jeff Nichols’ ‘Mud’ preview
This year’s 65th Cannes Film Festival boasts an unusually strong American presence within its competition strand, including Jeff Nichols’ highly anticipated new film Mud (2012). Despite only previously having directed two features, Nichols has rapidly built a name for himself after his stunning 2007 debut Shotgun Stories wooed critics at the Sundance Film Festival and…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Cosmopolis’ preview
If A Dangerous Method (2011) had been made by Stephen Frears, no one would have battered an eyelid, but coming from Canadian body horror master David Cronenberg meant a fairly decent if dull costume drama suffered for simply not being Videodrome (1983). However, the announcement that Cronenberg’s next feature Cosmopolis (2012), an adaptation of the…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Amour’ preview
Austrian auteur Michael Haneke returns to French language cinema this year with his new film Amour (Love, 2012), which will premiere in competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. Haneke has long been a favourite with the festival – The Piano Teacher won the Grand Prix back in 2002. He has since won the Palme d’Or…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Killing Them Softly’ preview
One of the most eagerly-anticipated films of the 65th Cannes Film Festival has to be Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly (2012). Based on the 1974 George V. Higgins novel Cogan’s Trade, the film stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a mob enforcer who is called in when a gang-run poker game gets ripped off. The…