John Bleasdale
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Cannes 2015: ‘Rams’ review
★★★★☆ A story of filial rivalry in a remote valley in Iceland, Grímur Hákonarson’s second narrative feature Rams (Hrútar, 2015) begins as an oddball comedy about sheep farming and grows slowly into a tale of elemental and moving power, deservingly winning the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes. The film focuses, and initially sides with,…
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Cannes 2015: Jacques Audiard’s ‘Dheepan’ wins Palme d’Or
The results are in. The closing ceremony of the 68th edition of the Cannes film festival began more like the Oscars than the glamorous, abrupt ceremonies of old; with John C. Reilly scat-singing and a sense of anticipation with a field which was more open than previous years. Son of Saul was the Palme d’Or…
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Cannes 2015: ‘Dheepan’ review
★★★☆☆ Following the impressive The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), the excellent A Prophet (2010) and the melodramatic Rust and Bone (2012), Jacques Audiard returns to Cannes with Dheepan (2015), a mix of Loachian social realism and Death Wish-style violent fantasy. This outsider in Paris tale begins with a Tamil freedom fighter burning the…
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Film Review: Son of Saul
★★★★★ Hungarian director László Nemes’ debut film Son of Saul (2015) is a stunning and aptly horrifying close-up view of the Holocaust and must be a favourite to pick up a prize at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Géza Röhrig plays Saul, a Sonderkommando: a Jewish prisoner tasked with the dirty job of the death…
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Film Review: The Assassin
★★★★☆ After a long and troubled production history, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin (2015) has arrived in Cannes and it has to be one of the most beautifully shot films of the competition so far. Like the Barry Lyndon of martial arts movies, every shot has been composed, lit and executed with such care and attention…
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Cannes 2015: ‘The Measure of a Man’ review
★★★☆☆ A drama about a dignified man struggling to make ends meet minus the usual tragedy, histrionics and melodrama, Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure of a Man (La Loi du Marché, 2015) provides an insight into the life of a working-class guy at the sharp end of the economic crisis. Made redundant from his job in…
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Film Review: The Lobster
★★★★☆ Award-winning Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster (2015), entering the hotly contested race for this year’s coveted Palme d’Or, is an absurdist comedy set in a world in which being single is forbidden. Colin Farrell plays David, an architect who – on separating from his partner – is taken to a hotel where, along…
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Cannes 2015: ‘Mon Roi’ review
★★☆☆☆ Mon Roi (My King, 2015) is a colourful yet clichéd relationship drama from French actor and director Maïwenn, playing today in competition at Cannes and representing one of several homegrown efforts. Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot), a successful lawyer, is skiing when she has a bad accident, breaking her leg. There’s a suspicion that she might…
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Cannes 2015: ‘Chronic’ review
★★★☆☆ Following his brutal depiction of high school bullying in After Lucia (2012), Mexican director Michel Franco returns to Cannes in competition with Chronic (2015), a slowburning drama about a committed nurse caring for terminally ill patients. In one of the best performances of recent years, Tim Roth stars as David, the palliative care nurse…
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Cannes 2015: ‘Valley of Love’ review
★★☆☆☆ Two legends of French cinema arrived on the Cannes Croisette today, with Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert starring as fictionalised versions of themselves in Guillaume Nicloux’s meditation on family, death and forgiveness, Valley of Love (2015). Gerard (Depardieu) and Isabelle (Huppert) are two actors who were married had a son and were swiftly divorced.…