Cannes Diary #10: Children are the future?

by Elisa Giudici

CLOSE could be a surprise Palme d'Or winner

Today’s schedule was three main competition titles heavy with awards possibility. Two of them look at the world through the eyes of children, their ingenuity being endangered by adults but also by the mere fact of growing up and facing society’s expectations. The other is a political thriller that tries the patience! Let’s dive in...

PACIFICATION by Albert Serra (France/Spain)
COMPETITION FILM

Movies like Pacifiction should be screened early int he festival because they don’t get along well with Festival Fatigue. A 165 minutes, this political thriller set in Tahiti is full of shady men trying to find out if and when new nuclear tests will be conducted in Polynesia. That might sound reasonable by European Festival standards, but Serra's latest requires an enormous amount of patience to get a grasp on the actual plot Consider this: the first hour of the movie is only amazing shoots of Pacific Island’s pastel-colored sky at dawn, sexy people dancing under neon lights in a discotheque called Paradise, and an impressive amount of small talk among the protagonist and a wide range of characters that will have a little or no impact on the actual story. After 40 minutes of Pacifiction the exodus of the audience began.

I endured it all because it contained three or four truly remarkable shots (including a stunning one of boats facing building-high waves while surfers try to ride them), stunning scenery you could turn into sophisitcated desktop backgrounds, and a powerful ending. But that's it.  You could cut an entire hour for a more effective film. Serra wanted to portray the life of shady men in highly strategical geopolitical places, living a emptyu lives waiting for something that might happen. Pacifiction is just too much of nothing. The political contest of Tahiti as a land full of foreigners trying to influence local politics on behalf of bigger players on the maps (as in Stars at Noon  which we discussed yesterday) is given too little space despite the very long run time; Benoît Magimel putting on and taking off his blue shades gets more screen time...it is maddening. At least Benoît Magimel is fantastic in this movie, as he tries to get the better of everyone by non-stop talking about next to nothing.

BROKER by Hirozaku Kore-eda (South Korea)
COMPETITION FILM

I have a personal theory as to why the latest Hirozaku Kore-eda is not on the same level as the rest of his filmography. It is no secret the Japanese director is as loved by international cinephile audience as ignored in Japan. My reading is that with the French and English language The Truth (2019) and the Korean language Broker (2022) is that he is trying to write and direct movies with more of an international appeal, leaving behind stories intrinsically connect to grey areas of Japanese society and culture. In many ways this recalls Bong Joon-ho's moves years ago to appeal to a wider international audience without losing his unique, Korean sensibility. Unfortunately, Broker is no Parasite, but a sort of simpler, superficial version of Kore-eda's own Shoplifters (2018), a Palme d'Or winner in its year. Kore-eda's films love dysfunctional families, trying to prove that blood is weaker than circumstances as poor, lonely people create new familial-like bonds based on true affection, sticking together to survive. In Broker two poor men and a young, single mother go on a journey trying to sell the baby she first abandoned near a “Baby Box". It would be a perfectly fine movie from any other director, but after Shoplifters it feels too simple and predictable, like the director is treading water. For the first time I felt Kore-eda was trying to manipulate the audience towards tears, where his stories usually become deeply moving organically. Even the great Song Kang-ho (Parasite) doesn't shine as much as usual. 

CLOSE by Lukas Dhont (Belgium/Netherlands)
COMPETITION FILM

Close is a spare yet powerful movie about grief, with only what is essential to tell the story. There is nothing really surprising in the story of Leo, a young boy who is so close to his best friend Rémi that they seem like brothers... or lovers, as their classmates start to imply in the schoolyard. We have seen a lot of movies like Close before that reveal how society puts shame on children, leading them betray their feelings once they discover they are not “normal” by society standards. We also know how the loss of someone we love - especially if the loss is closely associated with guilt - can hit later and harder than expected. As in his debut feature Girl, Dhont has a miraculous eye for casting. The film works because the eyes of the 15 eyes old lead Eden Dambrine (in his acting debut) are a screen within the screen on which we can see all of his pure, undiluted, raw emotions surfacing. The young actor portraying his friend Remi, Gustav De Waele, is also phenomenal. Watch out for this one: on paper, it has no chance to win anything important, but these little but perfect movies about deeply moving, relatable human experiences can become dark horses.

we're almost finished!

Day 1 Opening Night, Coupez!
Day 2 Tom Cruise, The Eight Mountains, Scarlet
Day 3 Armageddon Time, EO, Tchaivosky's Wife
Day 4 Corsage, Brother and Sister, When You Finish Saving the World
Day 5 3000 Years of Longing, RMN, Triangle of Sadness, Boy From Heaven
Day 6 Holy Spider, Men, Smoking Makes You Cough, Marcel!
Day 7 Decision to Leave, Crimes of the Future, Forever Young
Day 8 Silent Twins, Tori and Lokita, Nostalgia
Day 9 Elvis, Stars at Noon

Comments

[Edwin]

I’ll admit Close was not one of the titles that really jumped out at me when I first saw the competition lineup, so your assessment of it not looking on paper like a likely contender for top prizes is probably accurate in that respect, but I’m now hearing a few people suggest this is a frontrunner for the Palme d’Or, so maybe it will overcome its initial low profile? I suspect it’ll end up with a prize of some sort even if it’s not the Palme. Am I correct in assuming its biggest competitor seems to be Decision to Leave? I could easily see those being the Palme d’Or and Grand Prix winners, though it’s hard to say which will get which.