Cláudio's Best Shot Pick: Happy Together (1997)

The next episode of our series, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' arrives Thursday night. Since the Cannes Film Festival is around the corner, it's focused on Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together, which screened at the Croisette 25 years ago. You still have time to participate! Here's Cláudio's entry.

In film criticism, few expressions vex me more than the old "style over substance" adage. To presuppose the audiovisual stylings of any picture should be subordinate to its text, thus taking for granted that true depth exists only in narrative rather than form, is a fundamental misunderstanding of cinema as an art. Such matters come to mind because the works of Wong Kar Wai represent one of the best counterpoints to these erroneous wisdoms. The director's style is indissociable from whatever meaning, narrative, or emotion the viewer can take from his films. That is especially true of Happy Together, one of his masterpieces and one of my all-time favorite pictures…

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YNMS: Crimes of the Future (New Trailer)

by Mark Brinkerhoff

NEON, the enfant terrible of indie film distributors (Parasite, Titane, The Worst Person in the World, etc.), has released a full trailer for the new David Cronenberg film, Crimes of the Future, so you know what that means! Let’s roll…

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Cannes Jury 2022: Vincent Lindon will preside.

by Nathaniel R

Vincent Lindon in Titane (2021)

Hot off his incredible work in Titane (2021), for which he received numerous accolades including a European Film Award nomination, Vincent Lindon will preside over this year's jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Lindon previously won Best Actor at Cannes for his role in The Measure of a Man (2015). The other members of the jury are...

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Our Cannes Plans

by Nathaniel R

© Paramount Pictures Corporation – Jim Carrey, The Truman Show by Peter Weir / Graphic design © Hartland Villa

Look! The official Cannes poster is out (see above) which uses a moment from The Truman Show (1998). About which the festival says:

The decisive scene urges viewers to not only experience the border between reality and its reprsentation but to ponder the power of fiction, between manipulation and catharsis. Just as Truman escapes falsehood as he rises, the Festival, with its famous ascending red carpet, offers viewers the truth of the artists when they enter the theater

Last year we had our most Cannes coverage ever with our favourite Italian Elisa Giudici at the festival covering the Competition lineup. Simultaneously Cláudio was doing a 'Cannes at Home' series to highlight older films by directors with new pictures at the festival. Since you liked both we're doing it again! The 75th edition of the festival runs May 17th- May 28th this year. We'll also be celebrating Cannes with an episode of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" covering Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together on May 12th. That moody gay drama took the Cannes Best Director prize 25 years ago from a jury led by the great French movie star Isabelle Adjani.

P.S. The Cannes lineup post has been updated to reflect the week later additions to the official selection.

75th Cannes. Director's Fortnight Lineup

by Nathaniel R

The 54th edition of Directors Fortnight, a sidebar which plays alongside Cannes 75th Official Selection films, has announced its lineup for this May's screenings and festivities. The opening night ceremony will honor director Kelly Reichardt with the Carrosse d'Or for her oeuvre, which they describe like so

"Political humanistic and grounded in American land, her seven feature films tell an intimate counter - history of her country, attached to territories and underdogs." 

The lineup this year includes the following 23 features (if there's an asterisk it's a first film and thus also eligible for the Camera d'Or)...

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