We have roving reporter Brogen Hayes on location in Cannes this week, Keep up with all the latest film news over the next week on Movies.ie
The 64th Cannes Film festival began yesterday, but as the stars were readying their evening wear and the journalists making sure they were ready to jostle on the red carpet, I was sitting in Dublin, reading the reviews online.
I was supposed to fly to Cannes yesterday, but when I went to check in, I realised that my passport was out of date. Cue a short burst of fear and panic, which 10 minutes of meditation on the bus back into town dispelled. David Lynch would be proud. So instead of soaking up the sun on the French Riviera, I was literally running out to the British Embassy, hoping against hope that something could be done for me. I arrived there at midday. By 3pm I had my shiny new passport in my hands and was running outside the Embassy screaming and jumping for joy. The show would go on. Flights were booked on my iPhone and bags unpacked then repacked.
Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris opened the festival last night. While some may argue that the director’s best years are behind him, critics maintain that Midnight in Paris has echoes of Manhattan, and is possibly Allen’s best work in years, with praise for Rachel McAdams, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.
Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty was also shown in the first hours of the festival. Sleeping Beauty is described as ‘a dark erotic fairy tale’, and is a tense story of sex, death and perversion. The festival audience was strongly divided in it’s reaction to the film, but that alone makes it one to watch out for.
On Thursday, the talk up and down La Croisette was of Lynne Ramsey’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. Tilda Swinton is on fantastic form as the shattered mother of a difficult child. Ramsey’s unflinching drama examines the dysfunctional, and ultimately; violent, relationship between a mother and her son, but leave the audience free to make their own decisions about Eva (Swinton). We Need to Talk About Kevin was given a rapturous standing ovation that lasted well over five minutes and left John C. Reilly, Tilda Swinton and Lynne Ramsey speechless. Definitely a film to watch if you have ever been a parent… or a child.
The 64th Cannes Film festival has only just begun, and Movies.ie will be keeping you informed of what to watch out for. Tomorrow, we are particularly looking forward to Toomelah, but will keep our ear to the ground for all the latest news from Cannes.
Words – Brogen Hayes