Un Conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale)

Another day came and went on the Rivera, and a few more positive reviews. The films screened yesterday, 16 May, were Tyson, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Soi Cowboy, Moscow, Belgium, Un Conte de Noël, Salt of this Sea, Rumba and The Seven Days. Updates may follow.

In Competition:

“Un Conte de Noël” by Arnaud Desplechin

Andrew O’Hehir, “This won’t be an easy sell even to European audiences, and it’s not likely to win the Palme d’Or. But if I see another film all year long that prickles me, disturbs me or moves me half as much, I’ll be surprised.”

Glenn Kenny: “The bourgeois-dysfunctional-family-comes-together-for-a-holiday setup is one of the hoariest in any medium, but if anybody can conjure something fresh out of it, it’s Desplechin, and boy does he ever…. The creation of such a vivid, individualized group of characters and such a compelling roster of dilemmas is a staggering enough feat. But what makes this movie such a darkly exuberant feast is Desplechin’s storytelling.”

Fabien Lemercier, “The film is as brilliant as it is cruel, and brings together the sweetness of intelligence and cinematic know-how with its characters’ overflowing bitterness…Its explosive elegance is near perfect, yet it successfully manages to keep the audience at an emotional distance.”

Kim Voynar, “”This could have been an emotionally wrenching film, but Desplechin keeps the tone light, infusing the drama with humor in the most unexpected places, and offers Henri’s girlfriend, Faunia (frequent Desplechin actress Emmanuelle Devos), as the amused Shakespearean witness to the whole affair to lighten the heavy load,”

Kenneth Turan, “Unexpected but still made squarely in the French humanist tradition, this is a film you don’t want to see end, not because the people are so happy but because they are so human and so alive,”

Un Certain Regard:

“Tyson” by James Toback

Ty Burr, “”The saddest film I’ve seen at Cannes – and that’s saying something – is Tyson,…The tragedy is that, by the end, Tyson, an old man at age 40, seems to have acquired self-knowledge but not genuine wisdom; he has renounced the animal within but seems uncertain with what to replace it. You come out of the movie hoping for the best and fearing for the worst, which already is a more nuanced position than you probably went in with. A strong, troubling work, with some astonishing fight footage from the 80s and 90s.”

Todd McCarthy, “Although straightforward in format, the film capitalizes on an obviously intense connection between filmmaker and subject with psychological acuity and emotional power.”

Allan Hunter, “”People may be less inclined to judge after watching this feature-length interview, but the feeling of never entirely understanding what makes Tyson tick still persists,…All the mellow musings on his past misdemeanours and a life littered with second chances never quite takes us to the heart of this tragic figure.”

“Soi Cowboy” Thomas Clay

Leslie Felperin, “”This slowburning, enigmatic drama, mostly about a Danish man and a Thai woman awkwardly living together in Bangkok, is deeper and more likeable than Clay’s controversial debut, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael. Gone are the latter film’s shock tactics, allowing Clay’s cinematic sophistication to sparkle all the better.”

Jonathan Romney, “A very un-British director, Clay is doffing his hat here to auteurs such as Carlos Reygadas and Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Perhaps the least British UK film you’ve ever seen, Soi Cowboy confirms – as his first film didn’t quite – that Clay is a man to watch.”

Boyd van Hoeij, “The problem with Soi Cowboy is that this quiet is awfully quiet. Antonioni, to whom this film pays ‘indirect homage’ as the director puts it, made ennui exciting cinematographically, but Clay’s screenplay and editing leave out almost anything that might make the two main characters worthwhile to take an interest in for an hour or two.”

“Milh Hadha Al-Bahr (Salt of this Sea)” by Annemarie Jacir

Lee Marshall, “clearly made with passion and fuelled by a keen resentment at the plight of the Palestinian people. And the film has an authentic, colour-saturated sense of place. But this is not enough to turn an overlong travelogue-cum-manifesto with a flat romantic subplot into a convincing drama.”

Jay Weissberg, “That the taste of Annemarie Jacir’s feature debut should be bitter is completely understandable given the untenable Palestinian situation, but the heavy-handed, excessively didactic script plays like a primer for people only vaguely aware of the issues while overly confirmed in their righteousness.”

Deborah Young, “Boldly grabbing hold of the central issue at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict – namely, whose land it is that is being contended by both sides – Salt of This Sea will certainly make people talk, even while it fails to fully involve them in its artificial drama,”

Out of Competition:

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” by Woody Allen

Todd McCarthy, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a sexy, funny divertissement that passes as enjoyably as an idle summer’s afternoon in the titular Spanish city. With Javier Barden starring as a bohemian artist involved variously with Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, pic offers potent romantic fantasy elements for men and women and a cast that should produce the best commercial returns for a Woody Allen film since “Match Point.” And, in the bargain, if Barcelona wants even more visitors than it already attracts, this film will supply them.”

Ty Burr, “It’s true that VCB is travel porn at its most arrant, an upscale tourist fantasy of Barcelona locations and table settings, fine wines and clichéd Catalan studs whispering outre sexual possibilities in the ears of shallow, susceptible American women……The movie’s inordinate, even ridiculous fun, despite an overly chatty narrative track (not sure by whom at this writing) that I wanted to slap down after about five minutes…. Bardem is simply delicious as a post-Valentino roué who’s just as sexy but not quite as smart as he thinks. When he, Johansson, and Cruz settle into a sensual ménage a trois, it’s hard not to think Allen has become the dirty old man of the movies. However he gets his jollies, though, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an unexpected picnic – a lightweight New Yorker short story lit up with real warmth.”

Jeff Wells, “The only parts of Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona that really and truly feel alive and crackling are the Spanish-language scenes between Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz.”

Richard Corliss, “Whenever Bardem or Cruz are on screen, VCB finds its heart. It sees them as fully in tune with their feelings: totally willing, and why not?, to act on impulses they’ve learned to trust. The Americans are children by comparison, a little stiff, so conditioned to overanalyzing every attraction that they would lose the moment — if only there weren’t a Don Juan Antonio to send seismic shivers up their consciences.”

Critics’ Week:

“Moscow, Belgium” by Christophe van Rompaey

Jordan Mintzer, “Although it may not sound like the most exciting place on earth, Moscow, Belgium is packed with plenty of drama, laughs and sentimental charm.”

Boyd van Hoeij, “Especially during its first hour, the Flemish box office sensation toys with cliché material with such an assured sense of direction and such a strong screenplay that it simply is a pleasure to watch.”

“Rumba” by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy

Jordan Mintzer, “Like an episode of “Sesame Street” scripted by Luis Bunuel and helmed by Jacques Tati, “Rumba” turns dark tragedy into deadpan comedy through a series of surreal G-rated gags. An impressive do-it-yourself feature about a couple fun-loving dance freaks whose careers are cut short by a nasty car accident, this clever, near-silent comedy should bop around plenty of fests after preeming in Cannes’ Critics’ Week. Set for fall release in France, pic could find an adequate place offshore in the arthouse conga line with creative marketing.”

Bernard Besserglik, “Perhaps the movie could best be considered a family entertainment – a little of something for everyone…One admires the commitment of the filmmakers and freshness of much of the material, but the rarified nature of the humor means that the movie never fully engages.”

Jordan Mintzer, “An impressive do-it-yourself feature about a couple fun-loving dance freaks whose careers are cut short by a nasty car accident, this clever, near-silent comedy should bop around plenty of fests after preeming in Cannes’ Critics’ Week.”

“The Seven Days” by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz

Jay Weissberg, “Unsurprisingly, thesping is flawless, and the ensemble cast, largely made up of top Israeli performers, work together seamlessly. Ronit Elkabetz (”The Band’s Visit”) of course is a highlight, but so too are the seething Azoulay Hasfari and her more tempered but equally impressive male colleagues — it’s hard to single out one performer when they seem to share completely in this family’s pain and culpability.”

Ray Bennet, “Intensely observed, smartly choreographed and very well acted by a large ensemble cast, the film, which opened the Critics’ Week sidebar at the Festival de Cannes, will attract attention at festivals and art houses but its lack of humor may test audiences’ patience.”