Great Expectations Cannes - Day 9
Again, my Great Expectation about BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR / LA VIE D'ADÈLE - CHAPITRE 1 & 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche (Official Competition) is based on my previous knowledge on the film director. From the moment I watched his film COUSCOUS WITH FISH / LA GRAINE ET LE MULET (2007), I was fascinated by the way he expresses the relationship between the native French and the immigrants, avoiding the stereotype of films dealing with this topic, even if the director himself is a Tunisian resident in France. His previous film is also full of unique scenes celebrating life, especially the long sequence of artistic belly dancing with the actress Hafsia Herzi. I watched the feature within the Panorama of European Films in Cairo, and from that moment I was waiting eagerly for his next.
–Safaa El-laisy Haggag is an Egyptian film editor, critic, writer, and activist. She is also member of the FIPRESCI jury in this year’s edition of Cannes festival.
Lav Diaz is one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers. Every new film of his is a miracle. His first appearance in Cannes with NORTE, THE END OF THE HISTORY / NORTE, HANGGANAN NG KASAYSAYAN at Un Certain Regard is to me one of this year’s greatest cinematic events!
–Paolo Bertolin is a consultant and a former member of the selection committee at Venice International Film Festival with his specialty being Asian cinema. As a film critic and journalist, he has written for Il Manifesto, Cineforum, Segnocinema, Cahiers du Cinéma, Positif, Senses of Cinema, and many others.
Even if the format of 3X3D, the closing film at the Critics’ Week, reminds me of the 2004 triptych EROS (which was with very dubious results and whose best segment’s author, curiously enough, is now retiring), I still consider the film one of the most important events of this year’s Cannes edition. It was a splendid idea to unite two of the most prominent misanthropes in cinema, Jean-Luc Godard and Peter Greenaway, with an artist who has such a diverse experience with transmedia and comics like Edgar Pêra. I would also like to see more “auteur” experiments with 3D, because when Wim Wenders’ PINA came out, for example, it was a rarity per se and at the same time turned quickly to a distribution cliché, so this did not allow us to see the film for what it is – pure beauty. At the same time, with 3X3D, I am glad that the attention towards the imposing JLG will be kind of distracted, as all the great expectations associated recently with his persona are simply not wholesome, especially for his work.
–Yoana Pavlova is Festivalists’ own founder and editor-in-chief.