Cannes: Almodovar, Loach, Resnais
Is it the effect of the recession gloom I don’t know, but the peddlers of heavy stuff have all come with feel good films this time to Cannes. If Ang Lee’s ‘return-to-innocence’ ode to Woodstock, not surprisingly called Taking Woodstock, lightened the Cannes delegates’ mood left shocked and awed by Lars von Trier’s Antichrist and some gory stuff in a few other films, the smile factor is being spread also by Pedro Almodovar’s bitter-sweet comedy-drama Broken Embraces, Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric and Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass. All these are that kind of cinema which will bring a smile, though sometimes tinged with a bit of melancholy. That is what they have done at the festival in the last couple of days, especially after Lars von Trier provoked everyone with his shocking Antichrist.
Almodovar traverses known territory in his new film too, but somehow, I found it a little disappointing as compared to All About My Mother, Volver or Bad Education. The trademark wry humour is still there, but probably his focus of a male character for a change (though his favourite Penelope Cruz plays the main female character) made him a little unsure about himself. But that is not to say that this film is a disappointment. Of course, it is not, and the Spanish master has full control over his medium in this film too.
Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric, starring French football legend Eric Cantona, has also been of the same category. This one is probably the first film by Loach that will have a mass appeal when it gets its commercial release, and quite clearly, the film was loved by viewers as well as critics at the festival. Completely unlike his earlier films.
So is Alain Resnais, whose Les Horbes Folles (Wild Grass) is again a feel-good comedy. Maybe, the world needs to smile now and these masters have decided to play a role in that.
But then, there was melodrama too. For example, Italian Marco Bellocchio’s “Vincere”, which is about the unknown life of Ida Dalser, the first wife of Benito Mussolini whom the dictator never gave due recognition. Both Dalser and the son they had, called Benito Albino Mussolini, were sent to separate mental asylums where they finally died after undergoing prolonged torture. No doubt and interesting subject and an engrossing film, but the melodramatic treatment marred its pace somewhat.
But today is the day for Tarantino’s Unglourious Basterds, and is the air thick here with expectation!
Tags: 62nd Cannes Film Festival, Alain Resnais, Broken Embraces, Ken Loach, Les Horbes Folles, Looking for Eric, Pablo Almodovar, Wild Grass, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thanks Utpal..you put us right there in the midst of all the action…great stuff…
“Looking for Eric” reminds me of a remarkable Bangla film “Koni” where the title name was a swimmer alongside known and famous swimmers, including a girl who enacted Nafisa Ali, who was a swimming champ then…that too was a feel good tinged with melancholy movie!
Looking forward to Almodovar’s Broken Embraces..Volver was bit of a dampner so i was expecting something this time
it’s not unglorious but inglorious basterds