Top 20 Alternative Picks for Cannes 2012: Gyorgy Palfi’s Final Cut – Ladies & Gentlemen

Final Cut – Ladies & Gentlemen – György Pálfi

Buzz: Once upon a time, György Pálfi made a splash at the Toronto International Film Festival with an elegant, plotless film called Hukkle. When he followed it up with the divisive but still acclaimed Taxidermia, all of a sudden Béla Tarr wasn’t the only active Hungarian filmmaker that your Average Joe cinephile could name off the top of his head. A few years passed, he whiffed big time with I am Not Your Friend, and now a few more years have past. György who?? That this newest work has been relegated to the Closing Night duties of the Cannes Classics sidebar hopefully won’t deter too many from giving it a fair shot, because at the very least, it’s already confirmed that this very talented man is continuing to push himself in new, experimental directions with his work, refusing to go with a formula that’s worked in the past.
The Gist: The ultimate love story is the tale of the ultimate man and the ultimate woman. And what are the distinguishing marks of the ultimate man? Well, he is charming like Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita. But he’s also strapping like Brad Pitt in the Fight Club. He is boyish like Leonardo Di Caprio in Titanic… And what about the ultimate woman? She is certainly unpredictable and instinctive like Lollobrigida, but she’s also graceful and knows how to behave, like Audrey Hepburn. She’s girlish, like Audrey Tautou but cool and distant like Greta Garbo. She is funny and familiar like Julia Roberts, but her smile is like Ava Gardner’s. She is divine, like Sophia Loren, but it’s not a problem if she resembles Monica Bellucci… Oh, my God, what happens, if He meets Her?!