Sunday was a day where many folks in the media relaxed and where a collage of films form celebrated Cannes filmmakers was a nice change of pace. It started off in the early a.m. again with Chacun son cinema– a collection of 3-minute short films that surprisingly, make the grade. My favorite comes from the hands of Lars von Trier who basically sets up a little story about him sitting next to an annoying audience member who talks during the screening of a film (Manderlay). The punchline is the moment where the annoying man asks Lars “what he does for a living”. Without giving away the specifics of how he responds he basically does what everyone at some moment of their lives wished they could do to the annoying person sitting next to them while trying to watch a film. Delicious.
A quick trot over to the Noga Hilton for the 11:15 Director’s Fortnight screening of Caramel. Nadine Labaki’s directorial debut is a general crowd-pleaser operating in the same manner as a Steel Magnolias except set in Lebanon. It explores ‘longing’ via a foursome of woman in different predicaments.
I capped off the day with the Debaussy screening for hyped Italian film (Un Certain Regard contender) My Brother Is An Only Child (Mio fratello e figlio unico) it hits its mark, but its nothing significant in my books.
Today 8:30 screening for Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park – after his last three films, I’m hoping that there is more of a narrative thread to his piece.
This will then be followed up by American indie film from helmer Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart). His second film Chop Shop focuses on a child protagonist Alejandro, a tough and ambitious street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and work in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York. In this chaotic world of adults, young Alejandro struggles to make a better life for himself and his 16-year-old sister, Isamar.
I’ll take a breather and then check out late night Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s Ploy – he is the filmmaker behind recent titles Invisible Waves and Last Life in the Universe. This film is described as an erotic psychological drama in which three strangers are locked inside one hotel room. It starts with subtle suspicions and builds up to jealousy, as the appearance of a young woman triggers devastating consequences for a married couple.
