Eric Lavallée

Bressonian in approach and Malick-like in its use of the natural surroundings, Alistair Banks Griffin's Two Gates of Sleep is a sublime film debut that reminds me of how David Gordon Green broke out with George Washington a little more than a decade ago.

My first thoughts after seeing Jean Paul Civeyrac's Des filles en noir is that you'd never find the equivalent in the U.S. The picture deals with an older pair of teens and their fascination with, and thoughts towards death and suicide - and there is this pitch perfect scene that addresses their possible individual fates on a tandem level.

Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful was perhaps the most anticipated film from the main competition this year, and even more weight might have been placed on the title since it was expected almost a full year ago.

This is for those who thought Paranormal Activity was the sh*t. Take note of Gustavo Hernández's La Casa Muda (The Silent House) - a Director's Fortnight selected title from Uruguay with the uniqueness being that the picture is filmed in one take (think Russian Ark, PVC-1) and is impressive feat when you consider that there's a thin, but applicable narrative based on a true story. Hernández and cinematographer Pedro Luque do a great job with the lighting and the camera isn't one of those vomit enducing shaky cam headaches, but something that allows for you to see the incremental fear and then delirium in actress Florencia Colucci's face.

We've been talking about this one for so long, glad to have finally seen Cam Archer's sophomore pic and the verdict? Think Jim Jarmusch's early days and Anton Corbijn videos from the late 80's but with a tone that is slightly surreal, slightly candid in the notion of retirement and slightly distilled - the shades of B&W have a dreamy, docu-like quality and makes this a purely art-house theatres.