2023 Le prix André Bazin: Pham Thiên Ân’s “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” Takes Unique Prize

It’s year two for the prix André Bazin by les Cahiers du Cinéma folks and the jury of Albert Serra, Marion Cotillard, Flora Fishbach, Jeanne Lapoirie, Fernando Ganzo, Olivia Cooper-Hadjian and one reader of the magazine have bestowed the honor on Pham Thiên Ân‘s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell. The dreamy debut feature (my second favorite Cannes film after Glazer’s masterwork) was a Directors’ Fortnight selection and won the Camera d’Or prize in Cannes. Kino Lorber release this 177-minute gem on January 19th at the Film Linc. Here is how the jury responded to the film:

“It’s a trip we wanted to highlight tonight. A multidimensional trip. Visual, emotional, spiritual, physical. By inviting us into a universe of such powerful splendor and poetry, the director simultaneously opens the door to our own imagination. He creates space and time within us. An inner narrative in which our thoughts, our questions, our intimate encounters with each character – those we see on screen and those we’ll never see – give rise to emotions and sensations that take us far beyond what he’s telling us. We contemplate, without ever intellectualizing, Thien’s interior journey. And we end up feeling everything that vibrates within him: his wandering, his love, his encounter with himself. The mist from which the light shimmers, the nature with which he eventually becomes one. With which we too will become one. It’s a sumptuous film, a deeply moving experience, by a filmmaker who demonstrates admirable mastery, visual and sound creativity, and extraordinary work with actors.”