2019 Cannes Jessica Hausner's Little Joe

Film Festivals

2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 4 – Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe

Published on May 17, 2019

A staple figure of the Un Certain Regard section with three trips dating back to 2001’s Lovely Rita and 2004’s Hotel with her last feature Amour Fou (2014) being profiled there, the only non-Cannes anomaly in her output so far has been 2009’s Lourdes which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Jessica Hausner makes her first trip to the competition with what appeared to be a Little Shop of Horrors-esque / Invasion of the Body Snatcher stale about breeding. Starring Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, some cool lab plants and lab coats, this genre item is production design bliss, meticulous in design and feels like a cross between Akerman and Kubrick.

This flower rubbed off on several critics the wrong way, but some were enchanted by its perfume. With almost half the grades in, this nonetheless could be a contender for a Best Director prize on the croisette this year.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).