Cannes 2009 Day 9: Odds and ends in Cote’s ‘Carcasses’

Location, location, location. It’s a main character in many films, and in Denis Côté‘s Carcasses it, and the junkyard’s owner Jean-Paul Colmor are alluring characters that that forge a unique twosome. As with his first film (Les états nordiques), Côté has a very particular style, a sort of merger between documentary and fiction film split at an uneven 80/20. Carcasses is what happens when one person has been collecting scrap vehicles for decades and this fascinating lieu where things go to die interestingly is a place that is full of life: a boreal forrest setting. The film chokes on whatever momentum it has going for it the moment four young adults with Down’s syndrome take time away from the charismatic loner. I was on hand (see pic below) to see the Director’s Fortnight presentation of the third and finale film from a Quebecois filmmaker in the section this year. Full review coming soon.

Former film critic Denis Côté never wanted to attend Cannes as a journalist but as a filmmaker. He got his wish.