Live from Cannes: Day 9 (New Directions in Asian Cinema)

I’ve been reading articles in Screen Daily and THR about the current state of Korean film industry, how auteurs filmmakers are having a terrible time in seducing local audiences and thus getting proper funding, and now the current vague of producers are actually shifting production money towards international productions – a trend I don’t see as a particular threat. The Kim Ki Duks and the Pen-Ek Ratanaruangs will always make films that are for a select crowd, and if they continue to explore their themes with the same visual flair then a more broader audience will keep giving them work. It’s an odd mathematical solution…but it works. Below you'll a pair of Asian films (Singapore and Japan) that are curious selections for Cannes comp and certain regard categories.   

 

On the Menu: Yesterday's main course

My string of great back to back viewing has suffered a minor blow. 2 out of 3 viewings were less than satisfying and definitely weren’t up to pair with the rest of the items I haphazardly decided to see.  My pre-lunch screening came in the form of the Singapore film Pleasure Factory (Kuaile Gongchang). Aesthetically it fails to do the job and its rainbow of different characters with different wants and needs in the local red light district tries so hard to be poignant – when it is far from this.  

My 5 o’clock rendezvous was challenging. Playing at the Noga in the Director’s Fortnight section, La Influencia is a creepy tale of how domestic disturbance changes life patterns for all involved. This is the sort of film that will gladly make it to several world festivals but won’t see the day in theatres. Despite the fact that not much happens, I nontheless found it hypnotizing. 

Continuing on the theme of disturbance, my Debussy screening of Secret Sunshine was a physical challenge – it was hard to be interested in a film that takes soooo long to get through so many character changes – the actress who plays the mother/wife suffers one mental blow after another. The point gets reinforced one too many times.
 

I don’t like to lug around my camera of vid camera – so pics are rare indeed. But yesterday I brought it for the screening knowing that usually for every Director’s Fortnight screening the director and guests are in attendance. Much like Reygadas, he uses non-actors for his film. Here he actually borrowed a family of three to play the lead roles. Here are pics of the director Pedro Aguilera, followed by mother and daughter non-actors of the film.
  

Between 12 and 3 p.m. the sun is really hot. No wonder the Spaniards and the Italians invented the siesta. This means I’ll be better prepared for next year. Reminder to self: bring swimsuit. The good part is during the hours I’m usually facing a screen in a cozy theatre but when I need to refresh myself its nice to go and splash a little water and kick in some cologne as to protect myself against the stench of others who’ve been sweating it up. My gracious host managed to find a really cool spot so I’m located a couple of skips and hops away from the red carpet and near the major screens.

On the Menu: Today's main course

Today’s and tomorrow’s screenings are actually messy days for me with more than one option playing out at the same time. I’ll be watching the collection of official short films and then I’m hoping to get into the usually packed screening for Persepolis.

Then I’m actually seeing a studio pick in We Own the Night – it’s been seven years since James Gray came out with The Yards. I’m not that surprised to see a popcorn film – I believe the Shrek films were in the main comp years back.   This storyline goes as such: set during New York, 1988: A new breed of narcotics has swept the great city, bringing with it a ferocious crime wave more terrifying than any in recent memory. Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) is caught in the crossfire. Manager of a Russian nightclub in Brighton Beach frequented by gangsters like Vadim Nezhinski (Alex Veadov), Bobby keeps his distance, not wanting to get involved. Despite his hedonistic, amoral lifestyle, he is committed to his girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes) and has ambitions to open his own club and expand out of Brooklyn. Bobby has a secret, however, which he guards closely. His brother is Police Lieutenant Joseph Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg), who has followed in the footsteps of their father, legendary Deputy Chief Burt Grusinsky (Robert Duvall). 

I’ll top the night with Roy Andersson’s You, the Living. He directed the truly bizarre Songs From the Second Floor – the humor is way down my alley and I expect the same with this one.