#10. Of Gods and Men - Xavier Beauvois (February 25th)
Select sequences are almost worthy of comparison to Bresson, including head monk Lambert Wilson's conflicted hike into nature, or the monks' final, close-up filled suppertime farewell. The film needed a more ruthless editor, however -- many scenes come across as mundane and unnecessary. Could easily be an hour shorter, and better for it.
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly IONCINEPHILE profile (June 2011), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of all-time favorite films. This month we asked Anthony Burns, the filmmaker behind the Sundance selected Skateland to share his list with us. Enjoy!
A handful of 80's pictures including Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and American Graffiti were used for reference but the overall
'look' and 'feel' is very contemporary. Our story is universal in time and place and the aesthetics of the film do dilute that.
The U.K team only have one film in the Cannes competition in Takashi's Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, but its the more than one item in Hanway Films upcoming slate that has me salivating. They've got Steve McQueen's Shame, Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights and David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method all in the oven. If there is a break-in at the Hanway offices this week, I don't want anyone thinking it was me.
Cannes is going to have a stellar Main Comp (Pedro, Ramsey, Lars, Dardenne Bros., Kaurismaki) but there are still plenty of unexpected no-shows this year. Making Venice extremely happy we don't find: Giorgos Lanthimos, Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud, Aleksandr Sokurov, Christophe Honoré, Lou Ye, Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Brillante Mendoza.