Coen brothers comedy leads Cannes pack
Source: AFP |
May 22, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A Coen brothers comedy, a daring Chinese expose of exploitation and moral rot, and a divorce drama by an Iranian Oscar winner emerged as the breakout favorites at the Cannes Film Festival.
Although incessant rain and chilly winds put a damper on the champagne-fuelled soirees in the French Riviera town, audiences have responded warmly to much of the selection so far.
In the dead heat for the Palme d'Or top prize to be awarded on Sunday by jury president Steven Spielberg, critics singled out international risk-takers and solid Hollywood craftsmanship.
Reviewer polls by British trade magazine Screen and Paris-based Film Francais showed Joel and Ethan Coen's latest picture "Inside Llewyn Davis" as a clear front-runner.
The Coens, back in competition for the first time since their chilling 2007 drama "No Country for Old Men," struck a lighter note with their portrait of a struggling 1960s folk singer.
Deemed a "minor" work from the prolific siblings, the crowd-pleaser was nevertheless embraced by critics for delivering laughs while carrying a formidable emotional undertow.
The New York Times deemed the picture "wonderful" while industry bible Variety called it "an original, highly emotional journey through Greenwich Village nightclubs, a bleak New York winter, and one man's fraught efforts to reconcile his life and his art."
Just behind it in the rankings was China's "A Touch of Sin" by Jia Zhangke.
Jia boldly tests the Chinese censors with an ultraviolent tableau of four protagonists crushed by sleazy bureaucrats, petty humiliations and economic obstacles until they finally lash out.
London's Guardian compared Jia to masters of cinematic violence and vengeance such as Quentin Tarantino and Sergio Leone and said the film was "a stunning slap in the face from a previously-sedate director."
Audiences also cheered an intricate patchwork family tale "The Past" set in the Paris suburbs by Iranian Academy Award winner Asghar Farhadi.
Picking up themes from his last film "A Separation," a global arthouse hit, Farhadi tells the story of an estranged Iranian-French couple who has a hard time letting go.
"Those who admired Farhadi's intense Tehran domestic drama 'A Separation' - one of the key movies of this decade so far - will find the same intimate sensibility and the same finely-wrought shifts in perspective at work in 'The Past'," Salon reviewer Andrew O'Hehir said.
The 12-day festival got off to a rocky start last Wednesday with a European premiere of "The Great Gatsby" that saw stars Leonard DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan lashed by torrential rain and fussy critics.
A real-life theft of jewelery worth US$1.4 million from the Swiss supplier of many of the baubles worn by stars on the red carpet, and an attack by a deranged man on a beachside television studio added to the off-screen drama.
Although incessant rain and chilly winds put a damper on the champagne-fuelled soirees in the French Riviera town, audiences have responded warmly to much of the selection so far.
In the dead heat for the Palme d'Or top prize to be awarded on Sunday by jury president Steven Spielberg, critics singled out international risk-takers and solid Hollywood craftsmanship.
Reviewer polls by British trade magazine Screen and Paris-based Film Francais showed Joel and Ethan Coen's latest picture "Inside Llewyn Davis" as a clear front-runner.
The Coens, back in competition for the first time since their chilling 2007 drama "No Country for Old Men," struck a lighter note with their portrait of a struggling 1960s folk singer.
Deemed a "minor" work from the prolific siblings, the crowd-pleaser was nevertheless embraced by critics for delivering laughs while carrying a formidable emotional undertow.
The New York Times deemed the picture "wonderful" while industry bible Variety called it "an original, highly emotional journey through Greenwich Village nightclubs, a bleak New York winter, and one man's fraught efforts to reconcile his life and his art."
Just behind it in the rankings was China's "A Touch of Sin" by Jia Zhangke.
Jia boldly tests the Chinese censors with an ultraviolent tableau of four protagonists crushed by sleazy bureaucrats, petty humiliations and economic obstacles until they finally lash out.
London's Guardian compared Jia to masters of cinematic violence and vengeance such as Quentin Tarantino and Sergio Leone and said the film was "a stunning slap in the face from a previously-sedate director."
Audiences also cheered an intricate patchwork family tale "The Past" set in the Paris suburbs by Iranian Academy Award winner Asghar Farhadi.
Picking up themes from his last film "A Separation," a global arthouse hit, Farhadi tells the story of an estranged Iranian-French couple who has a hard time letting go.
"Those who admired Farhadi's intense Tehran domestic drama 'A Separation' - one of the key movies of this decade so far - will find the same intimate sensibility and the same finely-wrought shifts in perspective at work in 'The Past'," Salon reviewer Andrew O'Hehir said.
The 12-day festival got off to a rocky start last Wednesday with a European premiere of "The Great Gatsby" that saw stars Leonard DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan lashed by torrential rain and fussy critics.
A real-life theft of jewelery worth US$1.4 million from the Swiss supplier of many of the baubles worn by stars on the red carpet, and an attack by a deranged man on a beachside television studio added to the off-screen drama.
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