Cannes do

It’s been a while since I did any film posts. I did originally intend this blog to be as much about film as music, but that’s kinda fallen by the wayside as it’s become primarily an mp3 blog. Oh well.

Because of my lack on film activity, you’ve missed (or been spared from?) reviews of three excellent French language films I’ve seen lately. These were the Dardennes Brothers' bleak but brilliant L'Enfant, Dominik Moll’s odd thriller Lemming, and Danis Tanovic’s Kieslowski-scripted L’Enfer (Hell). All of which are highly recommended. In the case of the last, I could have waxed lyrical about a well played, substantial and thought-provoking drama, but it wouldn’t have mattered. You might even have wanted to see it, but you probably wouldn’t have been able to. It only came out in about three cinemas in London (so who knows what chance the rest of the country would have?) and only lasted about a week. What a shame. Seems like the Guardian was right, in this article, that good or bad reviews really make the difference for foreign or art-house movies. L’Enfer got lukewarm to poor reviews, with only the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw being willing to give it a firm thumbs up. Hooray for Pete. Boo to the rest. And I recommend catching it on DVD.

Anyway, away from short-run foreign and art-house movies to the opposite end of the spectrum. The Cannes Film Festival starts tomorrow. There may be obscure films at Cannes, but there’s also a helluva lot of glitz and glamour. This year, as you may know, (Daily Growl favourite) Wong Kar-Wai is heading up the jury for the main feature film prize, the Palme D’Or. Joining him are Monica Bellucci, Helena Bonham Carter, Lucrecia Martel (director of last year’s fine La Nina Santa), Zhang Ziyi, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrice Leconte (French director – L’Homme du Train etc), Tim Roth, and Elia Suleiman (Palestinian director).

As always, I’m looking forward to it. With WKW in charge, it’s bound to be interesting. There’s a load of films I’m really looking forward to hearing more about, and seeing soon (although sometimes they can take ages to get to the UK) – particularly the new Ken Loach film The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Cillian Murphy as a young IRA soldier in the Irish uprising), the new Almodovar, Volver (he’s always worth a watch), and Nani Moretti’s new Il Caimano, which has a go at Berlusconi just a little too late, I suppose.

Keep up to date on a whole host of film sites, though I’m probably going to go with the Guardian’s one, unless someone can recommend another high quality site or blog…