2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 9 Roundup

Claude Debussy Theatre

• Day 9 - Thursday, May 23


Recap of the ninth day of the 66th Cannes Film Festival (Festival de Cannes), which runs until Sunday May 26, 2013.



Screening In Competition today:

• From the USA, Nebraska by Alexander Payne.
  
  His sixth feature film and the second to appear in the main competition.
  
  Official Synopsis:
  

  A poor old man living in Montana escapes repeatedly from his house to go to Nebraska to collect a sweepstakes prize he thinks he has won. Frustrated by his increasing dementia, his family debates putting him into a nursing home -- until one of his two sons finally offers to take his father by car, even as he realizes the futility.

• From France, La Vie D'Adele - Chapitre 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour) by Abdellatif Kechiche.
  
  His Cannes debut. At 2h59m, it is the longest running film in competition.
  
  Official Synopsis:
  

  At 15, Adele doesn't question it: a girl goes out with boys. Her life is turned upside down the night she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself, finds herself...



In the Un Certain Regard section:

• From the Philippines, Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan (Norte, The End of History) by Lav Diaz.
  
  Not only a long title, but with a 4h10m running time, is twice the length of the next longest film in the section.
  
  Official Synopsis:

  A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his country's never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a simple man who finds life in prison more tolerable when something mysterious and strange starts happening to him.

• From Germany, Tore Tanzt (Nothing Bad Can Happen) by Katrin Gebbe.
  
  Competing for the Camera d'Or with her debut feature.
  
  Official Synopsis:
  

  Young Tore belongs to the Jesus Freaks, a Christian punk movement rebelling against established religion whilst at the same time following Jesus' precepts of love.
  One day, in what appears to be a miracle, Tore manages to repair a car which has broken down and gets to know the driver, Benno.
  Before long, Tore moves into a tent in Benno’s garden and gradually becomes part of his family.
  But Benno can’t resist playing a cruel game, designed to test Tore’s faith. As the violence become more and more extreme, Tore’s capacity for love is pushed to its limits.

Competition Film
Nebraska
directed by Alexander Payne
USA

Quotes from the press conference:


"It just seemed like the right thing to do for this film. It's just how I read it and saw it. This modest austere story seemed to lend itself to black and white."Alexander Payne on shooting in black and white.
"I've worked with many geniuses, but the difference between Alexander Payne and all the others. The others all pushed you to the edge and make you make those risky choices. They have a butterfly net to catch you and then throw you back up. This man goes down to where you are, picks you up in his arms, brings you back to the edge and says let's make magic."Bruce Dern on working with Payne
"I never would have thought of him in a million years, but he auditioned well and I just believed him. He communicates a ready sincerity and sweetness and also damage that I thought would be good for the character."Alexander Payne on the unlikely casting of Will Forte.
"(Jack) Nicholson is probably the best partner I ever had in a movie, but Will is right on his shoulder. You know, if I could hook him and Laura up, I'd be perfect in life, because at the end of the movie I felt I had a son."Bruce Dern on working with Will Forte.

Critical response:

"Fits nicely alongside his other low-concept, finely etched studies of flawed characters stuck in life’s well-worn grooves."Scott Foundas (Variety)
"The humour just adds a gloss to its main thrust, which is a tribute to America’s heartland and the generations who came, worked, and ultimately, the film suggests, lost this terrain."Fionnuala Halligan (Screen Daily)
"Payne’s insistence on shooting in black-and-white enriches the film artistically; the story is set in a world that still, both in the cinematic and collective memory, exists in black-and-white."Todd McCarthy (The Hollywood Reporter)
"Follows preplanned route map just too faithfully for us to take it fully to our hearts."Jessica Kiang (The Playlist)
"There’s a sense here of lives largely squandered that feels more genuine than anything in Payne’s last several films; he finally nails that conflicted tone he’s been after, which might be either optimistic defeatism or defeatist optimism."Mike D'Angelo (The AV Club)
"At its best, it shows Payne's capacity for a melancholic humanism that captures a consumate mixture of tragedy and comedy."David Jenkins (Little White Lies)
"This is a resounding return to form for Payne: there are moments that recall his earlier road movies About Schmidt and Sideways, but it has a wistful, shuffling, grizzly-bearish rhythm all of its own."Robbie Collin (The Telegraph)
"How much empathy and affection you detect in "Nebraska"'s gallery of bitter old coots will affect how warmly you respond to it."Guy Lodge (In Contention)


Competition Film
La Vie D'Adèle - Chapitre 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour)
directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
France

Quotes from the press conference:


"What we do in filming is just like a photographer taking a photo. We try to find the best framing. The camera is at quite a distance. I use very long lenses because I don't want the camera to be too close. The close-ups capture subtle expressions that you don't see in life. This is what I love about cinema."Abdellatif Kechiche on the use of close-ups.
"Even in my previous films, I always wonder what my characters have become, what they've done with their lives. I have imagined all sorts of additional chapters in the life of Adele, I don't know if they will some day exist or not, but I very much like the idea of pursuing it."Abdellatif Kechiche on the possibility of a sequel.
"I was very interested in working with Abdelatif. There's a wonderful truth about him and in his films which are so realistic. I always had the feeling that I had great difficulty acting in a natural way, but thanks to Abdel I think I did succeed in forgetting that there was a camera."Léa Seydoux
"Léa has tremendous ability in portraying emotions. She truly vibrates on the set. I think she's in fact very much at ease in front of the camera. She knows how to make the most out of the situation."Abdellatif Kechiche

Critical response:

"What makes it special is Kechiche’s attenuated naturalism, coupled with performances by Léa Seydoux and extraordinary newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulous that capture these two young women in all their muddled complexity. "Mike D'Angelo (The AV Club)
"It's not exactly surprise when things go awry, but by the time the arguments begin, Kechiche has crafted such a believable world that it's hard not to get wrapped up in the stakes at hand."Eric Kohn (Indiewire)
"What you get in these performances is intelligence, emotion and physicality, and when they come together as combustively as they do here, what you get is something extremely rare - a film that catches the messy, hot complexity of life and love."Jonathan Romney (Screen Daily)
"I really can’t remember seeing two characters fall in love with one another as convincingly as Adele and Emma do here."David Cox (Film4)
"It’s a simple, even predictable story, yet textured so exquisitely and acted so forcefully as to feel almost revelatory."Justin Chang (Variety)
"It’s a drama in which the flickering of eyes, a blink, or a twist of the mouth can say more than lines of dialogue."Barbara Scharres (RogerEbert.com)
"A passionate, poignantly handled love story which, despite an unhinged 3-hour running time, is held together by phenomenal turns from Lea Seydoux and newcomer Adele Exarchopoulos, in what is clearly a breakout performance."Jordan Mintzer (The Hollywood Reporter)
LA VIE D'ADELE has ripped my heart out & stomped on it. A masterpiece. Explicit with true purpose, not shock. #cannes2013
— Jordan Hoffman (@JHoffman6) May 22, 2013
19 year old Adèle Exarchopoulos is destined for stardom. Delivers an outstanding performance in Blue is the warmest colour. #cannes2013
— Vegard Larsen (@LarsenVegard) May 22, 2013


Un Certain Regard Film
Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan (Norte, The End of History)
directed by Lav Diaz
Philippines


Critical response:

"Diaz has a reputation as a hard director, but Norte has grace, humanity and narrative verve aplenty, along with intellectual clout"Jonathan Romney (Screen Daily)


Un Certain Regard Film
Tore Tanzt (Nothing Bad Can Happen)
directed by Katrin Gebbe
Kurdistan


Critical response:

"Has the jumpy camerawork, tight domestic focus and self-consciously dark subject matter that often signify a youthful debut."Stephen Dalton (The Hollywood Reporter)
"The sheer nastiness of the film’s descent into the dark side will be difficult for many to take; by comparison, Funny Games looks like a teddy bear’s picnic."Lee Marshall (Screen Daily)

See our other #Cannes2013 coverage:

• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 8 (Only God Forgives, Grigris, The Golden Cage, My Sweet Pepper Land)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 7 (Behind the Candelabra, The Great Beauty, Sarah Prefers to Run, Bastards, Wakolda)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 6 (Shield of Straw, A Castle in Italy, Omar, As I Lay Dying)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 5 (Borgman, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Missing Picture, Death March)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 4 (Jimmy P, Like Father Like Son, Grand Central, Bends)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 3 (The Past, A Touch of Sin, Stranger by the Lake, Miele)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 2 (Young & Beautiful, Heli, The Bling Ring)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Day 1 (The Great Gatsby)
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard Preview
• 2013 Cannes Film Festival - Official Selection Preview