This year, with Harrison Ford in Town, and Martin Scorsese returning to the main palace nearly a half-century after his 1976 Palme d’Or win for “Taxi Driver,” even the most jaded viewers generated some interest for these titles. And the spectacle of seeing mega-star The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye) on the red carpet was hard … Read more
“The Pot-au-Feu” does not have much plot. Dodin accepts a dinner invitation from a prince and winds up at an eight-hour meal that still leaves him hungry for Eugenie’s cooking. Eugenie’s health begins to fail her, although she tries to hide it from Dodin. But what is sensational—in the most literal sense—about the movie is … Read more
Walking the red carpet for his Cannes premiere on Monday, Kaurismäki, instead of treating the procession like a formal occasion, goofed around with photographers and even poked a little fun at the festival’s head programmer, Thierry Frémaux, at the top of the steps. This is a filmmaker who delights in life. “Club Zero,” directed by … Read more
Unless you count the desert-set “Asteroid City” or “Killers of the Flower Moon” as westerns, the best example of that genre at Cannes this year is “The Settlers,” a debut feature from the Chilean director Felipe Gálvez that was shown in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section. It dramatizes an episode from Chilean history in … Read more
The line that separates life and fictionalization is also the subject of the formidable “Anatomy of a Fall,” directed by Justine Triet (“Sibyl”). The title is clearly a nod to Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder” (1959), perhaps the greatest of all courtroom thrillers, and inside a courtroom is where “Fall” spends much of its … Read more
While “Killers of the Flower Moon” probably rates as one of the director’s talkiest films, it is also one of his most purely gorgeous, with two stunning shots of DiCaprio and windows in particular—one with flames, one with him peering back at Mollie through imperfectly transparent glass—that had me catching my breath. There’s a scene … Read more
Very freely working from Martin Amis’s 2014 novel of the same name, Glazer’s film takes a rigorously withholding and formalized approach to its narrative. “The Zone of Interest” unfolds in shots as austere and hermetic as anything in the films of Roy Andersson. Jews at the death camp are never seen, and while their attempted … Read more
Fortunately, it’s a much sturdier movie than any of those films, a make-’em-like-they-used-to gritty New York picture about the lives and minds of mean-streets paramedics. In this case, the “they” in “make-’em-like-they-used-to” is Martin Scorsese, and the “’em” is his 1999 film “Bringing Out the Dead,” to which “Black Flies” bears many, many similarities, although … Read more
This way of assembling images that disturb in order to provoke examination is also the subject of Wim Wenders’ remarkable new documentary “Anselm,” which screened immediately following McQueen’s film. A sister film of sorts to 2011’s celebrated “Pina,” this latest film provides a fascinating, and at times breathtaking, look at German artist Anselm Kiefer. My … Read more
Although Mr. Hori’s casual lack of concern while meeting with Saori and and the administrators is utterly inexplicable, Kore-eda loops back in time to show events from his point of view, which casts some doubt on who the aggressor is. The director then shows what Minato saw, and focuses on Minato’s relationship with a classmate … Read more