NEGATIVE SPACE

Nach absteigender persönlicher Wichtigkeit und dem Sternesystem geordnet: von ★★★★★ (Must-See) bis ★ (zur Kenntnis genommen, mein Interesse könnte aber nicht geringer sein). Und mit Blick auch über den Wettbewerb hinaus in die Nebensektionen und den Marché du Film, wenn es denn Entdeckungen gibt:


"I found that Berlin 2012, which had Tabu and Barbara, was a stronger festival than Cannes 2013 and that’s never something I thought I would say, because Cannes generally is seen as being so far above other festivals."

(Alexander Horwath, Film Comment)


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Most-Wanted 2013:

01. Blue Is the Warmest Colour - Abdellatif Kechiche
02. Jeune et jolie - Francois Ozon
03. Stranger by the Lake - Alain Guiraudie
04. The Last of the Unjust - Claude Lanzmann
05. Borgman - Alex van Warmerdam
06. Bastards - Claire Denis
07. Tore tanzt - Katrin Gebbe
08. Blind Detective - Johnnie To
09. Inside Llewyn Davis - Joel & Ethan Coen
10. Nebraska - Alexander Payne

Kommentar: Fünf Franzosen unter den ersten sechs Most-Wanted-Kandidaten. Frankophil for life. Nuff said. Ansonsten war Cannes wieder mal eine ganz große Vorfreude-Vernichtungsmaschine.
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★★★★½

"Blue Is the Warmest Colour": "Meanwhile, queue for BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR is a total clusterfuck. Guess word got round about the 20-minute lesbian oral sex scene." (Guy Lodge, InContention) "I did not know there was a three hour erotic film playing in Cannes. I thought it was about a 16th century guy who is broken on the wheel." (Sasha Stone, AwardsDaily) "Kechiche's LA VIE D'ADELE a beautifully acted, very well observed account of a young woman's first lesbian relationship. Prizes?" (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Terrific performances, astonishing intensity, one of the few authentic emotional experiences in competition." (Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound) "A masterpiece of first love, sexual awakening, family, food, art...in a word, life." (Scott Foundas, Variety) "God, did I love BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR. Still need to absorb it, but it may be my favorite film at the festival." (Tim Grierson, Screen Daily) "Brilliantly acted, beautifully scripted, sexually frank coming of age epic is definite Palme contender." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "Best explicit French teen lesbian coming of age drama. Ever." (Jason Solomons, Guardian) " (A-) Acutely aware of lies we tell inadvertently out of fear. Epic themes, tenderly focused in scope." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR is the best of the competish films I've seen and certainly Kechiche's best." (Boyd van Hoeij, THR) "The second hour of Blue is the Warmest Color is so, so good. As for the rest of it..." (Karina Longworth, Free Agent)

★★★★

"Jeune et jolie": "Splendid Ozon with a riveting performance by Marine Vacth. The competition couldn't have started better." (Cedric Succivalli, ICS) "Vivre Sa Vie version 2013. Sleek, involving but Ozon at his most clinical." (Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound) "Francois Ozon's JEUNE ET JOLIE well acted but slight tale of a teen taking to prostitution. Lacks depth and ends implausibly." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Ozon, in quieter mode, with alternately sweet & naughty YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL. Slight but anchored by strong lead performance." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "66. Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon." (Mike D'Angelo, The A.V. Club) "EMMANUELLE played as a socially concious teen angst drama. And every bit as dull as that sounds." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London) "Marine Vacth offers more than frank sex scenes. There's a steeliness in her eyes, tempered by vulnerability, that's deeply saddening. She's hard and experienced beyond her years; but she's also lost and deeply unhappy." (Dave Calhoun, TimeOut London) "Youthful uncertainty seamlessly transforms into power by way of risky experimentation, Stunning lead perf." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "In JEUNE ET JOLIE bewegt sich eine 17-Jährige auf Abwegen. Doch bei Ozon ist sogar das Ekelhafte ein wenig schick." (Dominik Kamalzadeh, Standard) "A fascinating contemplation of adolescent sexuality that will be a starmaking platform for its young lead Marine Vacth." (David Rooney, THR) "The young, beautiful Marine Vacth, one of those gazelles who routinely drift into French films with vacant expressions and bared breasts, plays the title character." (Manohla Dargis, N.Y. Times)

★★★½

"Stranger by the Lake": "It's strangely reminiscent of William Friedkin’s Cruising—another movie about gay decadence and serial killers, albeit one with a different agenda." (Jordan Mintzer, THR) "Bucolic Hitchcockian gay cruising comedy murder mystery neo-noir romance. Delightful." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London) "Really enjoyed Stranger By The Lake; dark XXX-rated gay infatuation story, leavened with dry humour." (Damon Wise, Empire) "lain Guiraudie's STRANGER AT THE LAKE among best films í've seen so far. Odd mix of suspense, gay sex, comedy and poetic fable." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Though it contains explicit scenes of gay sex, this is essentially an absorbing and intelligent exploration of queer desire spiced up with thriller elements." (Boyd van Hoeij, Variety)

"The Last of the Unjust": "Claude Lanzmanns Film 'Le dernier des injustes' ist ein Meilenstein." (Cristina Nord, taz) "Mit 87 hat Claude Lanzmann offensichtlich nichts von seinem Furor eingebüsst. Und nur wenig von seiner zuweilen egozentrischen Energie." (Michael Sennhauser, SRF) "Ein einzigartiges Dokument." (Jan Schulz-Ojala, Tagesspiegel) "Vor 'Le Dernier des Injustes' verblasst das meiste aus dem Cannes-Normalprogramm [...] wie hätte die Jury den Hauptpreis nicht an Lanzmann geben können, wenn er Fremaux nicht gebeten hätte, außer Konkurrenz zu laufen." (Hanns-Georg Rodek, Welt) "The Last of the Unjust is dense with revelations." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "A powerful reflection on the beginning of Hitler’s Final Solution is seen through the intelligent, sardonic eyes of an aged eyewitness." (Deborah Young, THR)

"Borgman": "Basic anti-bourgeois surrealism, with little real-world resonance that I can detect. Forgettably intriguing." (Mike D'Angelo, The A.V. Club) "BORGMAN is a sharp and devious home invasion satire that only loses momentum towards the end." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "oldly sinister-droll punishment-of-luxury zwart-comedie is a #Cannes2013 Comp wildcard delight." (Neil Young, THR) "Just got BORGMANed and it was a devil of a fun time. Director Alex van Warmerdam has wit in spades. Jan Bijvoet quite sympathetic." (Ryland Aldrich, Twitch Film) "Dutch comp movie Borgman played like a comedic Funny Games. Absurd, surreal and - extended run time aside - delicious." (James Graham, Total Film) "Alex van Warmerdam's BORGMAN an intriguing but slightly frustrating Dutch, darkly comic variation on THEOREM. Elegantly crafted." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "First competition UFO today: BORGMAN. Lovely poker-faced black comedy." (Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound) "Insidious, nastily funny Dutch thriller BORGMAN is one of my favourite films at Cannes so far." (Guy Lodge, InContention) "Was der Holländer Alex van Warmerdam mit Borgman hier in Cannes auftischt, ist frischer und böser als alles andere, was bisher im Wettbewerb lief." (Michael Sennhauser, SRF)

★★★

"Bastards": "Thought Bastards was one of best films I'd seen in Cannes & Behind the Candelabra one of the worst;According to Twitter I have it backwards." (Karina Longworth, Free Agent) "Narcotic noir deconstruction is one of the best at Cannes 2013." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London) "In BASTARDS every shot and cut was that of a real artist, even if something intangible is missing from the revenge storyline." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "(B+) Ingenious concealment of double-track narrative arrests more than narrative itself? Erotica for Denis-Godard-Staples faithful. 'Intruder'-level, really, with whatever thrills and limitations that might imply for you. An insult that it's not in Comp." (Guy Lodge, InContention) "Ein verschachtelter, fragmentarischer, seltsam zerrissen wirkender Film um Familienabgründe." (Dominik Kamalzadeh, Standard)

"Tore tanzt": "Tore Tanzt is intense and gripping, with solid indie credentials. A U.S. distribution deal with Drafthouse was finalized in Cannes on screening day." (Stephen Dalton, THR) "By comparison, FUNNY GAMES looks like a teddy bear’s picnic." (Lee Marshall, Screen Daily)

"Blind Detective": "There were moments here where I seriously thought, 'could it get any better than this?'. The man is a genius." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London) "A serial-killer thriller wrapped in an unruly slapstick comedy with generous servings of food porn, Blind Detective is a deranged and delirious smorgasbord of a movie." (Justin Chang, Variety) "(B+): High octane comedy/romance within a loony & surreal procedural. Nuttiest, messiest love story in years." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slate) "Manic Johnnie To crime comedy is a total flop, in which nothing seems to work." (Derek Elley, Film Business Asia)

"Inside Llewyn Davis": "Ein unglaublich schöner Film." (Dominik Kamalzadeh, Standard) "(A-) Comedic & meandering melancholy of missing out on opportunity, passion, love, & history. Wonderful." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slate) "The best of the fest so far sees the Coen brothers meditate on mediocrity and modernity in the 1960s New York folk scene." (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian) "(7/10) Comic/oneiric character-study ever-anchored by Oscar Isaac's star-making performance." (Neil Young, THR) "The most (1st?) truly warm-hearted Coen brothers film; a tender, unsentimental salute to the unsung singer." (Xan Brooks, Guardian) "The Coens give the pomposity of folk music a real pounding. Strange, gloomy and delightful." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) " It's as perfectly & completely realized a Coen Brothers film as I’ve ever seen, but it’s about less being a lot more." (Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere)

"Nebraska": Payne muss man für sich selbst entdecken. In Cannes offenbar nur Stümper, die es verstehen, den Appetit zu verderben. Vielleicht haben sie aber auch alle Recht und Payne macht genau da weiter, wo er bei "The Descendants" aufgehört hat.

"The Dance of Reality": "This year's Paperboy award for urinating-on-the-hero goes to Jodorowsky's Le Danza de le Realidad. Just one of its many treasures." (Xan Brooks, Guardian) "Madballs. Like 1900 on bluies. Rough around the edges & naff CG, but a brassy romp." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London)

★★½

"The Immigrant": "(B+/A-) Fifty shades of Gray. Silent romance with words, not that the leads need them. Nykvistian imagery. Floored by finale." (Guy Lodge, InContention) "Possibly a masterpiece--think Kazan, Coppola, Davies." (Robert Koehler, Variety) "A dull, listless, soft-pedalled look at immigant experience in 20s New York. Joaquin Phoenix not good." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Scratch the good-looking, emotionally charged surface of James Gray’s period take on the love triangle theme he has already explored in Two Lovers and you find a rather stagey melodrama with religious overtones." (Lee Marshall, Screen Daily)

"La jaula de oro": "It's tough, suspenseful, compassionate - surely in line for a UCR prize." (Peter Bradshaw) "Very impressed by Mexican UCR entry LA JAULA DE ORO, which I went into totally blind. A rare shot of crisp traditional storytelling at Cannes." (Guy Lodge, InContention)

"Tip Top": "A work of mad-eyed genius. A lopsided policier like you've never seen. Huppert & Kibberlain are off the chart." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London) "Facetious, arch French meta-thriller, with Huppert overdoing it wildly. Yes, she can do that too. A resounding 'Bof'." (Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound) "(B+/A-): Utterly batshit. Most anti-procedural you could imagine, strangely political in themes of outrage repressed." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "Huppert als Polizistin, der das eigene Blut schmeckt." (Dominik Kamalzadeh, Standard)

"Salvo": "SALVO rocks. First good film in Cannes." (Robert Koehler, Variety) "SALVO is an enjoyable italian minimialist B-movie thriller about an assassin and a blind girl with nice touches in Critics Week." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "A moody and extremely sensorial debut." (Boyd van Hoeij, Variety) "Salvo manages to distill an authentically unsettling atmosphere that speaks volumes about the state of modern-day Sicily." (Jordan Mintzer, THR) "Done with a passion and intensity which, however, would be more effective if the characters had more depth and the whole thing didn’t feel so stretched." (Lee Marshall, Screen Daily)

★★

"A Touch of Sin": "The most involving of his films (for me)... 4 tales of money, violence and exploitation in the new China." (Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound) "Jia Zhangke's A TOUCH OF SIN a powerful quartet of loosely linked tales of power, money and violence in today's China. Very fine." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Hmm, well that was... different. 4 chapter shaggy dog death saga. Superficially mainstream, still very oblique." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London) "59. Big chance of pace, 4-parter w/loads of explicit violence. Individual stories compel; juxtaposition a bit tract-y." (Mike D'Angelo, The A.V. Club) "(A-) Four wandering souls weathered by contradiction, broken by corruption, & possessed by weaponry. Beguiling." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "A Touch of Sin never ceases to impress. Jia's postcards depict a country in the grip of corruption, social and economical violence." (Cedric Succivalli, ICS) "Zu den wichtigsten Regisseuren der Gegenwart hat sich der Chinese hochgearbeitet, weil er etwas erzählen kann, was schwer zu fassen ist: Wandel." (Christoph Huber, Die Presse)

Only Lovers Left Alive
Klingt ordentlich: "Achingly sad and ravishingly beautiful, Only Lovers Left Alive is a rare gift from our most youthful sixty-year-old filmmaker: an autumnal work that is also a rejuvenating one." (Dennis Lim, Artforum)

"The Past": "(B+) Not a melodrama so much as an anatomy of one. Exacting, beautifully acted. Woolly last act: fairness almost a dramatic debit? (Guy Lodge, InContention) "I’ve rarely felt as riveted & absorbed by the complexities & recriminations of a family’s domestic history as I was by The Past. Socko." (Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere) "Enveloping drama gets better & better as builds to tiny stunning moment in final scene. Wow." (Eugene Hernandez, indieWIRE) "Farhadi's The Past will be tough to beat for the Palme. Exceptional." (Sasha Stone, AwardsDaily) "Asghar Farhadi's THE PAST an overlong domestic drama: too many revelations and red herrings despite keen attention to detail." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Emotionally shattered after Asghar Farhadi's brilliant The Past. Bejo, Rahim, and Mosaffa superb." (Kate Muir, The Times) "It's a huge disappointment: meandering, melodramatic and heavy-handed." (Dave Calhoun, TimeOut London) "The Past was pretty great: authentic and assured family drama." (Damon Wise, Empire) "It has many of A Separation’s strengths — the acute observation of complex characters in a story that keeps unpacking surprises — but they have become familiar. They lack the revelatory wallop of the first film." (Richard Corliss, Time Magazine) "Ein erstes Meisterwerk [...] und ein echtes Ereignis." (Thomas Schultze, Blickpunkt:Film)

★

"Norte, the End of History": "If you're in Cannes and just saw North, the End of History, you're free to pack up and go home because it won't get much better than that." (Wesley Morris, Boston Globe) [Für die cinephilen Hardbodies, die auf Vierstündiges von den Philippinen stehen]

"The Selfish Giant": "Though it's early days, so far THE SELFISH GIANT is the best film here." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "It's a brilliant and soul-scouring fable about scrap men and scrap children; two outcast generations doomed to forever sift through life’s rubbish dump." (Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph) "It's a powerful and moving contemporary fable about friendship, greed and exploitation and likely to be compared with the compassionate drama of Ken Loach at his very best." (Mark Adams, Screen Daily) "If I'd seen THE SELFISH GIANT this morning and not several weeks ago, it'd be my film of the fest so far. Go check it out, Croisette Set." (Guy Lodge, InContention) "If the Ozon was French Film, this is British Film. And not in a particularly good way. Boilerplate social realism." (David Jenkins, TimeOut London) "Less original than the Arbor (if you've seen Loach, Dardennes, Arnold etc) but bracing, tender." (Dave Calhoun, TimeOut London)

"The Bling Ring": "Sorry haters Bling Ring is great." (Sasha Stone, AwardsDaily) "TeamBlingRing." (Karina Longworth, Free Agent) "The Bling Ring just doesn't sing." (Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice)

"Only God Forgives": "ONLY GOD FORGIVES. And even that's being generous, really. Worthless." (Justin Chang, Variety)

Kechiche wäre dann also der im Vorfeld gesuchte Cannes-Darling und nun sogar Palmen-Gewinner, der auch von mir nun heißer erwartet wird als zunächst auf dem Papier angenommen. Habe seinerzeit im Kino seinen hierzulande eher blöd als COUSCOUS MIT FISCH betitelten vorletzten Film sehr genossen, allein wegen der großartig agilen Kamera, die sich mit bemerkenswerter Unmittelbarkeit ins Geschehen wirft - und Hafsia Herzi auf eine Weise filmte bzw. geradezu vergötterte, die sehr neugierig macht auf die heiß diskutierten Sexszenen im neuen Film. Kechiches andere Filme leider bis heute nicht gesehen. Ansonsten sehe ich mich in der Vorfreude auf die Asiaten durchaus bestätigt, während die Reaktionen auf Ozon, die Coens, Coppola oder Payne nicht unbedingt dazu führten, die von deren letzten Filmen herrührende Lustlosigkeit umzukehren. Deutlich interessanter fand ich da schon den Hass auf ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Nachdem ich seine drei letzten Filme allesamt nicht sonderlich mochte, könnte ich mich natürlich nach dem Motto "hab's ja schon lange gewusst" schlaumeiernd zurücklehnen, aber die Gründe und die Vehemenz, mit der die DRIVE-Crowd ihren Liebling zumindest zu größeren Teilen zurück gestoßen hat, macht mich da im Gegenteil jetzt plötzlich doch sehr neugierig. Klingt doch alles ziemlich faszinierend und auf eine eher unerwartete Weise radikal. Skandal und Hass in Cannes, das sprach ja in der Vergangenheit nicht selten für besonders interessante Filme.

Meine spontane Most-Wanted-Liste, die man auch als Filmfest-München-Wunschzettel bezeichnen könnte:

1. BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Abdellatif Kechiche)
2. BLIND DETECTIVE (Johnnie To)
3. NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (Lav Diaz)
4. THE THREE DISASTERS (Jean-Luc Godard)
5. STRANGER BY THE LAKE (Alain Guiraudie)
6. BASTARDS (Claire Denis)
7. A TOUCH OF SIN (Jia Zhang-Ke)
8. ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Nicolas Winding Refn)
9. THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Claude Lanzmann)
10. THE IMMIGRANT (James Gray)

Auch gern:
THE DANCE OF REALITY (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
YOU AND THE NIGHT (Yann Gonzalez)
TORE TANZT (Katrin Gebbe)
SHIELD OF STRAW (Takashi Miike)
THE MISSING PICTURE (Rithy Panh)