NEGATIVE SPACE

Anaïs Demoustier in "Bird People" © Archipel 35

Entweder waren die Filmkritiker auf Drogen oder aber der diesjährige Cannes-Wettbewerb wirklich reichhaltig an guten bis sehr guten neuen Filmen. Es scheint immer ein qualitativer Vorteil für ein großes Festival zu sein, gezwungenermaßen auf Hollywoodfilme verzichten zu müssen und sich lieber um die weltweite Talentförderung zu kümmern. Es ist eine gute Mischung aus Schwergewichten und Newcomern geworden. Und selbst Runners-Up-Filme wie "Saint Laurent" oder "Foxcatcher" haben so viel Buzz erzeugt, dass ich sie jetzt sofort sehen will.

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Most-Wanted 2014:

01. It Follows - David Robert Mitchell
02. Bird People - Pascale Ferran
03. Wild Tales - Damián Szifron
04. Jauja - Lisandro Alonso
05. Two Days, One Night - Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
06. Leviathan - Andrey Zvyagintsev
07. Winter Sleep - Nuri Bilge Ceylan
08. Force Majeure - Ruben Östlund
09. Amour Fou - Jessica Hausner
10. Adieu au Langage - Jean-Luc Godard

Runners-Up: Timbuktu, Maidan, The Wonders, Welcome to New York, Saint Laurent, Foxcatcher

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★★★★★

"It Follows" (David Robert Mitchell): "A wonderful genre mash-up (Dante, Carpenter, Argento) with heart, soul, and allegories to spare. Pure fun. [B+/A-]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "Brilliant, sui generis art-horror which extends a creepy amount of empathy towards its characters." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "It's a cult favorite in the making." (David Poland, Movie City News) "Wow! IT FOLLOWS might be my favourite Cannes 2014 film so far. The real deal: scary, beautiful, spine-tingling." (Catherine Bray, BBC) "It's a total riot. Teen sex politics take monstrous, humanoid form. Best teen horror in a decade." (Charlie Lyne, Ultra Culture) "A whole horror film based around the shot I find most scary -- something walking straight at the camera. Was cowering." (Alison Willmore, Filmspotting SVU) "I don't wish to overdo the hype today, but IT FOLLOWS is the absolute, spine-tingling business." (Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph) "Superbly creepy premise packs metaphorical punch, isn't executed quite as inventively as I'd hoped. But AIIEEE! [74]" (Mike D'Angelo, The Dissolve) "IT FOLLOWS is the genre hit at Cannes, unusual story, and very scary." (Alan Jones, FrightFest) "The only thing that could hamper it is a couple of full frontals, but otherwise this should be a perfect date movie." (Marc van de Klashorst, ICS)

[Ich habe David Robert Mitchells Film "The Myth of the American Sleepover" (was für ein Titel!) ein bisschen geliebt und mich deshalb wahnsinnig gefreut, dass er in der Critics' Week wieder aufgetaucht ist. Schönes Comeback nach vier Jahren!]

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★★★★½

"Bird People" (Pascale Ferran): "Pretty special. Never knew what was round the next corner. Playful spirit of Renais, but also its own thing." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "Hated the last three minutes (which are crucial); adored everything else. Truly extraordinary. Read nothing. [80]" (Mike D'Angelo, The Dissolve) "First half entirely dismal, then goes from boring to bananas in one, well, swoop. Kissed by magic, but can I forgive the rest?" (Guy Lodge, InContention) "BIRD PEOPLE would have been DESTROYED in competition. Smart move Thierry!" (Cédric Succivalli, ICS) "Possibly the wackiest film yet: Pascale Ferran's BIRD PEOPLE, an ennui feather fantasy with shades of THE WITCHES." (Isabel Stevens, Sight & Sound) "Still a courageous, original number that has something in common with a certain unconventional, magical-realist strand of South-East Asian cinema as practised by Apichatpong Weerasethakul or Pen-Ek Ratanaruang." (Lee Marshall, Screen Daily)

"Wild Tales" (Damián Szifron): "It's the best thing I've seen here so far, and the best Argentinian export since NINE QUEENS. So dark. So funny." (Drew McWeeny, HitFix) "Argentine black comedy anthology WILD TALES was a terrific surprise -- kinetic, darkly funny, much fun." (Alison Willmore, Filmspotting SVU) "Wickedly funny Argentinean social satire breezes through 6 deranged stories like Buñuel on crack." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "Etwas wirklich Vergleichbares zu diesem Film aus Argentinien habe ich in Cannes noch nie im Wettbewerb gesehen." (Michael Sennhauser, SRF) "Such a terrific film." (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian) "Damian Szifron’s WILD TALES is easily the best Cannes film thus far. Angry, Almodovar-esque, black humor, Argentinian class rage, etc." (Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere) "A standout. WILD TALES is loose-limbed, rowdy and exhilarating -- in its vibrant lunacy, and with its cartoonishly brash violence, it's a little bit Almodovar, a little bit Tarantino." (Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice)

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★★★★

"Jauja" (Lisandro Alonso): "JAUJA is very Alonso (existential/symbolic quest arc) but also feels completely new. Seriously racking by brains for a more beautiful movie." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "Alonso's APOCALYPSE NOW, or MAN OF THE WEST, or THE SEARCHERS, or L'AVVENTURA. Still trying to right myself." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "Strangest film here yet: Lisandro Alonso's JAUJA. Lots of walking in the desert (very Alonso). But then... Not your average Viggo vehicle." (Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily) "Lisandro Alonso's stripped-back John Ford western set in Pasolini-like moonscapes in Argentina, is a beautiful conceit." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "Lisandro Alonso's JAUJA is a sublime mind-bender." (Isabel Stevens, Sight & Sound) "Of the Cannes movies I've yet to cover I loved Lisandro Alonso's JAUJA. Stunningly beautiful & tough to categorize." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE)

"Two Days, One Night" (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne): "A remarkable film about pity and heartless people; the best portrait of the financial crisis." (Isabel Stevens, Sight & Sound) "Uber-juicy moral tale abt dignity & work. Their UMBERTO D.? Cotillard small, fab; premise forced." (Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph) "Very moving, suspenseful, insightful, superbly acted tale of threatened job loss." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "That the Dardennes basically made one of the great 1930s Hollywood melodramas in 2014 makes me immensely happy. [A]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "Au hasard Cotillard: These guys may yet sell me on this whole 'humanism' thing. [84]" (Mike D'Angelo, The Dissolve) "The Dardennes' TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT is so very good — Marion Cotillard as a woman coming around to her right to fight for her job." (Alison Willmore, Filmspotting SVU) "Impassioned, exciting, magnificently acted - the Dardenne brothers could actually be on for Palme no.3." (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian) "The Dardennes' TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT - bracing, political, moving as ever, and honed to perfection." (Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily) "Dardennes deserve to do the Palme d'Or hat-trick for TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT. Certainly best in show for me." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "Tender, socially textured, Cotillard/Rongione really click. But not sure I've ever *believed* a Dardennes film less. [B/B-]" (Guy Lodge, InContention)

"Leviathan" (Andrey Zvyagintsev): "Absolutely loved LEVIATHAN, a great fiery blacksmiths of a movie, knocking human beings into twisted shapes. Possible winner?" (Xan Brooks, Guardian) "Easily the heaviest, saddest, most pulverizing & beautifully shot film of the Cannes Film Festival. I don’t see how the jury can deny it." (Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere) "Novelistic-in-best-sense tableau of personal, political corruption. Stony allegory, ribald comedy. Le Palme, s'il vous plait. [A-]" (Guy Lodge, InContention) "Das church, politicians, and police = spiders. Citizens = barrels smashing up against a rocky shore. Thunderous. [B+]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "A new Russian masterpiece." (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian)

"Winter Sleep" (Nuri Bilge Ceylan): "WINTER SLEEP invokes Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare and Voltaire, and it fully belongs in their elite company." (Scott Foundas, Variety) "Ceylan's WINTER SLEEP is a largely a fireside debate film that merged Lear with Chekhov and is frankly hard work to watch. Patchily great." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "Chekhovian seems to be favoured for WINTER SLEEP. I found bits of Middlemarch and Bergman in there, but massively lacks Bergman's energy." (Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph) "Lecture more than drama. Meat puppets more than characters. An old school endurance test. Alas, did very little for me." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "Nuri Bulge Ceylan’s WINTER SLEEP a hugely ambitious Chekhovian intimate epic: astute grasp of human motivation, perversity, need." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Word surgeons operating on a flatlined marriage in an icy purgatory. 'Your altruism brings tears to my eyes.' [A]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slate) "Epic portrait of a prick, shot in an amazing location. Admirable, w/a magnificent lead perf, but sooo grueling. [55]" (Mike D'Angelo, The Dissolve) "NBC goes full Bergman while still managing to make us laugh every now and then and it's an absolute triumph." (Cédric Succivalli, ICS) "Well above rest of competition." (Michel Ciment, Positif) "WINTER SLEEP ist wieder einmal einer jener Filme, deren grausame Schönheit lange genug nachwirkt, um sie zu einem Teil des eigenen Lebens zu machen." (Michael Sennhauser, SRF)

"Force Majeure" (Ruben Östlund): "A sardonic, serious, funny, precision-controlled psycho-comedy-drama inspired by the selfishness of our survival instincts, Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s fourth feature is his best yet." (Lee Marshall, Screen Daily) "FORCE MAJEURE is a taut, acerbic comedy of human behaviour delineated with razor-sharp precision by its top notch cast." (Catherine Bray, BBC) "Visually stunning even in its most banal moments and emotionally perceptive almost to a fault, the film stands to complicate many a romantic arthouse date." (Peter Debruge, Variety) "The gears & mechanisms of marriage/trust are more fragile than a loose snow pact... barely. Formally brilliant. [A-]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant)

"Amour Fou" (Jessica Hausner): "A complex and exquisitely filmed exploration of a man's desire to find a woman willing to die with him." (Boyd van Hoeij, THR) "Elegantly executed in a manner reminiscent of Eric Rohmer." (Allan Hunter, Screen Daily) "Jessica Hausner upped the ante in the Un Certain Regard section with a film that should be regarded as the festival's first true masterpiece." (Marc van de Klashorst, ICS) "Among its many virtues, Jessica Hausner's droll, designtastic period suicide romcom AMOUR FOU boasts a surefire contender for the Palme Dog." (Guy Lodge, InContention) "A delightfully eccentric period drama from Jessica Hausner which looks like a moving Vermeer painting." (Isabel Stevens, Sight & Sound)

"Adieu au langage" (Jean-Luc Godard): "ADIEU AU LANGAGE is my favorite Godard (and I've seen ALL of them) in 25 years (namely since Nouvelle Vague in 1990)." (Cédric Succivalli, ICS) "GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE will probably resist almost everything that can be said on twitter, except maybe that it is funny." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "Breathtaking audio-visual alchemy comin' atcha in glorious "3D". Plus dog lols." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "Eye-searing, defeaning, fragmented, discordant reminder that JLG is the John Zorn of cinema." (Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily) "Roxy the dog is all things big and small. Neon splinters, playful superimpositions, shit jokes. Amazing." (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "Eigensinnig, enigmatisch, genial." (Rüdiger Suchsland, Negativ Film)

"Timbuktu" (Abderrahmane Sissako): "Jihad is about as effective as cutting the grass with a machine gun. Brutal, uncompromising, funny, & damning. [B+/A-]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "Does a good job for a long while of hiding its essential nature—social-justice tract—behind loose-limbed funkiness. [59]" (Mike D'Angelo, The Dissolve) "TIMBUKTU is downbeat but also quite funny; unlike other movies about jihadists, situates tragedy in richly developed community." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "Competition off to a fine start with Sissako's TIMBUKTU." (Justin Chang, Variety) "I've never seen a film that combines, quiet fury, humour, and tragic symbolism so compellingly as TIMBUKTU. Great start to comp." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "Cannes kicks off very well with Abderrahmane Sissako’s TIMBUKTU: very moving, nicely measured account of jihadist persecution in Mali." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "It's a masterful work of humanism." (Jay Weissberg, Variety) "Sad, sensual TIMBUKTU responds to repression with wit and fury." (Guy Lodge, InContention) "It's a brilliant portrait of a place ruled by religion and a people traumatised by division." (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian) "Each cut in the film feels like a small reveal, moving with a motivation for revelation. And what better way to start a festival than that?" (Daniel Kasman, Mubi.com) "TIMBUKTU keeps growing on me since noon. 4 stars for the Ioncinema panel." (Cédric Succivalli, ICS)

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★★★

"Maidan" (Sergei Loznitsa): "Ukrainian revolution doc MAIDAN is astounding, terrifying and beautiful by turns. One of the best films here." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "MAIDAN is a staggering, you-are-there immersion into the epicenter of the Ukrainian Revolution. One of the best of Cannes." (Scott Foundas, Variety) "I think this was my favourite film in the festival so far." (Leslie Felperin, THR)

"The Wonders" (Alice Rohrwacher): "Manchmal aber passiert es, dass ein Film etwas tief in einem anrührt, dass etwas zu schwingen anfängt und eine Wärme und Gelassenheit ausstrahlt, die die Welt für Augenblicke geradezu aufhebt." (Josef Lederle, Filmdienst) "A personal, intimate riffing on Rohrwacher's own childhood, celebrating the wonderful strangeness of families – equally capable of love and destructiveness, happiness and despair, often all at the same time." (Dave Calhoun, TimeOut) "Alice Rohrwacher’s honey gatherer family drama THE WONDERS is full of nice touches and ideas, though not all of them come off." (Nick James, Sight & Sound) "The film is a really touching mixture of fairy tale, coming-of-age story, and socio-economical commentary, and ultimately a sad lament for a way of living that is on a rapid decline in Europe." (Marc van de Klashorst, ICS) "A rich, strange mix of coming-of-age film and troubled modern pastoral." (Lee Marshall, Screen Daily)

"Welcome to New York" (Abel Ferrara): "Abel Ferrara plays the DSK scandal as jolting, trashy panto. Depardieu electrifying." (Xan Brooks, Guardian) "Abel Ferrara's WELCOME TO NEW YORK is every bit as troubling as BAD LIEUTENANT. But also extraordinary, and Depardieu's LAST TANGO IN PARIS." (Jamie Graham, Total Film) "Depardieu wins the Palme D'Orgasm for one of many ridiculous scenes in WELCOME TO NEW YORK." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "Savagery gets what it wants, when it wants. If that doesn't work, fuck it. There's always tomorrow. [B+/A-]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant)

"Saint Laurent" (Bertrand Bonello): "The elegant fit and woozy feel of a life worn down by ambition, ego, and pills. There will be Frenchies. [B/B+]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slate) "Bonellos SAINT LAURENT ist ein faszinierendes zeitbild über die kommodifizierung der mode mit helmut berger als spätem ysl." (Dominik Kamalzadeh, Standard) "Bonello's SAINT LAURENT is a ravishing object, esp. in its Proustian final third. Helmut Berger sublime as the old SL." (Scott Foundas, Variety) "Found SAINT LAURENT half brilliant and half intolerable. Luxe, indulgent, beautiful, very long. Time-jumping final part is splendid." (Alison Willmore, Filmspotting SVU) "A diffuse and uneven look at the life of one of France's greatest designers." (Boyd van Hoeij, THR) "Bertrand Bonello’s SAINT LAURENT an impressionistic, even arty narrative says little about designer, less about others. Long too." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Subject unworthy of director (his snakes and his collection of cool '45s), but loved opaqueness of context. Decent." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies)

"Mr. Turner" (Mike Leigh): "A masterpiece of subtlety." (Sasha Stone, AwardsDaily) "Mike Leigh's MR TURNER is the quirkiest biopic ever! Looking stunning, Tim Spall, Dorothy Atkinson & Marion Bailey are perfection." (Alan Jones, FrightFest) "Wow. MR. TURNER might be the best thing Mike Leigh's ever done." (Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph) "Grating, grunt-riddled epic rife with social/class interests but weighed down by plodding, meandering pace. [C+]" (Glenn Heath Jr., Slant) "Big, big fan. Salty, sad movie about death's bleak influence on art, life and love. Maybe Iron Mike's best." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "Much more a conventional biopic than TOPSY-TURVY, but featuring the same delectable wealth of period detail. [68]" (Mike D'Angelo, The Dissolve) "Audaciously plot-lite, terrific score & a tough, touching Tim Spall." (Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound) "Loved MR TURNER. A film in love with Victorian language, marine painting, art as hard work and the bad back consequences." (Nick James, Sight & Sound)

[Die nachgestellten Bilder sehen atemberaubend aus, die überwiegend britischen Kritiker sind bei ihrem Heimat-Auteur total aus dem Häuschen, aber mich sprechen weder die Persönlichkeit des Biopic noch Mike Leighs Gesamtwerk sonderlich an.]