Between political meetings and year-end deliberations at the University, our attendance in Cannes took a hit: only three films between Wednesday and Thursday.
The latest from the Dardenne brothers and two works (those of Cristian Mungiu and Xavier Dolan) confirm that the 2016 edition is focused on the family, which we still don’t know whether to love or, like our friend Gide, to hate!
The Unknown Girl, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium
One evening after her practice has closed, Jenny, a young general practitioner, hears the doorbell but doesn’t open it because it’s late. The next day, a young girl without identity is found dead not far from there.
Around the theme of guilt (also popular at this festival…), the Dardenne brothers once again immerse us in the social despair of Wallonia. This exploration, which has been rebellious and denunciatory since “Rosetta,” is also tinged with fatalism. It seems to them that one should be content to admire the beautiful souls like Jenny (the admirable Adèle Haenel with her stubborn humanism…) who strive to row against the current. Some will say it’s a bit short, yet it’s already not so bad.
Graduation, Cristian Mungiu, Romania
Graduation: Romeo (Adrian Titieni), a doctor in a small Romanian town, has done everything to ensure his daughter Eliza (Maria Drăguș) is accepted into an English university. But an assault destabilizes the high school student and jeopardizes her father’s plan.
Beyond this new father-daughter relationship story (as in “Toni Erdmann”), Mungiu (a winner in 2007) offers a biting portrait of this Romanian society tempted by Europe but plagued by corruption fostered under communism. This on-the-ground corruption makes everyone owe something to someone. Only the last image of the film suggests a less murky future with the youth asserting values that seem close to European standards.
Following this second high-quality Romanian film in the selection after “Sieranevada,” another Palme d’Or, nine years after “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days,” is not impossible. So why not “Romania, twelve points”?
It’s Only the End of the World, Xavier Dolan, Canada
After twelve years of absence, a young gay writer returns to Quebec, to his hometown, to announce his impending death to his family. But amid grudges, flashes of clarity, unrealistic expectations, nothing will go as planned. Yet, amidst the misunderstanding, love lingers.
In recent films, Xavier Dolan has become the specialist in exploring heavy family pathologies. And the one revealed by Louis’s (Gaspard Ulliel) arrival is not a light one. Well-served by French actors in top form (Nathalie Baye is amazing, Marion Cotillard is bearable, Cassel is understated… just kidding!), Dolan freely expresses his familial pessimism, even if it sometimes seems that for him, family is the worst group except for all others!
by Patrick Mottard
