It had material from the 1997 50th anniversary festival when all previous Palme d’Or winners were invited back to the festival. Incongruously, some of the more revealing insights into the chameleon-like star came from interviews he gave to British chat shows with middlebrow hosts like Russell Harty and Mavis Nicholson.įrench director Julie Bertuccelli’s brilliant Jane Campion documentary, The Cinema Woman (which screened in the Cannes Classics section) exposed yet again the male chauvinism within the industry. Bowie’s story was told through his own interviews and ruminations. Again archive-based and including 70 per cent new material, it included eye-popping new footage of its subject in his “Ziggy Stardust” years and in his Berlin period. He’s a drunkard, womaniser and an extreme egotist but, like Elvis, he lives to perform – and, unlike Elvis, he’s still around today.Īccess unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign upĪnother rock doc, Brett Morgen’s David Bowie film Moonage Daydream was also well-liked by critics. The film was very tight (it runs little over an hour) but still did an excellent job of portraying the “Great Balls of Fire” singer in all his contradictions. Coen, working without his brother Joel for a change, didn’t use voice over or new interviews, relying instead on archive material. Brilliantly edited, this told the story of how Lewis, the piano playing maverick, became a huge star but then saw his career falter after he married his 13-year-old cousin. A much leaner music movie screening in Cannes was Ethan Coen’s admirably terse documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind. It gave a sprawling but superficial account of The King’s life that paid almost as much attention to Colonel Parker (Tom Hanks), Presley’s crooked manager, as to Presley himself. It’s not clear whether he is a businessman or a spy.Įlvis fever gripped the crowds late on in the festival with Baz Luhrmann’s new biopic receiving its world premiere out of competition. Joe Alwyn is the mysterious Englishman in a white suit who turns up in her hotel. She’d like to leave but can’t afford or organise a flight out. She’s ostensibly a freelance journalist but her press credentials have been revoked. Qualley plays Trish, an American adrift in mid-1980s Nicaragua, portrayed here as an utterly corrupt police state. Adapted from a Denis Johnson novel, this has a Graham Greene-like plot. Krieps brought humour, defiance and immense pathos to her role.Īnother very striking female performance was that of young American Margaret Qualley in Claire Denis’s competition entry, Stars at Noon. Her Sissi was a very modern figure, a fitness fanatic who loves horse riding and fencing and enjoys a cigarette but who struggles with the etiquette of court. She starred in Emily Atef’s terminal illness drama, More Than Ever, which was respectfully received, but she went on to earn rapturous reviews for her astonishing performance as Empress Elisabeth (“Sissi”) of Austria-Hungary in Marie Kreutzer’s subversive new costume drama, Corsage. She had two films in the festival but neither in the main competition. The brilliant Phantom Thread star Vicky Krieps would surely have been the main contender for the festival’s Best Actress award – if only she had been allowed to compete for it. It was an earnest but moving drama about friendship, family and the lure of the mountains. It boasts awe-inspiring cinematography from Ruben Impens (who also shot last year’s winning film Titane) of both the Italian Alps and the Himalayas (where Pietro briefly ventures). It’s the story of the lifelong friendship between Pietro, who has grown up in the city, and Bruno, who comes from mountain stock and stands for a traditional way of life that is fast fading. This was like a European arthouse version of Brokeback Mountain but minus the gay sex. Cannes Film Festival, born out of war, grapples with Ukraineįar better was the rites of passage/climbing film, Eight Mountains, set in Italy but directed by the two Belgians, Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, who both learned to speak Italian so they could make it.Triangle of Sadness: The Woody Harrelson satire that earned an eight-minute ovation at Cannes.Elvis review: Baz Luhrmann’s sweaty, seductive biopic makes the King cool again.
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