In Contention

Tag: Chongqing Blues

  • CANNES: ‘Chongqing Blues,’ ‘The Strange Case of Angelica,’ ‘Tuesday, After Christmas’

    Regret to inform that my second day at Cannes was not an especially satisfactory one: three films that all fell short in one way or another and my first shutout (owing to my dingy yellow-card status) from a Competition screening – despite queuing 45 minutes in advance. (That’d be Korean genre piece “The Housemaid,” by the way, which doesn’t appear to have set the Croisette alight, to go from colleagues’ reactions.)

    Two upsides exist to this turn of events. First, I’m managing to catch up on plenty of reading while in the screening queue, so can confidently inform you that the latest Kazuo Ishiguro volume is a thorough disappointment, even if I can tell you nothing of “The Housemaid.” Second, it freed up time for a commiserating drinks session with Sasha Stone and Jeffrey Wells, winding up on the beach at an open-air screening of “From Here to Eternity.” At festivals, there’s always a plan B.

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  • CANNES PREVIEW: Sizing up the Competition, part one

    (This is the first of three Cannes preview pieces we’re running before my festival coverage begins on Wednesday. The first two will break down the 18 films in the running for this year’s Palme d’Or; the third will comb through potential highlights that lie outside the Competition, as well as listing my own most anticipated titles of the festival.)

    The groans were almost audible from across the Atlantic as Cannes festival director Thierry Frémaux unveiled this year’s Competition lineup, unusually trim at 16 (eventually 18) titles, and shorter than expected on big-ticket auteurs. Where was Terrence Malick, journos wailed. (Not yet ready, ran the simple answer.) Where were Julian Schnabel, Olivier Assayas, Darren Aronofsky? (Not wanted, not eligible, and not ready, respectively.)

    As they looked down the very global-flavored list — only two English-language films, only one of them American — more than one blogger suggested that Cannes may not be worth the trip this year.

    I say it’s too soon to be disappointed. Frémaux and his team have hardly been obscure in their choices: the list abounds with esteemed critical pets ranging from Mike Leigh to Abbas Kiarostami, Alejandro González Iñárritu to Apichatpong Weereasethakul. It is perhaps a more granola selection than last year’s all-star lineup of Almodóvar, Haneke, Campion, Von Trier, et al, but that one drew just as many accusations (justified, I think) of being too insular and unadventurous — 19 of the 20 directors chosen had been in Competition before. Frémaux, it seems, can’t win.

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  • Cannes finalizes Competition lineup, jury

    Those who were hoping that the promised additions to the Cannes Competition selection announced last week would bring some added name appeal to a lineup shorter than usual on star auteurs — particularly in the English-language realm — will be disappointed by today’s announcement. Cease your prayers for “The Tree of Life” to show up … they haven’t been answered.

    Boosting the number of Competition titles to 18 are “Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project,” from Hungarian director Kornél Mondruczó (who also made the lineup two years ago with “Delta”) and Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Chongqing Blues.”

    The latter has been promoted from its initial placing in the Un Certain Regard lineup — which suggests to me that selectors are running thin on options as certain hoped-for candidates have failed to pan out. As it stands, it’s one of the more sober (not to mention shorter) Competition lists in recent memory.

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