Cannes: The Best of the Fest

For fans of world cinema, the Cannes Film Festival is something akin to a ten day long Super Bowl. I suppose one could argue that the Oscars would be more of an accurate equivalent to that deified sporting event, but the sentimental, mainstream tastes of the Academy are simply not in accordance with these world cinema fans. Cannes is an extravagant and garish whirlwind of spectacle, stars and fashion, yet the films that are in competition are frequently anything but. These films are typically subtle, sobering, humanist dramas delivered by some of the world’s most renowned filmmakers. Pedro Almodovar and Mike Leigh, highly regarded by cinephiles and the film press alike, show nearly all of their films in completion at the festival. Many of the films screened at Cannes go on to be released in America and often generate some degree of success in the art house theater circuit. Many of them top the critics’ top ten lists at the end of the year. And in rare instances, a film released at Cannes cleans up at the aforementioned Oscars (last year’s “The Artist”). This year, the festival starts on May 16, and it is certain to produce several remarkable works. Here is a select few of the absolute best the festival has offered in the last five years. As far as I’m concerned the best film that launched at Cannes in recent memory also won the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and that film is 2007 entry “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.” This startling Romanian film, directed by Cristian Mungiu, depicts two women, one of whom is seeking an abortion, an illegal procedure in 1980’s Communist Romania, the film’s setting. Mungiu’s film is intimate and highly absorbing, thanks to exceptional fly on the wall style camerawork and unnerving performances by leads Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu. This film, which ended at or near the top of many critics’ best of the decade lists, has widely been regarded as the kick start for the Romanian new wave movement, as the country has produced an unusually high amount of acclaimed films in the last few years. None of them have rivaled this gloomy masterwork however. The following year, Italian director Matteo Garrone screened his film “Gomorrah,” and deservedly won the Grand Prix prize (Cannes’ second highest honor). The relative newcomer stunned festivalgoers and world cinema audiences alike with this meticulous and engrossing epic, which tells several different stories about the outstretched influence of organized crime in everyday Italian life, from the business world, to the slums of Scampia, and even remote clothing stores. Garrone, who has unfortunately yet to release a follow up, deftly tells each tale with brewing intensity and exhibits technical virtuosity unrivaled by filmmakers who have been at the plate far more often than he. His film does not glamourize the gangster lifestyle; indeed, these grim tales act as a cry for help. The greek film “Dogtooth,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, was not entered into competition the following year. Had it been, I feel no hesitation in stating that it would have been a formidable contender. This macabre and seriously twisted comedy from the first time director famously put a lot of audience members with weaker stomachs at unease. Those with stronger stomachs saw a unique and unforgettable film about two parents who shelter their three twenty something children to an unusual and abusive degree. Though the film does indeed offer its share of startling and sickly displays of violence and morose, uncomfortable sex scene, there is a lot of black humor to be appreciated in this tale, and more importantly, Lanthimos is not shocking for the sake of it. Look past the surface, and the film turns out to be a gutting takedown of contemporary European politics. The Cannes Festival has screened some of the best English language titles of recent memory as well, including “Up,” “The Tree of Life,” and “No Country for Old Men.” But ardent followers of the fest like me eagerly await the exciting foreign titles that come out of if every year. It has one hell of a track record. Movieroomreviews.com has great movie reviews and info on movies such as No Country For Old Men.