Michael Winterbottom's Mighty Heart
American cinema received a boost by a film by a British director in
an Out of-Competition slot that arguably belonged in the Competition:
Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart. A docu-drama about the
kidnapping and murder of Wall Street journalist Danny Pearl in
Pakistan, it draws its strength from his pregnant wife Mariane's
account of her month-long search for her husband and the vigil she
kept until his death was confirmed in a frightful video of the
killing. Played convincingly by a pregnant Angelina Jolie, who assumes
an appropriate accent to interpret the role (Mariane Pearl, an
Afro-Cuban with a Dutch passport, was raised in Paris), A Mighty Heart
effectively used Cannes as a springboard for later Oscar
consideration. During the press conference a journalist stood up in
the crowd to apologize personally to Mariane Pearl – she present on
the podium with Jolie and Winterbottom – for having once asked her an
undignified question: whether she had viewed the video-recorded murder
of her husband.

Michael Moore's Sicko
Michael Moore's Sicko – an open-ended, convincingly detailed, tightly
edited, and often hilarious attack on American health insurance
companies – received a boost from George Bush's White House when
objections were raised about a Cuban visit in search of better health
care. But Moore contends that Cuba isn't the only country offering
better medical service than the United States – others are Canada,
France and Great Britain. Sicko argues that the American system of
private health insurance is nothing short of a disaster and that a
state-run system is much preferred. His arguments are illustrated with
statistics, anecdotes, and some frightening stories about Americans
with faulty insurance (millions have no insurance at all), who were
either denied medical care or forced to sacrifice their entire savings
to pay for it.

Denys Arcand's Age of Ignorance
Programmed at the closing night gala, Denys Arcand's striking L'age
des ténèbres (The Age of Ignorance, aka Days of Darkness)
(Canada/France) comes across as a coda to the Canadian director's
previous Cannes hits: Le déclin de l'empire américain (The Decline of
the American Empire) (1986) and Les invasions barbares (Invasion of
the Barbarians) (2003). Taken as a whole, Arcand's rather
extraordinary trilogy is packed with caustic insight, satirical
comment, and good ribald fun about the pitfalls of modern-day American
society. Indeed, looking back, The Decline of the American Empire,
programmed in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes, has proven prophetic
and remains a harsh critique of the American "Way of Life." Sixteen
years later, Arcand returned to Cannes in the Competition with
Invasion of the Barbarians, later awarded an Oscar for Best Foreign
Language Film. Hinting that the social and cultural seams in North
America had truly split asunder, he predicts an eventual civilization
crash. In The Age of Ignorance, Denys Arcand picks up where he left
off, the setting this time the fictional Civil Rights Department
buried somewhere in Quebec bureaucracy. Billed as a comedy, Arcand's
anti-hero is a tame civil servant who clandestinely smokes on the job,
can't communicate with his wife and teenaged daughters, and has a sick
mother in the hospital. Like a frustrated Walter Mitty, his only
outlet is daydreams – where at least he is surrounded by a bevy of
beautiful babes.

60th Anniversary Homages

Volker Schloendorff's Ulzhan
Programmed in the special "60th Anniversary Homages" section to pay
honor to previously awarded Palme d'Or directors, Volker
Schloendorff's Ulzhan (Germany/France/Kazakhstan), coscripted by
Claude Carrière, chronicles the stumbling path taken by a French
dropout (Philippe Torreton) as he tramps his way across the breadth of
Kazakhstan for no reason at all. Rescued at regular intervals by a
sympathetic Kazakh miss on horseback, Ulzhan (Ayanat Ksenbai), his
journey to nowhere in this picturesque travelogue takes on some
spiritual depth when he encounters Shakumi, an itinerant wordsmith.
Played with flair by David Bennett – best known on the screen as Oskar
Matzerath in Schloendorff's Tin Drum, 1979 Palme d'Or winner – Shakumi
makes a living in a fading occupation alien to modern-day
civilization. He sells words.

Ermanno Olmi's Hundred Nails
Similarly, in Ermanno Olmi's Centochiodi (A Hundred Nails) (Italy),
the story of another dropout, the film is best interpreted through its
religious overtones. After a young university professor (Israeli actor
Raz Degan) nails a hundred books to the floor of a research library,
he feigns suicide, abandons his BMW convertible, and seeks a new
identity in a village on the Po River. There he finds refuge in the
ruins of a peasant's house and is welcomed by the villagers as a
modern-day messiah. All goes well in his spiritual journey until he
makes the fatal mistake of using his credit card – and is hauled back
by the police into the mundane secular world to answer for the books
he had ravaged. Stunningly photographed by Fabio Olmi (Ermanno's son),
particularly scenes depicting the peaceful flow of the Po River, A
Hundred Nails may well be Ermanno Olmi's last humanist feature film.
The director, at 75, has announced his retirement from filmmaking.

Special Screenings

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's The War
A seven-part series due to air in the United States this coming
September, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's compilation documentary The War
strikes a human chord by relating the historical facts to interviews
with front-line enlisted men – soldiers, navy men, marines. Each comes
from a quintessential American town: Sacramento, California; Mobile,
Alabama; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota. Of the seven
films in the fourteen-and-a-half-hour running series, I viewed the
documentary depicting the last fighting days of the war in Europe and
the Pacific. To the filmmakers' credit, they do not pull any punches
about the horrendous mistakes made by American leadership in the
battles for Hürtgen Forest in Germany and Peleliu Island in the
Pacific. In both cases, the needless sacrifice of American life
reached into the thousands for so-called "victories" that were in fact
useless military engagements, for they hardly accomplished what their
leaders had proposed as both strategically necessary and relatively
easy to achieve. One wonders whether some military historians will now
feel prodded to change their estimates of certain war victories upon
hearing what the key eyewitnesses – soldiers, sailors, marines – have
to say about the leadership failures of their commanders.

Andrei Nekrasov's Litvinenko Case
The impromptu Special Screening of Andrei Nekrasov's documentary
Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case (UK) underscores how important Cannes
has become as a world platform for breaking news events. Just before
the festival closed, this hard-hitting documentary on the murder last
November of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko – author of the book
"Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within" – was fitted into an already
overcrowded festival program. Based partially on interviews with
former KGB agents, the film chronicles the former spy's death in a
London hospital from polonium-210 radiation poisoning. At the time
when Litvinenko was struck down by lethal radiation poisoning, he had
been investigating the death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Un Certain Regard

Li Yang's Blind Mountain
Too bad Li Yang's Mang Shan (Blind Mountain) (China) had not found
its way to the Competition. The story of a young university student
kidnapped by human traffickers, who is then sold as a "wife" to
villagers in the mountains, the film reportedly had to survive several
cuts before release. Still, despite censorship problems, Blind
Mountain features a powerful performance by Lu Hunag as the sex slave
who never gives up the struggle to assert and seek her freedom. Li
Yang is the same Chinese director who was awarded a Silver Bear at the
Berlinale for his Mang Jing (Blind Shaft) (2003), the grisly story of
coal miners plotting "accidental" deaths, then posing as the relatives
of the dead men to collect their meager compensations.

Barbet Schroeder's Terror's Advocate
Barbet Schroeder's L'avocat de la terreur (The Terror's Advocate)
(France) deserves a long life on the festival circuit. The story of
Jacques Vergès, the lawyer whose stellar success record as a defence
attorney began with the Algerian War and carried all the way up to the
Klaus Barbie trial that unearthed French collaboration under the
German Occupation, The Terror's Advocate draws its power from some
fascinating interviews with Jacques Vergès and people who know him
intimately.
Whether you like the man or not, you cannot help but be impressed by
his legal methods of defending people who openly espouse the
principles of terror.

Eran Kolirin's Band's Visit
Awarded a FIPRESCI (International Critics) Prize, Eran Kolirin's
Bikur hatizmoret (The Band's Visit) (Israel) is an amusing deadpan
comedy that gets better as the tale unwinds in its absurd setting. To
start with, an Egyptian Police Band from Alexandria has been invited
to play at the opening of a new Israeli cultural center! But upon
arriving at the airport, no one is there to welcome the band. Without
bothering to call the Egyptian Embassy for help, the band leader
decides to put the musicians on a bus to seek accommodations on their
own. Next, they end up isolated in a remote town, with no hotel in
sight and no transport out of the place until morning. A friendly
kiosk owner offers a solution: why not stay with local families? The
idea works, simply because these quaint members of the police band
have a knack for cultural communication at its simplest level.

Robert Thalheim's Along Came Tourists
Robert Thalheim's Am Ende kommen Touristen (And Along Came Tourists)
(Germany) also works its magic at the simplest level of communication.
A young man who has chosen civil duties over military service arrives
in Poland to work at Auschwitz, where he meets a stubborn old
survivor. The crusty gentleman, who takes pride in repairing suitcases
for the Auschwitz Museum, couldn't care less about the young man's
offer to be of assistance. Gradually, however, with the help of Polish
neighbors, the German lad learns to fit into the daily routines at the
camp. Shot at Auschwitz and its environs, with finely sketched
performances by Alexander Fehling as the young German and Ryszard
Ronczewski as the old Pole, And Along Came Tourists received a
standing ovation at its Cannes premiere.

Hou Hsiao Hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon
Of course, Hou Hsiao Hsien's Le voyage du ballon rouge (The Flight of
the Red Balloon) (France/Taiwan) is an unabashed salute to Albert
Lamourisse's classic Le ballon rouge (The Red Balloon), the 34-minute
Grand Prix winner at the 1956 Cannes film festival – apparently the
reason why it was chosen to open the Un Certain Regard section at this
year's 60th anniversary festival. Hou Hsiao Hsien's first French film,
The Flight of the Red Balloon stars Juliette Binoche as a creative
puppeteer who writes and voice-acts her own shows at a children's
puppet theater. She's also the mother of a seven-year-old lad (Simon
Iteanu), who's in regular conversation with a big red balloon hovering
over the streets of Paris, and a harried mother, whose flagrantly
neglectful husband phones from time to time from Canada to say he
plans to stay longer in Montreal. Add to this ensemble a Taiwanese
film student (Song Fang), who speaks fluent French and cares for the
boy during the day while touring Paris with a video camera in hand,
plus a troublesome downstairs tenant (Hippolyte Giradot), who refuses
to pay the rent, and you have a delightful mix of characters to
entertain over the two-hour stretch. Finally, there's a throwback to
Hou's own Master of Marionettes (Taiwan, 1993) when Binoche pays a
visit to an elderly Chinese puppeteer master to recharge her own
creative batteries.

Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin'
Awarded the Un Certain Regard Prize by a separate international jury,
Cristian Nemescu's black comedy California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit) /
California Dreamin' (Endless) (Romania) theoretically should not have
qualified for award consideration at all, for the 27-year-old Romanian
director had died in a car accident shortly after completing the
shooting on his first feature film – thus the word "endless" added
onto the title. But at the award ceremony the section's jury
president, French filmmaker Pascale Ferran, confessed that the theme
alone of California Dreamin' made it a standout. Based on a true
incident that had occurred in June of 1999 during the Kosovo War, a
NATO train transporting radar equipment and guarded by American
soldiers was stopped at a Romanian village by the railroad station
master, who also happened to be the local gangster in cahoots with a
corrupt village mayor. Since the Americans were transporting the
equipment without official papers (having received only verbal
permission from the Romanian government), and since corruption is
endemic to Romanian rural life, the incident quickly escalates into a
fireball of cultural and political misunderstanding. As for the title,
it refers to lyrics in a Mamas and Papas hit rendered by the village
damsel on the make with an American soldier.

Roy Andersson's You, the Living
The companion piece to his previous statement on the vagaries of
human life in Sanger fran andra vannigen (Songs from the Second
Floor), awarded the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes film festival,
Swedish director Roy Andersson's Du levande (You, the Living)
(Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark/Norway) picks up where he left off to
comment on the meaningless of life itself. Set against a shabby urban
backdrop of cubicle flats, airless offices, dismal bars, and gloomy
restaurants, You the Living doesn't stray much beyond Andersson's
usual static pessimistic commentary on the miserable state of human
existence. This time, however, he peoples his film with a punk
guitarist, an Arab barber, a Dixie jazz band, a lady who warbles
off-key, an old man with his dog, and a couple other quaint characters
to pepper the proceedings with some amusing gags.

Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely
Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely (UK/France/Ireland/USA), peopled with
look-alikes, takes its cue from a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego
Luna) living in Paris who is down on his luck. When he meets a Marilyn
Monroe look-alike (Samatha Morton), she invites him to a Scottish
castle to meet her lover, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator (Davis
Lavant) and other impersonators, who in turn encourage him to put on a
show. Along the way Harmony Korine splices in another bizarre tale set
in the jungles of Panama. Here, German director Werner Herzog plays a
spaced-out priest in the act of encouraging nuns to test their faith
by jumping out of airplanes without parachutes. To some extent, these
episodes draw on the American director's own autobiographical
experiences. A light film packed with fun and eccentricities, Mister
Lonely takes its title from a Bobby Vinton song.

Kadri Kousaar's Magnus
The first Estonian feature film ever invited to the official program
at Cannes, Kadri Kousaar's Magnus (Estonia/UK) introduces a woman
director whose debut feature has yet to clear Estonian censors and
thus may be available in this version only on the festival circuit.
The story of a youth who believes his days are numbered due to a fatal
lung disease, he's also convinced that he has power over life and
death – so he favors an amoral existence. But as Magnus grows older,
he finds that such life-affirming ploys as sex and drugs aren't the
answer after all. Then, when his hedonistic, self-indulgent father
enters the picture, he finds himself sinking deeper into addiction.
Taken as a black comedy, Magnus scores as an amusing father-son caper
on outlandish sexual mores, although the laughs initially generated by
the old roué on his pornographic binge wear thin over the long run.

Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's Actresses
A familiar face in Italian and French cinema with over 60 screen
performances to her credit, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi delved deep into
her stage-and screen profession to direct her second feature:
Actrices, aka Le rêve de la nuit d'avant (Actresses, aka Dream of the
Night Before) (France). Actresses explores the neurotic world of a
stage actress (Bruni-Tedeschi herself) as she approaches 40 and still
hasn't resolved the conflict between her professional life and
personal desire for happiness. Informed that her time is running out
to have a child, she begins her inner quest for a husband while
rehearsing the role of Natalya Petrovna in Turgenev's play A Month in
the Country. Her uncertainty not only affects the stage production,
but leads her to converse with her deceased father for possible
guidance. Actresses – previously titled The Dream of the Night Before
– was awarded a Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard
competition.

Semaine International de la Critique

Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen's Jellyfish
Awarded the Caméra d'Or prize for Best Debut Feature, Etgar Keret and
Shira Geffen's Meduzot (Jellyfish) (Israel/France) introduces a pair
of accomplished writing talents collaborating for the first time on a
film production. The setting is Tel Aviv, where the jellyfish is a
part of beach life – used in this instance, however, as a metaphorical
ploy to sketch the lives of people who can't control their own
destinies. One is a young waitress working for a catering firm, who
lives in an apartment with a leaking roof and befriends a sad little
girl, who in turn reminds her of her own past. Another is a bride, who
breaks her leg at the party on her wedding day and has to cancel the
honeymoon trip to the Caribbean. A third is a Filipino woman serving
at the wedding reception, whose mind is on phoning her young son back
home. The interlocking fates of these and other individuals offer
insights into the human condition in today's Israel.

Directors Fortnight

Anton Corbijn's Control
Programmed to open the Directors Fortnight, Anton Corbijn's Control
(UK/Australia/Japan) sketches the life and times of the legendary Ian
Curtis, the lead singer and song writer of Joy Division, an Australian
post-punk rock band that took the Manchester music scene by storm in
the 1970s. Based on a book of memories penned by his wife, Deborah
Curtis's "Touching from the Distance," and lensed in black-and-white
by Dutch photographer-filmmaker Anton Corbijn, the biopic effectively
captures the mood and spirit of the heady 1970s, beginning with Ian
Curtis's as a teenager in 1973 and ending with his suicide in 1980 at
the age of 23. Newcomer Sam Riley plays Ian Curtis as a complex
personality, wavering between a shy, gentle lad and a selfish,
ambitious rocker. As for the familiar Joy Division songs, these are
performed by actors-musicians without resorting to original
recordings. As for the title, it's taken from the Joy Division's
"She's Lost Control," with reference to out-of-control circumstances
leading to Ian Curtis's suicide.

Jan Bonny's Counterparts
Jan Bonny's written-and-directed debut feature Gegenüber
(Counterparts) (Germany) commands attention due to its cast of acting
talent on screen. Matthias Brandt, the son of German Nobel Peace Prize
winner Willy Brandt, plays the tormented policeman-father, who on the
outside maintains the facade of a happy family to friends and
neighbors, while at home he's locked in a bitter tug-of-war with his
wife.The tantrums of the schizophrenic wife, played by Austrian
actress Victoria Trauttmansdorff, are explosive and mind-bobbling.
Meanwhile, two grown children, a brother-sister pair, are left numb on
the sidelines wondering what will come next and how to handle the
self-pity of their mother at the more crucial moments. Counterparts
doesn't resolve the dilemma of a couple locked in a love and-hate
relationship, other than showing the deadend it will eventually lead
to.

Cannes Classics

Andrzej Wajda's Canal
The center piece of Andrzej Wajda's famous War Trilogy – Pokolenie
(Generation) (1955), Kanal (Canal) (1957), Popiol i diament (Ashes and
Diamonds) (1958) – Canal crowned the 30-year-old Polish director with
instant fame when the film was awarded the runnerup Special Jury Prize
at the 1957 Cannes festival. For its special screening in the Cannes
Classics section, as part of the "Homage to Andrzej Wajda," the film
was digitally restored. With the director present, Cannes also paid
honor to his Czlowiek z zelaza (Man of Iron), awarded the Palme d'Or
at the 1981 Cannes festival. The story of the Polish Solidarity
movement, Man of Iran was the sequel to his temporarily banned
Czlowiek z marmuru (Man of Marble) (1977). As for the abiding power of
the War Trilogy, Generation broke new ground by probing a tragic love
among young Poles during the war years. It was followed by Canal, in
which the tragic hero is depicted as a romantic figure against the
backdrop of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Finally, the stylistic high
point of the trilogy was reached in the persona of Zbigniew Cybulski,
again a tragic hero entangled in the coils of a new political system
after the war has ended.

Digitally Restored Highlights
Another highlight in the Cannes Classics section was "Laurence
Olivier Films William Shakespeare," featuring digitally restored
prints of Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). Also,
the "Centenary of John Wayne" was celebrated with John Farrow's Hondo
(1953) and Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo (1959). And three "Documentaries
on Filmmaking" deserve further festival exposure: Mimi Freedman and
Leslie Greif's Brando (USA/France/Spain/UK, 2007), Anne-Marie Faux and
Jean-Pierre Devillers's Maurice Pialat, L'amour existe (France, 2007),
and Todd McCarthy's Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient (USA, 2007).