Tip Top is French director Serge Bozon’s 2^nd feature film and is in contention in the Directors’ Fortnight selection at the Cannes Film Festival.

The plot is fairly straightforward: set in Villeneuve, a quiet suburban town near Lille in the North of France, two female cops from internal affairs are called in to investigate the murder of an Algerian informant. Both women are quite different but share a common feature: a deviance. Esther enjoys violence in her couple, while Sally is a Peeping tTom…

Sandrine Kiberlain, François Damiens and Isabelle Huppert

Based on the eponymous novel by British author Bill James, Serge Bozon’s adaptation of Tip Top is confusing. Stuck halfway between a police film and a comedy, you never quite know where the French director is getting at and the plot itself is unclear. The fact that Esther (Isabelle Huppert) and Sally (Sandrine Kiberlain) are damaged goods, with their peculiar flaws highlighted several times throughout the film, doesn’t bring anything to the table, apart from a few laughs here and there. Tip Top lacks rhythm and consistency, and it was no surprise to see people leaving the theatre halfway through the film.

On the plus side, François Damiens excels in the role of the slimy but kind-hearted officer keeping tabs on the two women, while Huppert and Kiberlain manage to squeeze a few laughs out of us through some awkward situations.

After four days of exciting discoveries, I have to admit that Tip Top was my first real disappointment in this Cannes Film Festival. Let’s hope it’s the only one…

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Director Frank Pavich introduces us to one of the greatest films that was never made, Jodorowsky’s Dune, in a compelling documentary about a man with a vision.

Before David Lynch’s adaptation for the big screen, Dune was the unborn birth child of one man: Alejandro Jodorowsky. The Chilean director, which we were telling you about yesterday in our review of la Danza de la Realidad, also in contention in the Directors’ Fortnight selection at the Cannes Film Festival, had an idea, a vision, to make Frank Herbert’s novel come to life in proportions never envisaged before, which is one of the major reasons the project never saw the light of day.

Back in 1974, a year after shocking the world with his surrealist masterpiece Sacred Mountain, Jodorowsky met with producer Michel Seydoux, who had taken a real interest in this atypical filmmaker. The Frenchman was ready to make a movie with the Chilean, any movie, and suggested Frank Herbert’s novel Dune, “the Bible for all sci-fi aficionados”. Immediately, Jodorowsky agreed… although he hadn’t even read the book! This is where Jodorowsky’s Dune project began.

In Jodorowsky’s Dune, Frank Pavich takes us deep into the heart and soul of Jodorowsky, as the Chilean director narrates the entire story of this ambitious but above all visionary project; he says it himself, “Dune would be the coming of a cinematographic and artistic god”.

Throughout the documentary, Jodorowsky describes how he carefully selected his artistic team for the creation of his movie, as “art had to come first, then technique”. Through hilarious anecdotes, he explains how he got the likes of Jean Moebius Giraud, Hans Ruedi Giger and Dan O’Bannon on board. With Moebius, he drew the entire film in a storyboard with over 3000 pictures, which Pavich brings to life in an impressive animation of the opening long sequence shot imagined by Jodorowsky.

We also learn how the director convinced the cast of the film, which involved a bottle of vitamin E for David Carradine, a $100,000-a-minute salary for Salvador Dalí (that was actually Seydoux’s idea), and the hiring of his favourite chef for Orson Welles; all of them agreed of course! For Jodorowsky, no mountain was high enough to stop him from creating this film, which he often refers to as a prophet, and which all his collaborators on the project agree to say would have changed the face of the film world. And indeed it did, as films such as Aliens, Blade Runner and Star Wars were all influenced by Jodorowsky’s vision.

In the final part of the documentary, you really feel Jodorowsky’s pain, as he vehemently has a pop at the producers in Hollywood, who were too scared, or too ignorant, to trust him with this project. I came out of the theatre full of regrets, knowing I would never get to see the film, but convinced that Jodorowsky’s Dune would’ve been the greatest of all.

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The Cannes Film Festival is well known for placing the spotlight on Asian cinema, as it did with Bends and A Touch of Sin. This is also true of Soshite Chichi ni Naru, which has even made it to the official selection.

Ryota and Midori, a dynamic young professional and his charming wife have a little boy of six, Keita. When the maternity ward where Midori gave birth contacts them to tell them that there was a mix-up with the babies and that Keita is not their son, they are, at first, very distressed. But as he comes to think more about it, Ryota convinces himself that the other little boy – Ryusei, his son by birth – is his blood and might therefore be more gifted than Keita…

Beyond this tale of infant swapping, the Japanese film-maker Hirokazu Koreeda seeks above all to criticize a system that encourages young parents to ‘coach’ their progenitors like young race horses, to enable them to develop a successful career and to become leading figures among their peers.

The Nonomiyas are a so-called ‘model’ family, well off and highly respected, but when they are compared to the Saiki family, with their three children, crammed into a tiny apartment above their shop… it is these who seem to be the closer and happier family.

And even if the storyline does seem a little outlandish (although I’m not sure if legally this type of exchange is allowed go on in Japan…), it also condemns an economy and its consumer society based on a ‘disposable’ culture: if a ‘product’ is not suitable, one should simply get rid of it! The Saiki father is part of the older generation, he repairs and preserves, while Ryota is extremely demanding of himself and of those around him, to seize the opportunity to succeed in life.

The strength of Soshite Chichi ni Naru lies in part in showing us how these two families differ in perspective and teaching methods; one favouring the act of sharing and time enjoyed with each other, the other striving to attain the perfection of its individuals, whatever the cost. But it is also a beautiful declaration of love made by parents to their children, and by a father to his son. Blood is not always thicker than water, and Like Father, like Son shows us this in the most moving way there can be.

Like Father Like Son

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Tahar Rahim and Léa Seydoux the 2 main actors of Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski. You can read the review of the film here.

We wish you a good night, see you tomorrow live from the Croisette for a new day at Cannes Film Festival!

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With her first feature film, the Chinese director Flora Lau has been selected to compete in the Un certain regard section with her film Bends.

The film tells the story of the wife of a wealthy man and that of her chauffeur. Two parallel stories that will eventually merge. Two protagonists whose lives will change after two different events that will lead both down the same path.

On the one hand, Hui the chauffeur wants his wife to give birth to their second child in a hospital in Hong Kong by any means possible, without having the necessary means. On the other hand, Anna, his boss, has to face a brutal and cruel abandonment by her wealthy husband.

He, Hui, would move heaven and earth for this second child, forbidden in China, to see the light of day in the special administrative region that is Hong Kong. The story of his risk-taking shows a little known aspect of China and its family policy that seems breathtakingly shocking from a Western point of view. Can you imagine having to limit your family to only one child or else having to pay a huge fine?

She, Anna, will face her situation with dignity, elegance, denial and composure, gradually allowing room for will and emotion. The fall of this woman of the world occurs abruptly, but with restraint, as is required by Chinese decorum.

Women’s emotions are shown to be permanently restrained. The pregnant woman shuts herself away, like a criminal; she holds in her sadness and recovers quickly when she starts to weaken, and her daughter has no right to talk about her mother in the outside world. The only moments of anger are borne by and caused by Hui.

Yet this drama closes on a perspective of freedom, where anything is possible.

The film gradually transforms itself, through the evolution of the characters, very subtly, perhaps a bit too subtly, as it can sometimes seem boring. But it is a surprising film because when it’s over, it leaves you with a strange feeling, one of having gone on the journey with the characters, for the film’s duration, and having to leave them at the end, a bit against your will. If you decide to indulge your temptation to see it when it’s released in theaters (the release date is not yet known), let yourself be gently swept along!

bends

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Chantal Richard, the Vice-Chairwoman of the French Film Directors’ Association (SRF), opened the initial Film-Makers’ Gathering which was chaired by Costa-Gavras. The aim was to share experience between peers on an international scale.

The issue was very clear: “How can you make independent films today?”

What with the digital economy playing an increasing role in the sector, the difficulties in finding financing, which sometimes lead directors to censor themselves in order to get their film accepted, and the difficulties in collaborating between countries for fear of inflating budgets, what with the power struggle between public and private funding, etc…

Panel Assemblée des Cinéastes

Costa-Gavras returned to the French example, tracing it back to General de Gaulle and his initiative to support independent films. This initiative has never been reneged upon since that time. The diversity of French cinema, which is its DNA, doubtlessly stems from that first step. This is the reason why 200 films, and 30 first films are made every year, despite successive economic downturns. The government does not get involved, does not censor, and gives film-makers free rein.  However, Costa-Gavras came back to this other form of censorship, which is more pernicious and is due to economic pressure, i.e. the fact that film-makers censor themselves in order to obtain funding. One possible solution to this economic pressure is to lower actors’ salaries in exchange for a stake in the film, for example.

Anurag Kashyap

Obviously, the environment is the dominant factor. Look at India, where the market includes 1,000 films every year and where there is a strong internal market, since it has a market share of 90% in the country’s various states. Anurag Kashyap – who is presenting Ugly in the Directors’ Fortnight, – is both a director and a producer of independent films. He stands out from conventional Indian films, as we can see in That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011), or Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), which targets an international audience. He recounts his experience of wearing both hats.

“Since I remain true to my principles, my only strategy is to succeed in retaining my freedom. My approach consists in learning to get around any obstacles that crop up.”

When Anurag Kashyap found himself deprived of the right to show his films in India, he naturally thought about showing them outside the country.  And it is by getting around this first obstacle that he realized that he could participate in festivals and reach out to the Indian diaspora.

Moreover, when financing problems crop up, social networks can be used as new financing solutions and even as dissemination systems. A solution still needs to be investigated.

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At this, the 66th Cannes Film Festival, Orange Studio is proud to present one of its productions in competition: Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian), directed by Arnaud Desplechin.

The ninth film by French director Arnaud Desplechin, Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indians) is nothing less than what its title says: the story of the psychotherapy of an Indian, a veteran of World War II. Based on an autobiographical novel by Georges Devereux, the true story takes place in a Topeka institution in the late 1940s.

James Picard did not return from the war unscathed. In addition to the obvious trauma suffered by all soldiers in conflicts, Jimmy also suffers from devastating migraines. His sister decides to appeal to the Army to subsidize a series of tests and treatments to try to determine the source of his illness and try to cure him.

So he finds himself placed into treatment with Dr. Devereux, a famous French psychoanalyst, but one who suffers from lack of business. In spite of the disappointment of having only a single patient, Georges will decide to devote all of his energy to help this patient figure out, among other things, whether the source of his horrible headaches is physical or psychological.

In the manner of A Dangerous Method or The Master, this treatment of psychotherapy is primarily based on the method whereby the patient is supposed to open himself up to his therapist, tell him about his past, his deepest anxieties and fears, in the hope of finding the path to healing. So Jim ends up having to tell the story of his childhood, his relationships with the women in his life, his memories of the war, his status as a Native American… all of which will create a close relationship between the two men.

Masterfully portrayed by Benicio Del Toro, Jim appears frail and fragile, despite his tall stature. In this film, he gives an extremely moving performance as an actor. As for Mathieu Amalric, in his interpretation of a French expatriate, a therapist-writer who is desperately seeking acknowledgement from his parents (and from the woman he loves), his strong French accent does not at all detract from the emotions he generates.

Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) is a deep look into the fragility of men (those who went to war, who endure their condition, who have been rejected, etc.) during this difficult period after World War II. A window onto the condition of Native Americans in the United States, into the culpability of the Army toward these veterans returning home devastated… and into the life of a man burdened by his origins.

Jimmy P. (Psychothérapie d’un Indien des Plaines)

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After having been selected in 2010 at the Semaine de la Critique with Belle Epine, Rebecca Zlotowski returns to Cannes this year, but in competition in the Un certain regard section with the film Grand Central.

Grand Central is a kind of modern-day Germinal:

• The workers don’t go to the mine, but to a nuclear power plant
• There, they are at risk not of a firedamp explosion, but of exposure to a dose of radiation
• Etienne Lantier is named Gary (played by Tahar Rahim). With no education, like Etienne, he is ready to take any job, even the most dangerous, to earn a living
• Except that in Grand Central, it’s not Maheu’s daughter he falls in love with – instead, it’s his wife.
• Here, Maheu is Toni, an equally strapping guy (Denis Menochet) and Catherine is Karole (Léa Seydoux), a more liberated woman, here, but she still engages in the pleasures of the flesh in a bed of tall grass…

Like Gary, we discover the hidden face of a nuclear power plant, its radioactive underbelly and its danger. Far from the image conveyed in advertisements, far from the slogan, “we bring light to the people,” as Toni reminds us.

In parallel with this hard work, Gary embarks on a passionate affair with Karole, a little too easily. But you let yourself believe in this impossible love story because the characters are very endearing. And, as Rebecca Zlotowski said before the screening, “In the end, you look at them with eyes full of love” and, I would add, indulgence.

All the actors are excellent performers and Tahar Rahim plays the young guy perfectly – he’s a bit of a lost soul, nice but not a simpleton, who adapts to others and life’s challenges with agility. As for Léa Seydoux, she is very beautiful but her constant air of poor little jaded girl gets boring and her performance is often not very credible. Denis Ménochet is moving and manly as ever, but then again, I am not necessarily the most unbiased person in regard to him – I am a big fan of this actor!

Grand Central is a film about a difficult subject, denouncing unimaginable working conditions, on the backdrop of a romance between two people who were waiting to find each other. This is not the film of the year, but it is very watchable. The French release is planned for August 28th, and then it will be up to you to judge!

Grand central avec Léa Seydoux et Tahar Rahim

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In la Danza de la Realidad, part of the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, Alejandro Jodorowsky immerses us in his unhappy and alienated childhood, stuck in a small coastal town in Chile, with an authoritarian father and a submissive mother. Well, that’s what the synopsis states.

La Danza de la Realidad, by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Indeed, Jodorowsky being Jodorowsky, this biopic is in fact a two-hour long surrealist trip, full of colours, very odd characters and a couple of extremely crude scenes. Never quite sure where the line between reality and fantasy is situated, unless you know the Chilean director’s life story by heart, you end up forgetting what you’re actually watching and start simply enjoying the show.

However, Jodorowsky doesn’t fail to underline the social climate of the period, with the Great Depression that caused distress throughout the country, as president Ibanez del Campo relied heavily on loans from American banks for all of his public spending. A dedicated communist obsessed with Stalin, Alejandro’s father Jaime actually spends the second part of the film trying to kill the president, in order to redeem himself for the harsh upbringing of his son, and to provide him with a better future.

La Danza de la Realidad is filled with bizarre scenes, some of them very explicit: Alejandro’s mother urinating on her plague-ridden husband to cure him, Jaime being tortured by what appear to be agents from the secret service, Alejandro being tickled by his father and forced not to laugh in order to prove he’s a man… Add to that an array of physically altered characters (limbless miners, an old witchlike tramp in black and white, circus folk) and you’ll understand that this film has little to do with a traditional biography. Some of these oddities got the audience inside the theatre cringing and I guess that is part of the Jodorowsky playbook.

Funny, burlesque and shocking at times, La Danza de la Realidad is one experience that won’t leave you unscathed. Coming out from the Théâtre Croisette, I couldn’t help but wonder if Jodorowsky was a madman or a genius. The answer has to lie somewhere in between…

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