Flash Mobs, Imaginariums and not much time remaining

I’m sitting here at the Camping Parc Bellvue watching a group of young campers dancing behind their van in the middle of the street. Wearing noise cancelling headphones as I listen to Arve Henriksson makes this a most perculiar sight… But lovely nonetheless.

Since my last blog I’ve been to see three premieres. The last of which was so good I went again today.

First up was Michael Haneke’s ‘Das Weisse Band’. An ambitious film chronicling the perculiar events that took place in a small German village just before WW1 the film is visually stunning in it’s monochromatic bleakness and formality, but for me, having not drunk any Espresso
prior to the screening, was a very difficult film on which to concentrate.

It seemed quite clear to both the audience and the films protagonist, a young schoolteacher, that the children in the village are behind a significant number of atrocities that occur, but this notion is stamped out by the authoritative vicar before they can be investigated. The lack of any solution or payoff, to what is initally set up as a mystery, is after 2h40 really rather frustrating.

Last night I attended two premieres, the first of which, Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus’, I arrived late for, thanks to the appalling local bus service in Cannes. Suffice to say, I and my companions were herded into an overflow room to watch the film, an enjoyable visual feast that harks back in many ways to Gilliam’s earlier ‘Baron Munchausen’ in style, something of a delight for me – as a child I enjoyed that film hugely. ‘Parnassus’ has attracted a lot of attention from the media for being Heath Ledger’s final film, but he will be much more clearly remembered as having bowed out as the joker. This is largely due to his role being shared here by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, into whom Heath’s character transforms as he enters the ‘Imaginarium’ – a world created inside Dr Parnassus’ mind by a persons imagination when they enter through a magic mirror.

Christopher Plummer is marvellous as Parnassus, with excellent support from the ever watchable Verne Troyer, but the real surprises for me were supermodel Lily Cole as Parnassus’ daughter and singer / Jim Jarmusch film actor Tom Waits on top form as the devil. Cole is a real treat to watch and at no point did I cringe at her performance, which is a lot more than can be said for many of her contemporaries attempts at gracing the big screen.

The world created by Gilliam is incredibly beautiful, and while hugely CG rich, it doesn’t ever grate as from the off it’s evident that these scenes are entirely imaginary.

Following a mad rush I then made it to the premiere of Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s new film ‘The Time That Remains’. A requiem to his parents, the film starts by following Suleiman’s father’s plight during the Israeli ‘liberation’ of Nazereth in 1948, and ends in the present day as Elia returns from exile to visit to his elderly mother as she lives out her last days.

Fans of Suleiman’s work will be familiar with his autobiographical casting of himself, here taken to new heights as he focuses on his own family history an the Palestinian fight becomes more of a
backdrop than the central message of his earlier works ‘Chronicle of a disappearance’ and ‘Divine Intervention’.

Like those films this film uses static locked off shots to great effect, allowing perfectly choreographed action to unfold in every sequence. Due to the gentle humour and warmth evident in this film the technique is here almost reminiscent of the work of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson but unlike those films Suleiman focuses on creating a tableaux for every shot rather than restricting himself to one shot per scene. This provides a very interesting experience as the editing could doubtless throw one off the thread when hard cutting between two wide shots that are the direct opposite of each other. It doesn’t though, and it would be easy to think that Suleiman has truly mastered his craft and perfected his style in this film.

Interestingly, the film was associate produced by Danny Glover, who was present at the premiere and I found it truly heartwarming to see a childhood hero investing in real global talent.

For me this has been the most inspiring film so far, but I’m not placing any bets on it winning the Palme d’Or tomorrow!

Right. I’m off to don my tux for the penultimate time…

Gwyn.

Tags: Danny Glover, Das Weisse Band, Elia Suleiman, Lily Cole, Michael Haneke, Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus, The Time That Remains, Tom Waits

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 15:50 and is filed under Cannes Film Festival 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.