The Playlist

Cannes Review: 'A Touch Of Sin' Sees Jia Zhang-ke Change Things Up, With Peculiar, Bloody Results

By Jessica Kiang
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May 18, 2013 12:45 PM
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0 Comments

Festivals

Ooh-ed and aah-ed over, but largely in more arcane cinephile circles, Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke (Venice winner “Still Life,” Cannes 2012 doc ”I Wish I Knew,” “The World”) has made a name for himself to date with detailed, glacially paced, social realist films, often in the documentary tradition, set against a backdrop of a modern-day China that we rarely see: the China of disenfranchisement, displacement and social unease which comprises the flip side of the globalisation and economic boom times that make more headlines abroad. It provides fascinating, glimpse-behind-the-curtain subject matter, and Jia is nothing if not authentic, but his measured, long-take style can try the patience to the degree that really, the reason that we had this film as one to watch out for on our Cannes Anticipated list was because we’d heard that for the first time, Jia had incorporated elements of genre into his social critique. And we have always believed that just a spoonful of genre can help the dense social commentary go down.

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Watch: Trailer For Alejandro Jodorowsky's First Film In 23 Years, 'The Dance Of Reality'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 18, 2013 12:01 PM
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8 Comments

News

For all the Goslings and Grays and Gatsbys on the Croisette, for some, the biggest news at Cannes this year is the return of Alejandro Jodorowsky. The French/Chilean filmmaker, the man behind cult hits "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain," hasn't made a film for 23 years, since 1990's "The Rainbow Thief," but is all over Cannes; a documentary about his ill-fated attempt to film "Dune" is premiering, and his return to directing with "The Dance Of Reality" just screened this morning.

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Cannes Review: The Mind Heals The Soul In Meandering & Unsatisfying 'Jimmy P.'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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May 18, 2013 10:45 AM
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0 Comments

Reviews

If Freddie Quell came back from World War II as an unhinged animal, Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro) is the polar opposite, an intensely quiet but no less wounded man, who is out of sorts in post-war America. But he is also a Native American, which brings to his life a whole set of experiences (especially at the time) foreign to common understanding, giving his plight an extra layer of complexity. And it's within this milieu that Arnaud Desplechin presents the true story "Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian)," a picture that meanders and focuses far too heavily on its subtitle, rather than on its two lead characters, who are presented with promise, but are ultimately left underdeveloped.

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Cannes Review: 'Like Father, Like Son' A Tender, Loving Portrait Of Parenthood

By Kevin Jagernauth
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May 18, 2013 9:12 AM
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2 Comments

Like father, like son, BY HIROKAZU KORE-EDA

Reviews

How is being a parent defined? By your actions, or does the simple virtue of being related by blood automatically give you that title? Those questions and more lie at the core of "Like Father, Like Son," a tender and involving portrait by Kore-Eda Hirokazu that centers on two set of parents -- and one father in particular -- who find the relationships to their sons severely tested, forcing them to reassess everything they thought that new about them and about themselves, as well.

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Cannes 2013: Kristin Scott Thomas Shines In Sizzle Reel Footage From 'Only God Forgives'

By Jessica Kiang
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May 17, 2013 6:17 PM
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15 Comments

News

Finally from our roundup of tonight’s Weinstein Company 2013 preview reel (you can read about “The Immigrant” here and the rest of the movies teased here), and well, we’ve kind of saved the best for last. Or at least, the best received on the night. Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives” is without a doubt one of the most hotly anticipated movies playing at this Cannes Festival, promising to send a jolt of that amoral, violent, genre cool he does so well surging through a lineup that’s a little heavy on the “serious adult drama” side otherwise.

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Cannes Review: Death Lingers & Lifts In Thoughtful 'Miele'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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May 17, 2013 5:39 PM
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0 Comments

Reviews

If Michael Haneke's "Amour" presented death as a sobering inevitability, one that will test the bounds of our ability to love, actress Valeria Golino has a slightly more nuanced perspective in her directorial debut "Miele." While the subject of euthanasia is the entryway into the story, Golino wisely strays from turning her film into an Issues Movie, and instead opts to explore the death both as a vessel for closure, and a window into appreciating the life we have.

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Cannes 2013: 'The Immigrant' Footage Showcases Firecracker Turns From Joaquin Phoenix & Marion Cotillard

By Jessica Kiang
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May 17, 2013 5:08 PM
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13 Comments

Festivals

A definite highlight of tonight’s Weinstein 2013 slate preview at Cannes, which we ran through in large part here, was one of the films that is one of our most anticipated of this whole festival -- James Gray’s “The Immigrant.” With Gray uncharacteristically confident about the film in its unfinished form every time we’ve spoken to him, calling it “the best thing I’ve ever done,” our expectations are high.

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Cannes 2013: The Weinstein Sizzle Reel Showcases 'Grace Of Monaco,' 'Mandela' & More, Only Occasionally Sizzles

By Jessica Kiang
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May 17, 2013 4:43 PM
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3 Comments

Festivals

In what has apparently become something of a tradition on the Croisette, this evening saw a select group of journalists forgo tempting Official Selection screenings to attend instead the starry, champagne-fuelled preview of The Weinstein Company’s forthcoming slate. Perhaps not quite as salivating a prospect as last year’s auteur-heavy brand-new lineup, which included early glimpses of “Django Unchained,” “The Master,” and “Silver Linings Playbook” it’s still a mark of TWC’s high standing on the awards circuit that what is essentially an invite-only marketing event got so many clamoring to attend. Well, that and the canapes (foie gras toastinis, breaded shrimp and mini eclairs, if you must know). Oh, and the presence of the legendary Harvey Weinstein.

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Watch: Trailers For Cannes Films 'Jimmy P' With Benicio Del Toro & 'A Touch Of Sin'

By Jason McDonald
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May 17, 2013 12:55 PM
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1 Comment

News

The Cannes Film Festival is currently in full swing and while the rest of us wait at home to hear the news and see the reviews of the films currently playing, we do have two treats to share with you.

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Watch: First Clip From James Gray's Cannes Competitor 'The Immigrant' With Marion Cotillard & Jeremy Renner

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 17, 2013 10:40 AM
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3 Comments

News

We were only just talking about Playlist favorite James Gray, and his new secret sci-fi project, earlier this morning, and there's clearly something in the water, because the first tantalizing, albeit brief, clip from the "We Own The Night" director's new film, "The Immigrant," has arrived.

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