And so it begins again. The Cannes Film Festival kicked off this week and it’s as chaotic and romantic as ever. The atmosphere around the Palais is palpable, you can’t bottle that kind of energy and I’m yet to find a similar environment that feels like it does on the Croisette.
Here’s a run down of what has happened so far.
Megalopolis really is mega
When Francis Ford Coppola arrived on the red carpet for his $120 million, self funded film they played the Godfather theme tune to welcome him in. That ominous music served as an eerie reminder of how big a swing this really is for the veteran director. Having mortgaged his vineyard to make this passion project, the question on everyone’s lips is – will this be a modern classic, delivered amidst chaos and serious financial risk in typical Coppola fashion, or will it be a mega flop? The jury is still out on this one, but it by far the most talked about film on the ground because no one knows if it will even make it out of this place alive.
Meeting with Pol Pot under delivers
Rendez Vous Avec Pol Pot was a hotly anticipated film, but on reflection I’m not sure how warranted that is. Following three French journalists who visit Cambodia in 1978 at the height of the Khmer Rouge regime, it seemed disjointed from the start and did not keep the audience on their toes. There seemed to be three stories being told in tandem and they did complement each other to be fair, but the stop motion aspect in particular was questionable. Overall a super sad film and thought provoking, but it could have been much more so.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a triumph
“The widow is crying like a mosquito.’
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl starts on an empty road in the middle of the night, where Shula (dressed in her fancy dress costume) stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family, in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.
It’s an arresting film that I liked from the very beginning. The authenticity is palpable, and every shot was intriguing. The ending was so powerful and a strong finish for a film so interwoven with cultural norms and societal expectations that come out when you’re forced to reckon with a death – and the life that that person had led.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a Zambian/UK/Irish co-production and A24 is handling international sales.
FILM FOR THOUGHT 