Day 7: Aki

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Day 7: Aki

May 17, Day 7

Report from a spurned viewer said he was shut out from the reprise screening of "The Artist", Michel Hazanavicius' silent, black-and-white confection that has become the most-loved film of the festival. He queued up 40 minutes before showtime, and there were over 100 people in front of him who didn't get in either. "The Artist" deploys the whole gamut of silent-film grammar, with flattering nods to classical Hollywood, and it's truly an adorable film that also feels second-hand, a fawning, feel-good puppy dog in the Competition that's usually populated by gloomy Alsatians and ferocoius mongrels. (see "The Artist" trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgAvXlG68Y8)

But today Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismaki proves that he can make a delightful film while staying true to his original eccentricity. "Le Havre", a French-speaking film set in a French port city, drew enthusiastic applause at the press show in the morning of Day 7 -- and I'm sure it'll do the same at the gala screening that will take place tonight. Less self-indulgent, with more breathing rooms, and with a broader appeal that will satisfy even those who don't belong to his clout, "Le Havre" gives us warmth and humanity through Aki's signature pokerfaced mannerism. The story is about a shoeshine in a dreary neighbourhood who tries to help an African boy -- washed up in a human cargo -- escape across the channel to England. Again, the one-liners are hilarious, and the seemingly expressionless faces of the characters are a ploy for Kaurismaki's unsentimental humanism. It can be screened alongside the Dardennes's "The Kid With a Bike" (a much better film in retrospect) to show that the roads to tenderness and optimism are still very much present in Cannes. (see a droll scene from "Le Havre" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz1Vyj1jeug)

Well well well, tomorrow that naive suggestion might be shattered, no, DEMOLISHED, because Day 8 will be ruled by no one else but Lars Von Trier, the Danish master of feel-bad saga who will screen his "Melancholia" -- a "beautiful film about the end of the world". We never expect less of you, sir, as "Antichrist" confirmed two years ago.

A demain...