Io e te
(Me and You)
Italy | Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci’s return to
feature filmmaking for the first time in nine years (and to strictly Italian
cinema for the first time in almost three decades) is slight and slightly
disappointing according to most critics. THR believes “this is a film that adds
little of significance to the much-traveled cinematic roads of youthful
solitude and confusion.” Variety finds the story of a moody teenager
whose solitude is interrupted by his half-sister and her desire to kick her
heroin habit “only half-convincing, and even less engaging,” and The
Playlist calls it “a
minor effort at best, and disappointingly lacking a sense of energy or intent.” The
Guardian is more
welcoming to Bertolucci’s “slight but engaging” return, and the A.V.
Club , while looking forward to what Bertolucci might do next,
admits that with his latest “there’s a terminal slightness to the adventure
that makes it feel like an
unusually adult after-school special.”
TOP REVIEWS
In the press notes for Me and You (Io e Te) director and co-writer Bernardo Bertolucci says that since coming to terms with the fact he will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to make another film. Serving as his first in nine years, and reading between the lines, Me and You plays like a film from a director merely trying to figure out if he can still do it. As such, he's managed to prove he can still make a film, but not a very compelling film.
'ME AND YOU'
REVIEW
REVIEW
GRADE: C-
"Me and You" was directed by Bernardo Bertolucciand does not yet have a domestic distributor. It has a running time of 1 hour 37 minutes.
The cast includes Jacopo Olmo Antinori and Tea Falco.
Lorenzo and Olivia are initially at odds, not having seen each other in several years, both damaged by their parents' relationships. To cope with their pain Olivia turned to drugs, Lorenzo hides in his shell. Otherwise, they eventually learn to coexist, but by the end of the film I didn't get the feeling that once their week in the basement was up either had learned anything or come out any different than they were when they entered. The point of it all was lost on me and I wasn't too interested in finding it.
All that can really be taken away from the film is the lush cinematography from Fabio Cianchetti and the performances from Aninori and Falco, which are worth noting, but not entirely satisfying. I saw a lot of Emile Hirsch in Antinori's performance (which is to say he has his moments) and Falco, while decent, is hindered by the fact she is resigned to playing another junky attempting to kick the habit cold turkey. Night sweats and clutching at a fur coat as a blanket, she plays the role no different than we have seen several times before.
In comparison to the other films I've seen at this year's Cannes Film Festival this one has the least to say and in turn I am left grasping at straws, looking for anything to discuss. Bertolucci even mentions in the notes how he, at one point, was experimenting with 3-D for the film, which would have been a complete waste of time, but again proves this was just an experiment to see if he could still put together a feature film. He seems convinced adding, "I feel I'm back on the run and I'm ready to make another film as soon as possible."
I can only hope his next is less of a test run and more of a project with passion. This was a simple story that essentially goes nowhere and even irritated me a bit in the end, with a closing zoom I can only presume was meant to be a call back to Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, which, if it was, is extraordinarily presumptuous.
Me and You
Io e te
(Italy)
Jacopo Olmo Antinori and Tea Falco in "Me and You"
A Medusa Film release of a Fiction and Wildside production in collaboration with Medusa Film in association with Intesa Sanpaolo with support from Regione Lazio. (International sales: HanWay Films, London.) Produced by Mario Gianani. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Screenplay, Niccolo Ammaniti, Umberto Contarello, Francesca Marciano, Bertolucci, based on the novel "Io e Te" by Ammaniti.
With: Jacopo Olmo Antinori, Tea Falco, Sonia Bergamasco, Veronica Lazar, Tommaso Ragno, Pippo Delbono.
Unexpectedly atmospheric for a teen-angst drama cooped up in a basement, Bernardo Bertolucci's "Me and You" feels like an attempt to show that age, infirmity and three decades away from his native Italian cinema have done nothing to blunt his touch for capturing adolescent sensual yearning. But this slender, be-pimpled "Beseiged" is only half-convincing, and even less engaging, as 14-year-old Lorenzo (Jacopo Olmo Antinori) and his young-adult junkie half-sister Olivia (Tea Falco) embrace the "claustrophilia" -- as Bertolucci calls it -- of a week spent hiding from the cruel world. Helmer's name should draw modest auds around the world.
With the face of a satyr and the complexion of a toad, newcomer Antinori's Lorenzo embodies mischief and embarrassment in equal measure. Traditional questions from his therapist (Pippo Delbono) fail to reveal what troubles the lad, though dinner with mom (Sonia Bergamasco) uncovers some not-quite-sorted Oedipal issues -- echoes of Bertolucci's openly incestuous "Luna" perhaps, though this slender tale is relatively chaste.
In what seems to be his first true act of independence, Lorenzo takes the opportunity of a weeklong school ski trip to ditch class and plan his own vacation at home. He prepares as only a child might, buying his favorite junk food and stowing it in the family's storage cellar, which comes equipped with an old mattress, and has electricity and a dingy bathroom.
One gets the sense that no one uses the basement, and that the small subterranean room represents the only fiefdom over which young Lorenzo can exercise control, so the arrival of his 25-year-old sibling reps a real blow to his autonomy. Yet Olivia turns out to be far needier than Lorenzo; after years of heroin abuse, she has vowed to quit, shacking up with her nervous half-brother for as long as it takes.
The awkwardly lovely Olivia represents a multi-petaled mystery to Lorenzo. Of course, she's sexually intriguing -- and Bertolucci has never been one to shy away from admiring nubile, peach-fuzzed flesh -- though more importantly, she embodies some shameful aspect of his father's past, the result of a distant affair. Lorenzo is fiercely protective of his mom, and idealizes her. Yet, hearing things from Olivia's perspective forces him to consider his mother as someone capable of breaking up another's relationship.
Still, the aspect of Olivia's arrival that proves most significant to Lorenzo's week in hiding is her vulnerability. Though 11 years his senior, Olivia is unstable and desperately in need of someone to guide her recovery. Lorenzo has never been put in such a position of responsibility, barely able to manage the ant farm he smuggled downstairs with him. But he is attentive, perhaps even obsessive-compulsive, and being sent on errands to get Olivia food or sleeping pills has a subtly transformative effect on his self-confidence.
Having previously stirred trouble in close confines with "The Dreamers" and "Besieged," Bertolucci keeps the camera moving about the space so lithely, it feels less like a dungeon than the private stage for a coming-of-age that never quite comes. Such a dynamic style almost feels pitched to offer auds a purely emotional experience, were it not for the physical resemblance between wheelchair-bound Delbono and the director in the early therapy scene, which suggests a more psychoanalytic interest from both Bertolucci and co-writer Niccolo Ammaniti, whose novella inspired the film.
Ultimately, such a stir-crazy two-hander can only be as interesting as its actors, and though Antinori has a compelling face (a casting tip learned from Bertolucci's mentor, Pier Paolo Pasolini), his unruly hair seems more tempestuous than his soul. For his model-like co-star, even subtitles can't mask Falco's difficulty in conveying the spontaneous, self-destructive aspects of Olivia's character.
While the sibs' behavior strains credulity at times, "Me and You" never feels like an out-of-touch Clearasil pic cooked up by a Geritol helmer. Apart from new toys (an MP3 player and laptop computer in Lorenzo's case), the fundamentals of adolescence don't change so much from one generation to the next. Still, a pivotal moment depends on Olivia playing the Italian-language version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," the alternate lyrics of which suit the kids' mindset snugly, even if the song is a surprising choice for her playlist.
Camera (color), Fabio Cianchetti; editor, Jacopo Quadri; music, Franco Piersanti; production designer, Jean Rabasse; costume designer, Metka Kosak; sound, Remo Ugolinelli, Alessandro Palmerini; assistant director, Barbara Melega; casting, Melega. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (non-competing), May 22, 2012. Running time: 97 MIN.
Lawless
USA | Directed by John Hillcoat
Nick Cave provides the
screenplay and score for this second collaboration with director John Hillcoat
(the first being The
Proposition 73), but unlike that
previous film, Lawless left most critics with little beyond
surface pleasures. “It never elevates into anything more than great
entertainment,” says The
Playlist . “Never-not-fun junk food enlivened by good actors,”
agrees the LA
Weekly . “This classy genre piece doesn't quite leave an
emotional burn in the gut,” opines Variety .
It’s a “thoroughly familiar—but flavorful and rousing—shoot-’em-up” for the A.V.
Club , and a “highly entertaining tale set in a vivid milieu,
told with style and populated by a terrific ensemble” according to THR .
You get the idea. Liking it the least are Slant (“There's precious little in Lawless's
narrative arc that will remain memorable 10 minutes after you walk out of the
theater”) and The
Guardian (“The whole
thing adds up to nothing at all, and leaves nothing behind but a nasty
moonshine hangover”). Lawless opens in the U.S. on August 29.
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Guy Pearce
115 min, playing in competition
In 2005, John Hillcoat turned a script by Nick Cave into one of the best films of the decade: The Proposition. That Australian western did not, however, get anything like the attention it deserved. Hillcoat and Cave will hope for greater recognition with this gratifyingly violent, nicely shot tale of moonshiners in prohibition-era America. They have a top flight cast: Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska are all in place. The scenario is attractive. And, now, they have secured a place in the main competition at Cannes. Bring it on.
Well, the film certainly churns the blood, but its meandering narrative and outbreaks of absurdity prove somewhat off-putting. There is a sense of something half-formed about it. It needs a darn good shake.
Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy play, respectively, Jack and Forrest Bondurant, two brothers running illicit spirits in a renegade corner of Virginia. As we begin, Jack is still naive and weak-spirited, while the supposedly invincible Forrest has established a reputation as the most fearsome hoodlum in the district. Think of Michael and Sonny Corleone at the beginning of The Godfather and you’re halfway there. The younger man realises that the key to success is expansion and duly establishes a business relationship with big-time mobster Floyd Banner (an underused Gary Oldman). Before long, he is driving fancy cars and making advances on the preacher’s daughter (Mia Wasikowska). But a new lawman has arrived in the extravagant perfumed form of Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce).
What is Mr Pearce up to? Speaking in a strange fluty voice, camply pulling on gloves like Marlene Dietrich in a Weimar revue, he offers us a villain from an entirely different, more fantastic genre of movie. The Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a less heightened figure. The Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs seems, in comparison, like a character from a Mike Leigh film.
Anyway, the rest of the film will do well enough in an HBO sort of way. Hardy makes something hulky and inhuman of the older brother. The costumes and design, though never dirty enough, show evidence of diligent research. The soundtrack makes convincing and witty — note references to another prohibited drug — use of bluegrass takes on The Velvet Underground’s White Light White Heat.
If Cave had managed to impose some structure on this allegedly true story then we might have had a film that could sit comfortably beside The Proposition. Nobody should complain about the texture: the screenwriter uses his favoured biblical syntax to winning effect; he finds humour in Forrest’s apparent indestructibility. But, with a villain too absurd to take seriously, Lawless never sets up sufficient levels of jeopardy. It passes the time. But a whole bunch of opportunities appear to have been squandered.
VIDEOS
Laurence
Anyways
Canada | Directed by Xavier Dolan
The consistently self-indulgent
23-year-old Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats 70)
directs this nearly three-hour, decade-spanning love story about a transsexual
man’s (Melvil Poupaud) passionate relationship with his straight girlfriend
(Suzanne Clément, who won best actress honors in Un Certain Regard). The
Playlist finds the
film “exciting for the very ambition and narrative daring that it contains,”
but also “relatable and universal” thanks to Dolan’s keen eye for the evolution
of relationships over time, andVariety agrees. THR believes it’s “Dolan’s most
emotionally weighty film so far,” and even when the story flags it’s still
“perfectly enjoyable as an immersive orgy of pure sensory pleasure.” Mike
D’Angelo at the A.V.
Club praises
“Suzanne Clément’s ferocious performance” but feels that “there’s not even
close to three hours of engrossing material.” While admitting that “Dolan is
still crazy self-indulgent,” LA
Weekly ’s Karina Longworth believes “he's also created characters
who contain multitudes, within an unwieldy narrative that doesn't always work
but is at times genuinely affecting, and not just affected.”
REVIEWS
Melvil Poupaud and Suzanne Clement in “Laurence Anyways”
An MK2 (in France) release of a Lyla Films, MK2 production. (International sales: MK2, Paris.) Produced by Lyse Lafontaine. Co-producers, Nathanael Karmitz, Charles Gillibert. Directed, written by Xavier Dolan.
With: Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clement, Nathalie Baye, Monia Chokri, Susie Almgren, Yves Jacques, Sophie Faucher, Magalie Lepine-Blondeau, David Savard, Catherine Begin, Emmanuel Schwartz, Jacques Lavallee, Perette Souplex, Patricia Tulasne, Adele Jacques. (French, English dialogue)
Fully immodest and intermittently astonishing, Xavier Dolan's epic melodrama "Laurence Anyways" charts a male-to-female transsexual's tumultuous relationship with a straight woman but stands to polarize more on the basis of its stylistic politics than its sexual ones. Indeed, the clearest achievement of Dolan's typically self-indulgent eye-popper comes in equating its gender-bending protagonist's metamorphoses with those in any relationship that lasts for years. Stunningly gorgeous leads prove more than capable of eliciting emotion over the near-three-hour haul, though the pic's exhausting length and intensity will try even lovers of love stories, to the detriment of exposure and acclaim.
Nothing if not impassioned, "Laurence Anyways" ambitiously extends Dolan's interest in cinematic form, stretching the running time to the breaking point while shrinking the frame to the nearly square Academy ratio in order to emphasize the characters' almost claustrophobic intimacy. Meantime, the French-Canadian writer-director retains his well-tuned ear for period pop, setting the decade-long, '90s-era obsession of Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) with Frederique (Suzanne Clement) against the backdrop of blaring, blatantly silly tunes by the likes of Depeche Mode and Duran Duran. If ever a meller existed to be played at maximum volume, it's this one.
After an arresting musicvid-style prologue that doubles as a preview of coming attractions, the pic opens on 30-ish Montreal schoolteacher Laurence peddling Proust to kids and, after the bell rings, making out with redhead Fred anywhere and everywhere, even while they're driving through a car wash (the better for Dolan's sudsy mise-en-scene to look like it's sobbing). Amid the boredom of administering an exam, Laurence carefully affixes paper clips to each of his fingernails -- an early sign that he's semi-secretly longing to doll himself up.
Soon enough, Laurence breaks the news to Fred that (s)he's a woman in a man's body, whereupon Fred freaks, as does the protag's mom (Nathalie Baye). Undeterred, Laurence comes to school in orange heels and a green skirt, strutting the halls to the tune of Headman's ludicrously sexy "Moisture" in one of a handful of loud, thrillingly propulsive scenes. If anything, Dolan's connoisseur sense of adrenalized dance-pop tunes, their beats timed precisely to sensual bursts of color and movement, proves almost too intoxicating in that his bids to capture quieter moments can't help feeling, relatively, like buzz kills.
Nevertheless, the pic's wild mood swings approximate the ups and downs attendant to infatuation, not least the transgressive sort. Her bosses bowing to community pressure, Laurence loses her job, as does film- and video-maker Fred, deemed guilty by association. Fred, emotionally volatile and evolving more clumsily than her partner, starts frequenting discotheque orgies, while Laurence gets a beating from a barroom homophobe and is taken in by the Roses, a colorful family of queer performance artists. Recalling, of all things, "Five Easy Pieces," an unforgettable scene has Fred exploding -- cathartically, for the viewer -- when a diner waitress spews bigoted talk.
The lovers eventually separate, Laurence taking up with straight-laced Charlotte (Magalie Lepine-Blondeau) and Fred having a kid with boring hubby Albert (David Savard). Laurence publishes an autobiographical novel, which Fred reads in one sitting, prompting her to cry buckets as Dolan opens the floodgates himself and drenches her with metaphoric tears. By this point, it's clear the director means to universalize the tempestuous relationship -- a political gesture that also serves to make the eccentrically styled and extremely long pic at least marginally more commercial (although many viewers will undoubtedly end up checking their watches nonetheless).
If not quite as floridly expressive as Dolan's "Heartbeats" and "I Killed My Mother," "Laurence Anyways" looks plenty dazzling; the filmmaker himself co-designed the vivid period costumes, which include the title character's splendiferous array of scarves, shades, blouses, coats and pantsuits. Poupaud and Clement are both outfitted to appear incrementally more striking as the pic progresses, and the thesps appear to grow into their parts while embodying the characters' countless physical and emotional changes. Tech credits, including Yves Belanger's sharp celluloid shooting, are impeccably flamboyant.
Camera (color), Yves Belanger; editor, Dolan; music, noia; production designer, Anne Pritchard; costume designers, Francois Barbeau, Dolan; sound (Dolby Digital), Francois Barbeau, Olivier Goinard; line producer, Carole Mondello. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), May 18, 2012. Running time: 168 MIN.
Xavier Dolan's filmmaking dazzles in Laurence Anyways
To say that expectations are running high for Laurence Anyways is the understatement of the year. Wunderkind auteur Xavier Dolan established himself as one of Canada’s hottest filmmakers with his first two flicks, J’ai tué ma mère and Les amours imaginaires, both of which unspooled at the Cannes Film Festival, and it was clear from the moment the project was announced that Laurence Anyways was supposed to be the film that took Dolan to another level.
It’s way more expensive than either of the first two films, with a budget of $9.5 million, stars a couple of well-known actors from France, spans 10 years and takes on a Big Subject – the very timely topic of a man who decides to change his sex.
So does Laurence Anyways deliver the goods? Yes and no.
It is far and away the 23-year-old writer-director’s most ambitious film to date, and he goes for broke here, both stylistically and with what he’s trying to say. But the film is perhaps victimized by its own ambition. We all know Dolan has filmmaking chops to die for, and he shows them off here with remarkable verve. But sometimes it’s just show-offy – after the third or fourth big musical set piece that reminded me of a videoclip by some ’80s British New Romantic band with hair issues, I started thinking he should be spending more time developing these characters and less energy on wowing us with stylistic flourishes.
That said, no one else in this country makes movies like Dolan. He’s just fearless as a filmmaker and you have to love that. This epic – it runs two hours and 39 minutes! – veers wildly from Fellini-esque surrealism to gritty lunch-bucket drama, and as Rod the Mod put it back in the day, there’s never a dull moment. And Dolan once again proves to be one of our finest directors of actors. There are memorable performances from Suzanne Clément as Laurence’s lover Fred (a woman), Monia Chokri as Fred’s grumbly sister, and the great Nathalie Baye as Laurence’s way-too-neurotic mom.
And then there’s French thespian Melvil Poupaud in the title role. It’s quite simply a magnificent bit of acting – in a lesser actor’s hands, this could so easily degenerate into cheap melodrama, but Poupaud resists the temptation to overplay the emotions here and the result is so moving.
Laurence (Poupaud) and Fred (Clément) are having a passionate affair, but everything changes one day in 1989 when Laurence announces out of the blue to his lover that he wants to die. That he just can’t take it anymore. That he wants to be a woman.
Why did you lie to me, demands Fred. Why didn’t you tell me you were a homosexual?
“I didn’t lie, I just didn’t say anything,” replies Laurence.
Thus begins a 10-year odyssey that will see Fred initially supporting Laurence’s decision, followed by a decade of trials and tribulations. The scene where Laurence, a literature prof, arrives in his class for the first time dressed as a woman is an instant classic.
Along the way, there’s a steady stream of music from the era, ranging from the cheesy (Julie Masse’s C’est zéro) to higher-end fromage (Kim Carnes’s Bette Davis Eyes) to the sublime (Jean Leloup’s Mile End anthem 1990), and the sequence at a gala ball played out to the tune of Visage’s new wave dance-floor hit Fade to Grey is one you won’t soon forget.
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VIDEOS
In
the Fog
Russia | Directed by Sergei Loznitsa
Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy 78)
directs this bleak tale adapted from a novel by Soviet writer Vasil Bykov about
Nazi Germany’s occupation of Belarus. The drama hinges on three men, one of
whom is accused of collaborating with the Nazis. THR believes “the film repays patient
viewing as it evolves into an engrossing, nuanced, philosophical drama.” The
Guardian also enjoys
this “intense, slow-burning and haunting drama.” Variety likes the way the film “explores the
moralities of wartime with restraint and exacting execution,” but the A.V.
Club finds the
story “simple, arguably too simple” for its 127-minute running time.
"IN THE FOG" BY SERGEI LOZNITSA HAS BEEN AWARDED THE GRAND PRIX AT THE YEREVAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
LOZNITSA’S NEW DOCUMENTARY "O MILAGRE DE SANTO ANTÓNIO" WILL HAVE ITS INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE IN LOCARNO.
The Jury of the "Golden Apricot" International Film Festival in Yerevan has awarded the prize for the best feature film to Sergei Loznitsa’s "IN THE FOG".
After the awards ceremony Loznitsa told the Armenian news agency Pan.ARMENIAN.Net that he plans to make a film in Armenia. "I feel almost as if it is my duty; I feel a very particular bond with this land. I have already started thinking about a documentary film, which I could shoot here," – said the director.
"IN THE FOG", the recipient of the FIPRESCI prize in Cannes and the Grand Prix of the Andrei Tarkovsky IFF "Zerkalo", continues its worldwide festival tour with the forthcoming festival premieres in Odessa, Melbourne, Toronto, London, Busan and Sao Paolo.
Sergei Loznitsa arrived in Yerevan from Portugal, where he had just completed the shooting of his new documentary "O Milagre de Santo António" ("The Miracle of St Anthony"). The filming took place in the village of Santo António in the northern region of Valdreu, during the festival dedicated to Portugal’s most revered saint. "O Milagre de Santo António" will have its international premiere in August 2012 at the Locarno IFF.
Sergei Loznitsa was born on September, 5th 1964 in Baranovichi (Belarus, former USSR). He grew up in Kiev, and in 1987 graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1987-1991 he worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specializing in artificial intelligence research. He also worked as a translator from Japanese.
In 1997 he graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), where he studied feature film making.
Sergei Loznitsa has been making documentary films since 1996, and he has directed 12 documentaries. He has received numerous international and national awards, including festival prizes in Karlovy Vary, Leipzig, Oberhausen, Paris, Madrid, Toronto, Jerusalem, St-Petersburg, as well as the Russian National Film awards "Nika" and "Laurel". Sergei Loznitsa’s montage film "Blockade" (2005) is based on the archive footage of besieged Leningrad.
Loznitsa’s feature debut "MY JOY" (2010) premiered in the main competition at the Festival de Cannes and was awarded the Best Director’s prize and the prize of the Russian Film Critic’s Guild at the "Kinotavr" FF in Sochi, the Grand Prix at the VOICES IFF in Vologda, the "Silver Apricot" award at the IFF in Yerevan, the Best Script award at the "Kinoshock" IFF in Anapa, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Grand Prix at the "Molodist" IFF in Kiev, the Grand Prix at the "Listopad" IFF in Minsk, the Grand Prix at the "Black Nights" IFF in Tallinn.
"IN THE FOG" premiered in the competition of the 65th Festival de Cannes in May 2012, where it was awarded FIPRESCI prize. The film won the Grand Prix at the Anrei Tarkovsky IFF "Zerkalo".
TOP REVIEW
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