THEL Cannes Film Festival 2022 it has already reached the halfway point, but still has great expectations to satisfy (insiallah, so far the disappointments have certainly not been lacking …). In competition David Cronenberg presents Crimes of the FuturAnd, a Canadian-Hellenic production (it was shot in Athens), with which he returns to one of his favorite themes: the modifications of the human body, in a “not so distant” future. Viggo Mortensen plays a famous performance artist who with his partner (Léa Seydoux) shows the metamorphosis of his organs on stage. Until a National Organ Registry investigator (Kristen Stewart) begins to investigate – obsessively – on his movements … In the cast an Italian surprise: Denise Capezza from Gomorrah And Bang Bang Baby.
Viggo Mortensen between Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart in “Crimes of the Future” (photo Nikos Nikolopoulos).
Does humanity evolve?
“It’s a meditation on the evolution of humanity,” he explains the Canadian director of The fly And Crash. «Technology is always an extension of the body, even when it seems mechanical. In this critical juncture of human history, one wonders: can the body evolve to the point of solving the problems it has created? Like digesting plastic and man-made materials? Not only to find a solution to the problem of the climate crisis, but also to progress and survive? ».
Apparently the presence of Cronenberg senior prevented the participation of the thriller (science fiction, ça va sans dire) of son Brandon (Infinity Poolwith Alexander Skarsgård), which would have been diverted to the Venice Exhibition… Oedipus is safe.
A scene from Park Chan-Wook’s “Decision to Leave”.
“Adult movie”
Other revered master in competition: Park Chan-Wook (former winner here in Cannes in 2004 with Old Boy) brings Decision to Leavea little detective, a little love story. Which the Korean director, however, prefers to explain this way: “It’s a film for adults. instead of telling the story of a loss as something tragic, I have attempted to express it with subtlety, elegance and humor in a way that speaks to adults. ‘ The plot? A man falls from a mountain and the detective’s suspicions focus on the widow, who doesn’t seem upset at all …
David Bowie in a scene from “Moonage Daydream”.
The White Duke
Midnight rendezvous with David Bowie e Moonage Daydream (hors competition), from the title of one of his songs. A truly special occasion: filmmaker Brett Morgen got permission from the White Duke’s heirs (the sublime Iman and their daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones) to “rummage” in the archives for five years for a journey into his creative life. She that she has not limited herself to music, but she has pushed herself into the fields of dance, painting, sculpture, writing, acting and theatrical performances.
an image from “The Natural History of Destruction”.
Ukraine emergency
Between the séances spéciales of the Festival, The Natural History of Distruction by Sergei Loznitsa. In this documentary the director (Belarusian but raised in Kiev), idol of cinephiles, is inspired by the books of WG Sebald and uses archive images from the Second World War to get to the heart of an unfortunately very topical question as the Ukrainian tragedy teaches us: is it morally acceptable to use the civilian population as an instrument of war? Can mass destruction be justified in the name of an alleged higher moral ideal?
Adèle Exarchopoulos in “Les cinq diables”.
Vive la France
They come from the section Directors’ Fortnight the last two pearls. The first is an anticipated debut: the writer Annie Ernaux together with her son David Ernaux-Briot makes their debut in the world of cinema with the documentary Les années Super 8. “Looking back at our little films shot between 1972 and 1981, it seemed to me that they were not only a family archive, but also a testimony to the pleasures, lifestyle and aspirations of an entire social class in the decade that followed. 1968 »explained the author of L’Événement which later became the film that won the Venice Film Festival 2021. “I wanted to use silent images by integrating them into a story that reflects the taste and color of these years”.
We are instead in a fantasy territory with Les cinq diables by Léa Mysius, former director of Avapresented right here in Cannes in 2017. Adèle Exarchopoulos is the mother of Sally Dramé, a strange and lonely child for a strange gift for smells …
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED