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Cannes Film Festival · 2018

Cannes Film Festival 2018

Competition

Programme

21 films · 15 reviews

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Asako I & II

Review preview for Asako I & II

Higashide will no doubt attract most attention, impressive in his ability to inhabit two very different characters, yet it's Karata who is the power at the heart of the film.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Asako is a 21-year-old woman, living in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku who has a free spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and she meets Ryohei. He looks just like her ex-boyfriend Baku, but he has a completely different personality.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Tomoka Shibasaki; Stars: Masahiro Higashide, Erika Karata, Kôji Seto)

Full review

Ash Is Purest White (Jiang Hu Er Nv)

A story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.

(Country: China, France, Japan; Year: 2019; Director: Zhangke Jia; Writer: Zhangke Jia; Stars: Tao Zhao, Fan Liao, Xiaogang Feng)

At War

Two years ago, the Perrin Industry Factory, 1100 employees, automotive supplier well known, affiliate to the German group Schäfer, signed an agreement asking to senior-managers and workers to accept a pay cut, in order to save the company in exchange of the promise to protect their jobs on at least the next five years. Today, the company takes the decision to close.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Stéphane Brizé; Writer: Stéphane Brizé; Stars: Vincent Lindon)

Ayka (My Little One)

Review preview for Ayka

They say it's the hope that kills you and Dvortsevoy lets enough light in to emphasise her plight.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A woman who has just given birth abandons her baby in the struggle to survive.

(Country: Russia, Germany, Poland, Kazakhstan, China; Year: 2018; Director: Sergei Dvortsevoy; Writer: Sergei Dvortsevoy, Gennadiy Ostrovskiy; Stars: Samal Yeslyamova)

Full review

BlacKkKlansman

Review preview for BlacKkKlansman

This emerges as a piece of bravura filmmaking that tackles huge themes with style and intelligence while providing a compelling narrative drive.

Richard Mowe · 5 out of 5
Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer from Colorado, successfully managed to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan and became the head of the local chapter.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Spike Lee; Writer: Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz; Stars: Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Laura Harrier, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser, Corey Hawkins)

Full review See: Interview with Spike Lee about BlacKkKlansman and Donald Trump

Burning

Review preview for Burning

Lee works the narrative with an ambivalence that borders on the inscrutable

Sunil Chauhan · 3 out of 5
Jong-soo, a part-time worker, bumps into Hae-mi while delivering, who used to live in the same neighborhood. Hae-mi asks him to look after her cat while she's on a trip to Africa.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2018; Director: Lee Chang-dong; Writer: Lee Chang-dong, based on the short story by Haruki Murakami; Stars: Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Jong-seo, Steven Yeun)

Full review

Capernaum (Capharnaüm)

Review preview for Capernaum

You might notice the elegance of composition while knowing that the place contains so much human suffering.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A child rebels against the life imposed upon him.

(Country: Lebanon, US; Year: 2018; Director: Nadine Labaki; Writer: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany, Georges Khabbaz, Khaled Mouzanar; Stars: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawsar Al Haddad, Fadi Yousef, Haita 'Cedra' Izzam, Alaa Chouchnieh, Nadine Labaki, Elias Khoury, Nour El Husseini, Joseph Jimbazian, Samira Chalhoub, Farah Hasno, Joe Maalouf, Alexandre Youakim)

Full review See: Interview with Nadine Labaki about the lives in Capernaum (Capharnaüm)

Cold War (Zimna Wojna)

Review preview for Cold War

Beautifully shot and articulated.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatally mismatched and yet fatefully condemned to each other.

(Country: Poland, France, United Kingdom; Year: 2018; Director: Pawel Pawlikowski; Writer: Janusz Glowacki, Pawel Pawlikowski; Stars: Joanna Kulig, Jeanne Balibar, Jacek Rozenek, Agata Kulesza, Cédric Kahn, Martin Budny, Borys Szyc, Tomasz Kot, Philip Lenkowsky, Adam Woronowicz, Adam Ferency, Adam Szyszkowski)

Full review

Dogman

Review preview for Dogman

Because Simone is so one-note, it's hard to fully swallow the lengths Marcello ultimately goes to in order to shield him.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A dog groomer finds himself groomed to commit crime.

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2018; Director: Matteo Garrone; Writer: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti; Stars: Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Adamo Dionisi, Francesco Acquaroli, Gianluca Gobbi,)

Full review

Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben)

Review preview for Everybody Knows

While Farhadi certainly knows how to spin a web of intrigue, deceit and suspicion, the narrative has a tendency to leap from strand to strand, often leaving the audience stumbling in its wake.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Secrets resurface after a woman returns to her family's village for a wedding.

(Country: Spain, France, Italy; Year: 2018; Director: Asghar Farhadi; Writer: Asghar Farhadi; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Bárbara Lennie, Ricardo Darín, Jaime Lorente, Carla Campra, Inma Cuesta, Eduard Fernández, Elvira Mínguez, Sara Sálamo, Roger Casamajor, Ramón Barea, Sergio Castellanos, Marianella Rojas, Penélope Cruz)

Full review See: Interview with Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Asghar Farhadi about Everybody Knows

Girls Of The Sun (Les Filles Du Soleil)

A battalion made up entirely of Kurdish female soldiers is on the cusp of taking back control of the city where its commander was captured by extremists a few months earlier.

(Country: France, Belgium, Georgia, Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Eva Husson; Writer: Eva Husson; Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Emmanuelle Bercot, Erol Afsin)

Happy As Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice)

Review preview for Happy As Lazzaro

Newcomer Tardiolo is splendid in the lead.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young nobleman asks a peasant to help fake his own kidnapping.

(Country: Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany; Year: 2018; Director: Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Alice Rohrwacher; Stars: Nicoletta Braschi, Sergi López, Alba Rohrwacher, Natalino Balasso, Tommaso Ragno, Adriano Tardiolo, Luca Chikovani, Leonardo Nigro, Agnese Graziani, Ettore Scarpa, Carlo Massimino, Gala Othero Winter, Nicoletta Braschi, Sergi López, Alba Rohrwacher)

Full review See: Alice Rohrwacher in conversation on Italo Calvino, Astrid Lindgren, folktale magic and the casting for Happy As Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice) , Alice Rohrwacher in conversation on Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice) before The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher at the Museum of Modern Art

The Image Book (Le Livre D'Image, The Picture Book)

Review preview for The Image Book

Elusively impenetrable stuff that only loosely can be described as cinema.

Richard Mowe · 1 out of 5
Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters like the five fingers of a hand.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Jean-Luc Godard; Writer: Jean-Luc Godard)

Full review

Knife + Heart (Un Couteau Dans Le Cour)

Review preview for Knife + Heart

This isn't the kind of film that's destined to win mainstream awards but Paradis' performance deserves to be remembered.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Paris, Summer 1979. Anne produces third-rate gay porn. After her editor and lover Lois leaves her, she tries to win her back by shooting her most ambitious film yet with her trusted, flaming sidekick Archibald... then one of her actors is brutally murdered.

(Country: France, Mexico; Year: 2018; Director: Yann Gonzalez; Writer: Yann Gonzalez, Cristiano Mangione; Stars: Vanessa Paradis, Kate Moran, Nicolas Maury, Noé Hernández, Pierre Emö, Pierre Pirol, Thibault Servière, Naëlle Dariya, Salim Torki, Jeremy Flaum, Vanessa Paradis, Kate Moran, Nicolas Maury, Noé Hernández, Pierre Emö, Félix Maritaud)

Full review

Shoplifters

Review preview for Shoplifters

Some may be dissuaded by the painstaking pace yet the tone manages to be both humorous and heart-rending at the same time.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A family of small-time crooks take in a child they find on the street.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Stars: Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sôsuke Ikematsu, Mayu Matsuoka)

Full review

Sorry Angel (Plaire, Aimer Et Courir Vite)

Review preview for Sorry Angel

Honoré handles the strands with considerable agility and admirable lack of cliché or sentimentality employing camerawork that is clean and uncluttered.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Two gay men struggle with love in the shadow of mortality.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Christophe Honore; Writer: Christophe Honore; Stars: Pierre Deladonchamps, Vincent Lacoste, Denis Podalydès)

Full review See: Christophe Honoré on sex in the Nineties, nudity, seduction and desire in Sorry Angel

Summer (Leto)

Love blossoms in Russia's underground alternative rock scene.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2018; Director: Kiril Serebrennikov; Writer: Lily Idov, Mikhail Idov; Stars: Irina Starshenbaum, Teo Yoo, Roman Bilyk)

Three Faces

The interwoven stories of three Iranian actresses.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2018; Director: Jafar Panahi)

Under The Silver Lake

Review preview for Under The Silver Lake

There are just too many movie references and homage to the likes of David Lynch in this noirish thriller to make it anything other than an over-derivative exercise in style over substance.

Richard Mowe · 2 out of 5
A man becomes obsessed with the strange circumstances of a billionaire mogul's murder and the kidnapping of a girl.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: David Robert Mitchell; Writer: David Robert Mitchell; Stars: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Patrick Fischler, Grace Van Patten, Callie Hernandez, Zosia Mamet, Jeremy Bobb, Sydney Sweeney, Jimmi Simpson, David Yow)

Full review

The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Agaci)

Sinan is passionate about literature and has always wanted to be a writer. Returning to the village where he was born, he pours his heart and soul into scraping together the money he needs to be published, but his father’s debts catch up with him...

(Country: Turkey, Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Sweden; Year: 2018; Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Writer: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Stars: Serkan Keskin, Hazar Ergüçlü, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Dogu Demirkol, Murat Cemcir, Ercüment Balakoglu, Tamer Levent, Öner Erkan, Bennu Yildirimlar, Kadir Çermik, Özay Fecht, Asena Keskinci, Kubilay Tunçer, Sencar Sagdic, Serkan Keskin)

Yomeddine

Review preview for Yomeddine

Shawky allows his characters to sit firmly in the driving seat.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A Coptic leper and his orphaned apprentice leave the confines of the leper colony for the first time and embark on a journey across Egypt to search for what is left of their families.

(Country: Egypt, US, Austria; Year: 2018; Director: AB Shawky; Writer: AB Shawky; Stars: Rady Gamal, Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Shahira Fahmy)

Full review