Cannes 2009: The Highs, The Lows and The Gore

Cannes has always been the source of some of the best movie gossip: hundreds of films, scores of stars and 4000 journalists make for a heady mix. It’s also the place that shows the biggest films first and where the international press are renowned for not holding back on giving their very honest opinion as the credits roll (whether it’s boos or cheers). Here’s our selection of the films that caused some of the biggest buzz at this year’s festival.

Lars von Trier and his disturbing film Antichrist could perhaps be honoured as the most talked about of Cannes 2009. A couple take a trip to their woodland cabin following the death of their son, only for paranoia, grief and the force of nature to combine with gruesome consequences. With scenes of graphic sex, violence and genital mutilation you might not want to watch it whilst eating. What many journalists (including this one) found most horrifying however was the underlying misogyny of the work, where the ‘evil’ of the story is entirely entwined with femininity. Were it not for this, some of the film’s more experimental aesthetics (extreme, out of focus shots and inventive woodland imagery) would be likely to garner greater praise.

Away from the gore, although not the violence, was Jacques Audiard’s outstanding prison drama A Prophet. If you’ve seen the director’s previous film The Beat that My Heart Skipped, about a gangster torn between the criminal underworld and his ambition to be a concert pianist, you’ll know Audiard’s skill at combining human emotion and dramatic subject matter in a slick and genuine way. A Prophet is even more accomplished, perfectly paced and with a momentum that is kept up throughout its 150 minutes.

Korean director Park Chan-Wook continued the trend for blood and violence with his surrealist vampire flick Thirst. Despite being more than 10 years in the making and having a strong opening sequence the film runs away with itself in the last third to become increasingly more bizarre and silly. Unfortunately the tightness of Oldboy hasn’t made it through to Chan-Wook’s latest.

Bright Star provided a pleasant respite from all the blood and violence in the form of a gentle and touching story of the relationship between John Keats and his neighbour Fanny Brawne. Jane Campion (winner of the Palme D’Or in 1993 for The Piano) makes full use of the luscious English countryside to tell this tale of poetry and love, without falling into cliché. Although according to one American journalist I overheard, “it could have done with a sex scene”.

And finally, one of the most impressive British films to screen at the festival was Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank. Her Glasgow-set debut feature Red Road marked the arrival of a unique voice in British cinema and her follow-up is equally powerful. It explores the life of a 15-year-old Essex teenager whose emotions are thrown into turmoil when her mother brings home a new boyfriend. The lead performance by Kate Jarvis (who was discovered on a train platform arguing with her boyfriend) is particularly compelling too. It’s great to see that Fish Tank will also be coming to Edinburgh for the film festival in June, definitely one to get tickets for.