Cannes 2009: Crime seems to pay at this year’s festival

There has been a spate of crime-related films over the last couple of days in Cannes. First up was the exceptional Un Prophete, a film that will surely be a huge hit when it eventially makes it to our shores (its French release is scheduled for August). Slick, tightly executed and with a pace that is kept up throughout its 150 minute duration it recalls the very best of Scorcese. The film is set mostly inside a prison where Malik an illiterate 19-year-old is sent to serve a 6 year sentence. He is soon forced to work for the Corsican mafia who appear to have a hold on the place and as time goes by he picks up the way of life inside and grows in confidence and character. The subject matter is dramatic in its own right yet there is no sense of the hollow sensationalism of much of contemporary Hollywood, it almost feels, dare I say it, realistic. Audriard has succeeded in doing Hollywood better than Hollywood itself.

If you caught 12.08 East of Bucharest last year you’ll know what’s to be expected of Porumboiu’s latest film Politist, Adjectiv a film about a policeman who makes a moral stand against arresting someone suspected of dealing cannabis. Like some of his Eastern European contemporaries the director is a fan of long, uninterrupted takes that absorb the atmosphere of the scene, the minutiae detail of everyday life and the sense of time passing. His unfalterring gaze follows his characters as they walk through the street or as they wait to go into a meeting and not a second is shaved off for the sake of speeding up the story. It has some wonderfully funny parts and if you have the patience to quietly absorb the atmosphere of the film you'll be well rewarded.

One film that appears to have received an unfair slating is Kinatay, made by Filipino director Mendoza. I made the mistake of thinking within the first 20 minutes that the film would play out in quite a predictable way, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It follows a lively young student who does the occasional errand for a local crook. One evening he is asked to help out on a bigger job and quickly becomes embroiled in a horrific crime. Most of the duration of the film documents the unfolding events of that one night, from evening until dawn. It’s not a perfect film, for one I’m not sure how realistic it is for a boy to so quickly be drawn into the criminal underworld that’s depicted. However, having said that there are several strengths of the film which many critics seem to have ignored. As the events of that one evening are revealed there is a real sense of growing terror, I can think of very few films that have portrayed this in such an effective way. We are all familiar with the horror genre but Kinatay goes part of the way to actually reproducing a fraction of how it would feel to suddenly be caught in a situation that you can’t get out of and which is truly horrific. If nothing else it should at least be applauded for this.

Well away from the topic of crime was Rachel Weisz’s latest film, Agora, directed by Aloejandro Amenabar (him of Abre Los Ojos fame). It’s an epic, big-budget endeavour set in Egypt in 341 AD. Full marks go to the recreation of early Alexandria, it looks fabulous, however there are far too many emotionally-led clichés for this to be a good film. And the orchestral, heart-string pulling music often seems to take the role of images to tell the story. Not an unwatchable film but not an effective one either.

In other news entirely, I yesterday saw an elephant walk down the main street in Cannes with so many people watching out for stars on the red carpet it only turned a few heads!