After the weekend, half of the Cannes Film Festival has passed. It was a busy weekend, which included the presence of Harrison Ford, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. A luxury that very few festivals can afford.
But of the films starring the aforementioned Hollywood stars, only the one shared by Portman and Moore (May December) is in contention for the Palme d'Or. And it is one of the eleven that the Jury that integrates Damián Szifron already saw and must evaluate to discern the prizes that will be delivered next Saturday 27.
As in total in this edition there are 21 films that compete, you could already guess some of the titles that will be held on Saturday. But the truth is that it did not appear, clearly, that film that has enchanted, liked or has aroused a unanimous seduction.
From here comes a prize. Actors Sandra Hüeller and Christian Friedel surround "The Zone of Interest" director Jonathan Glazer. Photo EFE
There are two that add consensus: they are The Zone of Interest, by the English Jonathan Glazer, and Anatomy d'une chute (Anatomy of a fall), by Jessica Hausner.
One radical and the other, surprising
The first, as we said, is the most radical of those that have been seen in the competition, with the Holocaust shown in a different way. The family of Commander Rudolf Höss lives in a mansion next to Auschwitz, and you can see the smoke from the chimney where the murdered bodies are incinerated, or that of the locomotives of the trains that bring the deportees to that complex in occupied Poland, the largest killing center of the Third Reich.
Sandra Hüller, at a press conference. She plays the wife of a Nazi commander. Photo Reuters
The other is more recent. Anatomy d'une chute, by Justine Triet (her film Sibyl competed in 2019), surprised for good. It is a film that a good part of its two and a half hours takes place in a courtroom, where the guilt or not of Sandra (Sandra Hüller, of the excellent Toni Erdmann), the wife of Samuel (Samuel Theis), who apparently has committed suicide by throwing herself from a window of her house on the outskirts of a French town.
Anatomy has a scene that mobilizes and arouses strong interest: a discussion that the couple has had a day before the death of Samuel, very revealing of the pain, feelings, fears and resentments in the couple, whose young son (Milo Machado Graner), who has optic nerves injured by an accident, He must testify.
"Anatomie d'une chute" is among the eleven of the 21 films that have already been shown in competition for the Palme d'Or. Photo Reuters
The film really catches and strains the nerves from that scene, because everything that was believed to be true, might not be.
The two films could have been to Östlund's liking: the second for the dissection of that family, as the Swede has done in Force Majeure, undoubtedly his best film. And it was directed by one of the six female filmmakers in the competition. And she's French. And...
Alice Vikander, the Swede who was "The Danish Girl" and is now English queen, and Jude Law. AFP Photo
The other novelty of Sunday -which for a matter of embargoes, we can only comment now) was Firebrand (Le jeu de la reine), directed by the Brazilian Karim Aïnouz (Madame Sata, winner in Un certain regard for The invisible life of Eurydice Gusmao).
If in the opening we saw a somewhat chubby Johnny Depp like King Louis XV of France, now it is Jude Law who is overweight to play King Henry VIII. Yes, the one with the six wives, the despot. But the film focuses on his last wife, Catherine Parr, who is played by Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl).
Jude Law is the despot Henry VIII. Will the film arrive in Argentina? Photo Larry D. Horricks
La jeu de la reine – which translated is The Queen's Game – is then the English debut of a Brazilian filmmaker, with a Swedish actress and yes, an English interpreter in the foreground. In these times when female empowerment is more remarkable than in more recent ones, the story of the queen who dared to challenge her husband and, unlike her five predecessors, literally did not die in the attempt or lose the crown, has its attractions.
Catherine was independent, when no one dreamed of it, and inspired by her reformist friend Anne (Erin Doherty), she was the foundation stone of a freer English society. The infection in one leg of the king leads one to think that his days are numbered, but the despot has time to suspect that his wife is disloyal to him. Will it be?
Gabrielle Tana, Thierry Frémaux, director Karim Ainouz, Alicia Vikander and Jude Law on the red carpet of the Lumière. Photo EFE
Those who remember the history books in high school, know it. Those who don't, cross your fingers to see if any distributor buys the film and releases it in theaters in Argentina.
Special Envoy
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