L W L ies reports o n t h e h its a n d misses f rom t h e 2 0 1 1 C a n n e s F i l m F e s t i v a l
Sleeping Beauty
Directed by Julia Leigh ETA 2011 Opening the Competition was Australian director Julia Leigh’s would-be controversystirrer about a young girl sucked into high-end erotic intrigue while being paid to sleep naked and drugged as a series of old men have their way with her. Handsomely produced, Sleeping Beauty’s determined inertia – though mirroring the alienated anomie of its lead character – fatally hobbles any dramatic impact, despite a gutsy performance from Emily Browning.
Wu Xia
Directed by Peter Chan ETA Early 2012 With action choreography by Donnie Yen, Wu Xia positions itself at the head of the current crop of kung fu movies streaming out of China. Yen plays an apparently mild-mannered villager haunted by a past that revisits him with violent intent. Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a doubting sleuth, but the awesome fight sequences are the real stars.
Martha Marcy May Marlene
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Polisse
Toomelah
Directed by Sean Durkin ETA Late 2011 From Park City to the Palais, Sean Durkin’s tongue-twisting psychodrama has already picked up a fervent buzz on this year’s festival circuit. And rightly so. The first time director enlists the mighty John Hawkes as a charismatic cult leader, and newcomer Elizabeth Olsen as a schizophrenic teen who escapes his clutches. This is American indie cinema at its most haunting and assured.
Directed by Maïwenn ETA TBC This ambitious, polarising slice of life inside Paris’ Child Protection Unit is a difficult film to like. Veering from black humour to stark realism to corny melodrama, Polisse sees itself as a shocking exposé of the toll that child abuse takes not just on the victims, but those assigned to protect them. The ensemble cast throw themselves at the (often shocking) material, but there’s a TV feel that the film never escapes.
Directed by Lynne Ramsay ETA October 2011 Despite not walking away with an award, Lynne Ramsay knocked audiences for six with her menacing adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s popular 2003 novel. Tilda Swinton is superb as the crestfallen mother carrying the burden of her teenage son’s high school killing spree. Ramsay’s bold symbolism is a little overpowering at times, but she achieves a fluid harmony between sensitive subject matter and crowd-stirring cinema.
Directed by Ivan Sen ETA TBC Destined to win praise at film festivals but unlikely to experience life in a multiplex, Toomelah is an admirable if flawed drama set in an isolated Aboriginal community in New South Wales. Here, 10-year-old Daniel fights social circumstances and historical tides as he struggles to piece together a future. Shot on location and with non-professionals, the result is gritty but amateurish.
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