12 films of the Cannes Film Festival - 2018, which should not be missed by any film fan

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Why watch and when to wait for the festival hits, which were spoken about by the audience of the most prestigious film screening in the world.

1. Ecstasy

The most spectacular film of the festival did not get into the main competition and could not compete for "Palm Branch". But all viewers who have watched Gaspar Noe's movies claim that they have experienced real ecstasy.

Based on a true story, the film is all about a group of dancers having a party in which someone injected LSD into the sangria. The director's arsenal includes long shots, acidic full-screen credits, ultra-violence and musically filmed promiscuity. In one of the roles - the French dancer, star of the films "Kingsman: The Secret Service" and "Explosive Blonde" Sofia Boutella.

When released

It is not yet known whether the film was purchased for Russian distribution.

What to watch from similar

Noe's previous films: the hallucinogenic Entry Into Void and the shocking Irreversible.

2. Border

The winner of the "Special Look" section at the festival was a Swedish horror tale on the theme of love, tolerance and self-identification based on the author's novel "Let Me In".

In the story, a customs officer in the port of Stockholm, who has an absolute nose, growl and ugly face, meets a smuggler who looks like her and soon finds out that she is a troll. The film turns into an unusual genre hodgepodge that combines Nordic realism, comedy and Scandinavian folklore.

When released

It is not yet known whether the film was purchased for Russian distribution.

What to watch from similar

Contemporary Swedish classics: Let Me In or The Troll Hunters.

3. Blazing

This film set a record for positive ratings. Never before in the recent history of the festival have critics been so unanimous about the best picture. However, Korean director Lee Chang-don did not get the Palme d'Or.

The tape, based on the story of Haruki Murakami, focuses on several elements at once: a love triangle, golden youth, the disappearance of a girl, the ambitions of an aspiring writer and flaming greenhouses. To the end, to understand what the picture is about, will not work, as well as to tear yourself away from the screen.

When released

5'th of July.

What to watch from similar

Lee Chang-dong's previous films such as Poetry and The Disappearance of George Sluiser.

4. Happy Lazarus

This is only the third tape of 36-year-old Alice Rohrwaker, but the director has already developed an impressive festival career. With the previous film "Miracles", the girl took the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival. Whereas this year she was expected to receive the main award, but only got the "Prize for the script".

Although the plot in her new film is not the main thing. It is known that cinema in a free form retells the biblical story of the resurrected Lazarus. What remains a mystery and what you want to see for yourself as soon as possible is how the Italian woman again managed to conquer the festival audience with her humanism.

When released

Unknown. The previous film by Rohrwaker, Miracles, had to wait four years.

What to watch from similar

Miracles, classic films by Fellini and Ermanno Olmi.

5. Capernaum

Zane is only 12 years old, but he is already forced to provide for his family: his parents do not have the money to issue him even a birth certificate. One day on the streets of Beirut, Zane will stab someone with a knife and go to jail for it. Then he will sue his parents for giving birth to him.

After its premiere in Cannes, many journalists described the film as overtly manipulative and sentimental, while others wrote about the outstanding work of Lebanese director Nadine Labaki with children. On one point, critics agreed unanimously: 13-year-old Zayn al Raffea, who played the main role, is the most amazing discovery of this festival.

When released

Unknown.

What to watch from similar

Many films have been made about children and poverty (from Chaplin's The Kid to Slumdog Millionaire), but the closest thing to Labaki's story will be City of God.

6. Image and speech

If you've watched Jean-Luc Godard's previous work Farewell to Speech, don't be surprised at what the outstanding classic has prepared this time. Image and Speech equally co-exist with Michael Bay film cuts, YouTube videos, offscreen muttering about geopolitics and the Arab world, and an endless stream of a wide variety of audiovisual images.

In a sense, the approach of Godard, who received the "Special Palm" for his experiment, can be called a film installation. On the basis of the film, they are indeed going to launch a traveling museum exhibition. Let's hope the tape reaches our cinemas faster.

When released

Unknown.

What to watch from similar

Godard's later films Farewell to Speech, Film Socialism, and Guy Maddin's experiments with cinema (The Forbidden Room, The Keyhole).

7. Cold War

The Pole Pavel Pavlikovsky received an Oscar for “I’m going”, beating Andrei Zvyagintsev in the voting. And for the "Cold War" shown in the Cannes competition - only a prize in the "Best Director" category. Although, judging by the reviews, I could have left with the Palme d'Or, if the jury had been a little more supportive.

As in Ida, Pawlikowski continues to explore the historical trauma of the Polish people through the prism of deeply personal stories. So in the center of the Cold War, it would seem, is a story about the relationship between the singer Zula and the pianist Viktor stretched over time against the background of the silent confrontation between communism and the West. In fact, this is a touching and incredibly beautiful message to the director's parents, whose lives repeat the fates of the characters on screen.

When released

Unknown.

What to watch from similar

"I am going" by Pavel Pavlikovsky.

8. Under Silver Lake

Four years ago, director David Robert Mitchell impressed Cannes audiences with "It", which turned out to be a statement about HIV stuffed into a horror shell. This time, he brought an even more unusual toy to Cannes - an intricate and veiled story about a pop culture conspiracy with greetings to David Lynch.

The main character, played by Andrew Garfield, wanders around Los Angeles in search of a mysterious blonde with whom he slept the day before. Of course, the search will lead the guy to stunning discoveries, and the film - to the laurels of the cult cinema of the generation of hipsters.

When released

This summer.

What to watch from similar

Paintings by Donnie Darko and Tales of the South by another iconic American, Richard Kelly.

9. Black clanman

Spike Lee's comedy in Cannes has become a real outlet among the typically serious competition program. Perhaps that is why she received the Grand Prix of the festival.

The film tells how, in 1979, a black policeman conducted a successful operation to eliminate the Ku Klux Klan, having previously enlisted there by phone. The roles of law enforcement officers are audience favorite Adam Driver and Denzel Washington's son John David. In the guise of a cartoonish clan leader - cute Topher Grace. The episode features activist and legend of Afro-Caribbean music Harry Belafonte.

However, it would be strange if Spike Lee's tape had completely dispensed with a political agenda. Expect taunts against Trump and reminders that the issue of racism in America is still unresolved.

When released

The 4th of October.

What to watch from similar

Spike Lee's Major Films: From Do It Right To Chirak.

10. Girl

One of the sensations at Cannes 2018 was this Belgian painting. In the story, fifteen-year-old Lara moves with her father and brother to a new city to study at the ballet academy. She does not feel sorry for herself, wipes her fingers into the blood and rehearses to the point of insanity. But following her dreams is more difficult for her than others, because Lara was born in the body of a boy.

Debutants Lucas Dont and Victor Polster received some of the most accolades at the festival and all awards in the "For Beginners" category. The success of the film demonstrates that transgenderness is gradually becoming a taboo in the movies.

When released

Unknown.

What to watch from similar

Black Swan and Xavier Dolan's films, most notably Laurence Still.

11. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

What this year's Cannes Film Festival will definitely be remembered for is the premiere of Terry Gilliam's highly anticipated film.

Only the lazy did not hear about the fate of the long-suffering project of the former montypayton. The tape was in production chaos for 20 years, the filming of the first version was destroyed by a hurricane and lawsuits, and among the performers at various stages were Sean Connery and Johnny Depp.

As a result, the tape was filmed with the help of Adam Driver and Jonathan Price, and the premiere in Cannes was postponed until the last moment. After such a difficult journey to the heart of the viewer, it seems absolutely impossible not to see this picture.

When released

This fall.

What to watch from similar

"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" and "The Brothers Grimm" by Terry Gilliam.

12. The house that Jack built

We have long suspected that no film by Lars von Trier could be complete without a scandal. The premiere of the new tape of the Danish provocateur only confirmed this axiom.

On the day of the show, journalists vied with each other that more than a hundred people had left the hall. Many complained that women and children were bullied in the film (the list of offenders did not end there). One of the main rumors was the stuffing that the leg of the duck, cut off according to the plot, was real.

Trier himself, as usual, only grinned in response. Whereas the critics who sat to the end drew the necessary parallels and came to the conclusion: the story of the maniac Jack, who elevated murder to the rank of art, is not only Trier's paraphrase of Dante's "Hell", but also a caustic criticism of himself. It is clearly better for the faint of heart to pass by.

When released

29th of November.

What to watch from similar

Other dark and vile films by von Trier: "Antichrist" and "Nymphomaniac".