Cannes Film Festival: our eight favorites

Leila and her brothers By Saeed Roustaee 2h45. From 14 years old. In theaters August 24 .

In competition on the Croisette, it is THE film that was unjustly forgotten on the list of winners of this 75th edition. Between family psychodrama and economic tragedy, Leila and her brothers immerses us in the daily life of a young Iranian woman who hopes to rescue her family drowning in debt. His idea: to buy a shop in a shopping mall to finally offer a flourishing horizon to his family. All that remains is to convince his four brothers, his mother… and especially his father. This one intends his woolen stocking to another ambition: to become the godfather of his extended family clan, pledge of eternal recognition in the Persian tradition. Between the economic survival of his own children and an unquenchable thirst for respectability in the eyes of his cousins, what will the ancestor decide? Rich in subtle interactions, Leila and her brothers reveals a complex mechanism where each protagonist, moved by his individual decisions, contributes – often in spite of himself – to the relentless spiral of fate, thus sealing the fate of his community. Like his compatriot Asghar Farhadi ( A separation, The past, A hero ), Saeed Roustaee is in line with Iranian know-how in the field of cinema.

Tori and Lokita By Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Drama. 1h28. From 14 years old. In theaters September 28 .

We no longer present the Dardenne brothers. The Belgian filmmakers left the Cannes fortnight without a third Palme d’Or (after Rosetta in 1999 and the child in 2005) but were awarded the “Prix du 75e Festival de Cannes”, a well-deserved consolation prize. In the social and realistic vein that characterizes their cinema, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne this time cast their eyes full of humanity on the destiny of young isolated migrants. Tori, not yet out of childhood, and Lokita, a teenager, fled Africa, via Sicily, to find themselves in Belgium. They didn’t know each other but sharing their harsh condition as exiles brought them closer to the point of no longer wanting to be separated. Served by a plot mixing adventure and suspense, Tori and Lokita tells especially the visceral friendship which unites the two beings. To the vulnerability of their status, which exposes them to trafficking of all kinds (racketeering, blackmail, drugs, prostitution, etc.), Tori and Lokita oppose their staggering intelligence of heart, reason and spirit. Or fraternal help as the only way to salvation. A lesson to ponder.

Little Nicolas – What are we waiting for to be happy? By Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre. Animation Film. 1h22. From 6 years old. In theaters October 12.

It was the only animated film invited to the Croisette this year, but no one regretted its presence. Le Petit Nicolas, who has made generations of children (and parents) laugh (smile), is therefore back in service. Do we remember that he was born first in press cartoons then in the form of comics and finally illustrated short stories, when René Goscinny, Asterix’s father, added his talents as a scriptwriter to the line inspired by the illustrator Sempé. These are also the circumstances of the creation of the hero of paper, brilliant alchemy of this artistic tandem, that the film highlights. Of course, we find Nicolas in his works, between his turbulent group of friends and his parents with character traits that are so familiar to us. But the originality of the subject springs in these scenes where Sempé, at his drawing board, and Goscinny, in front of his typewriter, give free rein to their imagination, summoning Nicolas to evoke with him the memories of their own youth. It’s always funny, tender and moving too, in view of the not always rosy childhood confessed by the two creators. There is no doubt that little Nicolas will have helped to brighten up and embellish the daily lives of his readers. An animated film for the whole family, of course.

Nostalgia By Mario Martone Drama. 1h57. From 14 years old. In theaters October 19.

Felice has not set foot in Naples for forty years. Is it because he senses the near end of his aged mother that he agrees to return to her? Or to settle a past that made him hastily leave the city, at the dawn of his 20th birthday? Nostalgia is a stroll through the streets of Naples as well as inside the head of Felice, interpreted with remarkable sobriety by Pierfrancisco Favino. The Italian actor had already impressed, as a repentant figure of the mafia, in The traitor (2019). Mafia, it is also a question here, when Felice joins the fight of Padre Luigi, a priest who tries to resist the octopus. In forty years, nothing seems to have changed in Naples… Carried by a soundtrack with accents of timeless jazz and pop of the 1970s, this film of atmosphere – more than action – wraps the viewer in the same nostalgia that invades Felice, even if you have never visited this city yourself. How not to mention, finally, the reunion between Felice and her mother. From the bath to bedtime, Mario Martone’s camera captures in a modest and poignant way the reversal of roles between a mother and her son, which sounds like a farewell. Moment of grace and gravity. In truth, in fact. The scene without doubt the most moving of this fortnight in Cannes.

Annie Ernaux, the super-8 years By Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot 1h01. From 14 years old. In theaters December 14.

“I try to write what crossed me” says Annie Ernaux to justify her literary vocation. The French novelist lends herself here to an unprecedented exercise to achieve this: reviewing her family video archives and confronting them, fifty years later, with the game of her own memory. On these images shot in super-8, with such characteristic grain and devoid of soundtrack, the feminist writer affixes a chiseled text, a true intimate and collective reinterpretation of the 1970s. A pivotal period for French society – which passed from Pompidolism to mitterrandism – and for Annie Ernaux as well. Parade on the screen these scenes telling the extra-ordinary of our lives – return from shopping, moving in, children’s birthdays, repeated Christmases, skiing holidays, visiting in-laws… With her science of hindsight, the writer takes a unique look at the wife and mother that she was. His comment also does justice to the woman she will soon become, still invisible to our eyes, and to her violent desire, then you, to write. She already does, in secret. “After this film, I think people will see me differently,” says Annie Ernaux. We are not far from thinking like her.

The lucky stars By Hirokazu Kore-eda Drama. 2:09. From 14 years old. In theaters December 7.

On the eve of his 60th birthday, Hirokazu Kore-eda was given two pretty presents on the Croisette. The lucky stars , his new feature film, received the Ecumenical Jury Prize and his actor Song Kang-Ho, the Best Actor Prize. True to his trademark, the Japanese filmmaker chooses the family as his setting. The plot begins around a “baby box”, these baby boxes set up in Japan to collect children abandoned at birth. In debt, a small fashion designer intercepts the children in order to sell them “under the cloak”. Nothing very moral except that the man will be anxious to find the most welcoming family there is. But the case gets complicated when the child’s young mother intends to get her share of the loot and the police also line up to recover it… Palme d’or in 2018 for A family matter , Kore-eda has no equal in revisiting our moral boundaries. His staging, the affection he has for his characters, subtly reveals the foundation of each being, between secret wound and deep desire. In family matters, The lucky stars demonstrate how the ties of meaning can replace blood ties, when the latter are lacking.

Godland From Hlynur Palmason Drama. 2h23. From 14 years old. In theaters December 21.

He seems to be carrying his backpack, from which protrudes a bulky camera, like others would carry their cross. And for good reason: fresh out of a seminary in Denmark, Lucas was sent to Iceland, where the hostility of natural conditions (adverse winds, permanent humidity, rugged terrain) combined, at the end of the 19th century, with the inhabitants’ aversion to the Danish settler. This is at least the case for Ragnar, a fellow boor who must escort Lucas to his new flock. For him, the journey soon takes on the appearance of a test that is both physical and spiritual. As in Assignment (Roland Joffe) or Silence (Martin Scorsese), the sublime excess of landscapes coexists with the radical experience of a faith put to the test. Strapped in his ideals, frightened by his own humanity and the exposure of his weaknesses, Lucas discovers with bitterness his inability to allow himself to be evangelized by those to whom he is supposed to bring Salvation. Godland (“The country of God”, in French) is an intense, immense journey, at the end of faith.

Godland Godland EXTRACT VF “Arrival”

The green scent By Nicolas Pariser Spy comedy. 1h41. From 12 years old. Theatrical release date unknown at this time.

Jewel of intelligence on the local political world, Alice and the Mayor conquered us with his chiseled dialogues for Fabrice Luchini and Anaïs Demoustier. The green scent , a new opus by Nicolas Pariser, enchanted us just as much. Firstly because this spy comedy will delight inveterate fans of Tintin and Alfred Hitchcock in the same spirit. Of The black island at Death on the heels passing through a multitude of other nods, the film is full of references to these masters of comics and the 7th art. At the heart of the plot, Vincent Lacoste plays Martin, an actor from the Comédie-Française accused of having poisoned one of his partners on stage. His sudden disappearance, after the crime, attracts the suspicion of the police… Forced to flee – after having been kidnapped as a bonus! – he will very fortunately meet on his way a comic bookseller, Claire (Sandrine Kiberlain, whimsical as you wish) who will help him trace the thread of a mysterious international organization. Funny, lively, without dead time, briefly jubilant on the form, The green scent also reasons, through its words, with current events: rise of populism in Europe, technological wars, vulnerability of democracies. A good entertainment but not only.

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