Cannesversations – Details, episodes & analysis

On this episode, we (Eliana & Patrick) catch up one week after the festivities to wrap up our Cannesversations coverage of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

In this episode, we are joined by Öykü Sofuoğlu, independent film critic and podcast guest regular, to discuss:

• Post-festival impressions and the following films:
• Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes
  • (Competion) - Best Director Award
    • @ ~32 min 00
• All We Imagine As Light by Payal Kapadia
  • (Competion) - Grand Jury Prize
    • @ ~51 min 10
• Anora by Sean Baker
  • Palme d'or Competition Winner
    • @ ~ 51 min 25

You can find all of Öykü's trilingual work on Linktr.ee here!!

Follow us on X (Twitter):

• Öykü
• Patrick
• Cannesversations (in the works ;))

Thanks for listening!

Comments or suggestions or want to get in touch? -> cannesversations@proton.me

Credits:

Image: Cannes 77e poster © Shochiku Co., Ltd. – Rhapsody in August by Akira Kurosawa (1991) / Graphic creation © Hartland Villa + Official Anora Image

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Extract Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

Welcome back to our coverage of the 77e of the Cannes Film Festival! Episode 4!

We (Eliana & Patrick) look forward to sharing our first reactions and giving a sneak peek at the festival's ongoing films and events.

In this episode, we are joined by Łukasz Mańkowski, an independent film critic and programmer for the annual Five Flavours Asian Film Festival, which will take place this year between November 11-20 in Warsaw, Poland. Check it out!

We catch up on day nine of twelve to discuss the following films:

• Desert of Namibia |ナミビアの砂 by 山中瑶子 Yamanaka Yoko (Quinzaine des Cinéastes | Directors Fortnight)
• Caught by the Tides | 风流一代 by 賈樟柯 Jiǎ Zhāngkē (Competition)
• An Unfinished Film | 一部未完成的电影 by 婁燁 Lóu Yè (Cannes Special Screening Section)

and briefly :

• Black Dog | 狗阵 by 管虎 Guan Hu (Un Certain Regard)
• Viet and Nam by Truong Mihn Quý (Un Certain Regard)
• Blue Sun Palace by Constance Tsang |曾佩裕 (Semaine de la Critique | Critics Week)

Coming Soon... ?

• Anora by Sean Baker (Competition)
• All We Imagine As Light by Payal Kapadia (Competion)
• Miséricorde | Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie (Cannes Première)
• Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes (Competion)
• Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino (Competition)
• and more...

You can find Łukasz's work on Senses of Cinema, Asian Movie Pulse, MUBI Notebook, etc!

For Polish speakers, you can read his recent Jia Zhang Ke Caught by the Tides review here!

You can also follow him on X.

Thanks for listening!

Comments or suggestions or want to get in touch? -> cannesversations@proton.me

Credits:

Image: Cannes 77e poster © Shochiku Co., Ltd. – Rhapsody in August by Akira Kurosawa (1991) / Graphic creation © Hartland Villa + Official Bird Poster

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Extract Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

This week on Cannesversations, Eliana and Patrick discuss Valeska Grisebach’s self-described "dance with the Western genre," the 2017 Cannes Un Certain Regard film Western. Considered by some to be part of the second generation of the Berlin School and by others to be one of the distinct voices of the New Austrian Cinema, Grisebach distinguishes herself through her filmmaking approach by favoring a collaborative process with her actors in the conceptualization of scenes.

Strangely enough, this does not take away from her directorial signature style, yet rather establishes her as one of the leading filmmakers of world cinema concerned with narrative realism. Western implements documentary-style filmmaking techniques to speak to the subsisting undercurrent themes of colonization and masculinity with contemporary panache and vigilant subtlety.

Credit/ Resources:

• Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School, Camden House, 2013.Martine Floch. „Western, de Valeska Grisebach (2017).” Histoire Politique, https://doi.org/10.4000/histoirepolitique.5350.Codruța Morari. European Auteurs Revisit the Western: Thomas Bidegain’s Les Cowboys and Valeska Grisebach’s Western.
• New German Critique: An Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies. 2019;46(3 [138]):11-34.
• Tony Pipolo. Small Talk. “Tony Pipolo on Valeska Grisebach’s Western.” Artforum, February 2018.
• Peter Scheinpflug. „Western (Valeska Grisebach, 2017). Home is here the horse is, oder: Valeska Grisebachs respektvolle Demontage des Westernhelden.”
• Lola, Toni, Yella und die anderen: Der deutsche Film nach 1990, Brill | Fink, 2023, pp. 417-434.
• Victoria Steiner. „Der deutsche Weste(r)n zu Valeska Grisebachs WESTERN (2017) – unter anderem.“ Medienobservationen, pp. 1-20.
• Peter Verstraten “Valeska Grisebach’s Western: An Unacknowledged Remake of Samuel Fuller’s ‘Run of the Arrow.’” Senses of Cinema, Issue 87, June 2018.
• Catherine Wheatly. “Not Politics but People: The ‘Feminine Aesthetic’ of Valeska Grisebach and Jessica Hausner.” New Austrian Film, Berghahn Books, 2011, pp. 136-147.

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKAPNjgkNS4

This week Patrick and Eliana discuss Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 Cannes Jury Prize winner, Festen (The Celebration). The inaugural Dogme 95 film is filled with frenetic energy that put Denmark back on the filmmaking landscape as it attempted to break free from that which was mainstream and conventional.

Resources:

• C. Claire Thomson. Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen. University of Washington Press, 2013.Liliana Pedrón de Martín. “Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen (1998). An Attempt to Avoid Madness through Denunciation.”
• The Couch and the Silver Screen. Psychoanalytic Reflections on European Cinema, edited by Andrea Sabbadini, Brunner-Rutledge, 2003, pp. 94-99.Götsch, Dietmar: „Schimmer des Vergangenen. Überlegungen zu Thomas Vinterbergs Film Festen.“ Mediale Wirklichkeiten, edited by Andrea Nolte, Schüren, 2003 (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium 15), pp. 19–26. DOI: doi.org/doi:10.25969/mediarep/14375.
• Jesper Jargil. De lutrede. Jesper Jargil Film, 2002Cast and crew interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R24lXd8EmMA

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcveW3hH7gQ

Eliana and Patrick have decided to keep Cannesversations afloat by riffling through the abundance of films historically screened at the Cannes Film Festival. This week we discuss Bob Fosse and his 1979 Palme d'Or winning All that Jazz and give our take on the legacy of the unapologetically frank choreographer whose personal and professional brilliance gave us this timeless spectacle.

Resources:

• Jenai Kutcher: Bob Fosse. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006.
• Dara Milovanovic: “The Fosse Woman. Analysis of Femininity, Aesthetics, and Corporeality.” www.eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/42587/1/Milovanovic-D.pdf
• Vincent Canby: www.nytimes.com/1979/12/20/archives/the-screen-roy-scheider-stars-in-all-that-jazzpeter-pan-syndrome.html
• Martin Gottfried: All His Jazz. The Life and Death of Bob Fosse. Da Capo Press, 2003.
• Glen O. Gabbard, Krin Gabbard: “Vicissitudes of Narcissism in the Cinematic Autobiography.” Psychoanalytic Review, Summer 1984.
• Sam Wasson: Fosse. Eamon Dolan / Mariner, 2014.
• Shlomit Aharoni Lir, Liat Ayalon: “The Ethos of the Auteur as Father of the Film Craft – on Masculinity, Creativity and the Art of Filmmaking.” Creativity Studies, 15 (1), DOI: 10.3846/cs.2022.14258.
• Alvin J. Seltzer: “All That Jazz. Bob Fosse’s Solipsistic Masterpiece.” Literature/Film Quarterly, 45 (1), 1996, pp. 99-104.

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Intro: Bob Fosse Interview

Patrick and Eliana wrap up our coverage of the 76th Cannes Film Festival and discuss the closing ceremony, Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winner- Anatomie d'une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall), Catherine Breillat's L'été Dernier (Last Summer), and Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera.

Palme d'Or winning Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) & L'été Dernier (Catherine Breillat) and La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)

• 0:00 Intro End of Cannes + Closing Ceremony
• 13:26- Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall
• 36:46 - Catherine Breillat’s L’été Dernier
• 58:46 - Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera

You can follow Patrick and Eliana on Letterboxd!

~Until next time!

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive

Patrick and Eliana are joined by Giancarlo to talk about films on day eleven of the Cannes Film Festival: Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, Victor Erice's Close your Eyes (Cerrar los Ojos), and Pham Thien An's Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.

Jonathan Glazers' The Zone of Interest, Victor Erice's Close your Eyes (Cerrar los Ojos), Pham Thien An's Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

1. Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest -00:04:26 - 00:27:18
2. Victor Erice's Close Your Eyes 00:27:19 - 00:38:48
3. Pham Thien An's Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell - 00:38:48 - 01:02:38

You can follow Patrick , Eliana or GC on Letterboxd!

Patrick and Eliana are joined by Öykü to talk about films on day nine of the Cannes Film Festival: Nuri Bilge Ceylan's About Dry Grasses, Joanna Arnow's The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, and Todd Haynes' May December.

Cannes 76: "About Dry Grasses", "The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed", "May December"

1. Nuri Bilge Ceylan - About Dry Grasses 00:04:10 - 00:21:03
2. Joanna Arnow- The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed 00:21:03- 00:27:30
3. Todd Haynes - May December 00:27:30 - 00:45:00

You can follow Patrick , Eliana or Öykü on Letterboxd!

Patrick and Eliana talk about films on day four of the 76th Cannes Film Festival: Steve McQueen's Occupied City, Wim Wender's Anselm, Wang Bing's Youth (Spring) 春 and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster. Excuses for uploading this much later than we had hoped!

Cannes 76: "Occupied City", "Anselm", "Youth (Spring) 春" & "Monster"

1. Steve McQueen's Occupied City 00:02:04 - 00:10:19
2. Wim Wender's Anselm 00:10:20 - 00:16:06
3. Wang Bing's Youth (Spring) 00:16:07 - 00:28:35
4. Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster 00:28:35 - 00:45:25

You can follow Patrick and Eliana on Letterboxd!

Patrick and Eliana talk about expectations and films on day two of the 76th Cannes Film Festival and Jacques Rivette's L'Amour Fou and Maïwenn's Jeanne du Barry. We still need a jingle!

Rundown of the Festival and Expectations 00:00

Jacques Rivette's L'Amour Fou 00:27:46

Maïwenn's Jeanne du Barry 00:31:53

You can follow Patrick and Eliana on Letterboxd!