Suitcases closed, taxi booked, check-in done. Now all that remains is to wait for take-off. Direction? Rome. After thirteen days, he returns home. Happy? Yes. Because nothing is like the bed at home, but also because here at Cannes 2023 we got to see an enormous amount of films, widening our gaze towards contemporary cinema. We dealt with a truly international audience, a journey that was, in some way, the starting point. Yes, even for the Movieplayer editorial team. In short, a new beginning. At 360°. A Cannes that served to bring the right sprint, laying the foundations for the coming months, always evaluating cinema for what it is: a wonderful art form capable of astounding, amusing, entertaining, frightening, moving.
We have set aside visions to which we will return, we have taken note of the new influences, we have approached the new authors and new authors. We got excited for Martin Scorsesewe were moved by Indiana Jones, we supported – without parochialism – our productions: The malt by Alice Rohrwacher Kidnapped by Marco Bellocchio The sun of the future by Nanni Moretti. Three different films, three films that demonstrate the temperature of our cinema. A cinema (despite everything) still alive, original, cohesive. Therefore, while the pilot of our flight is recommending that you fasten your seat belts, and with your head already projected towards Venice 80, we leave you with our suggestions and preferences. ByeCannes!
The preferences of Valentina Aries
Top 5
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Killers of the Flower Moon. Martin Scorsese is back with a film-river, 3 hours and 30 which flow wonderfully, in which he questions himself once again about spirituality and greed. This time, however, he is far removed from his criminal protagonists, never so charmless and narrow-minded.
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Perfect Days. Wim Wenders gives us the best protagonist of this edition of the Cannes Film Festival: Kōji Yakusho in the role of Hirayama is unforgettable.
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The malt. Alice Rohrwacher confirms herself as one of the most original voices not only of Italian but international cinema. If Italy can win something at this Cannes 76, we would like to bet on it.
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The Goldman Case. Cédric Kahn is not only a good actor, but also a very good director. In this rigorous film, entirely set in a courtroom, he not only recounts a historical fact, but also questions the concept of truth. The protagonist Arieh Worthalter is very good.
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Strange Way of life. Pedro Almodóvar’s short starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal is a feast for the eyes, with a pair of protagonists full of chemistry. It would be nice to see the feature film.
The surprise
Kidnapped. Marco Bellocchio is not a surprise, of course, but that he has managed to bring a new mammoth film to Cannes only a year after the presentation of Night exterior it is a very pleasant confirmation.
The delusion
Asteroid City. We love Wes Anderson, he has created an unmistakable style, but for some years now he has been a victim of his own “Wesandersonism”. This new film is no exception, with the aggravating circumstance of fragmenting the story into many small scenes due to the exaggerated number of protagonists.
Scena shock
Anatomy of a Fall. The terrible experiment of the protagonist’s son on her dog. The animal was so convincing that it won the Palm Dog.
Scena cult
Fallen Leaves. The first date at the home of the protagonists of Aki Kaurismäki’s film. All the dialogues between them are memorable, but the preparation for dinner is very remarkable.
Killers of the Flower Moon, review: the banality of evil according to Scorsese
Antonio Cuomo’s preferences
Top 5
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Perfect Days. For the delicacy, the elegance, the measure. And the emotion that Wim Wenders gives together with his splendid protagonist.
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Monster. Because even pain can be beautiful and Hirokazu Kore-eda reminds us of it with grace.
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The Zone of Interest. Jonathan Glazer slaps us with unique elegance and depth. He fascinates and hurts.
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Kidnapped. For the lucidity that a master of cinema like Marco Bellocchio still manages to demonstrate from the top of his experience.
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The malt. Alice Rohrwacher’s confirmation later Happy Lazarusa film that we hope the jury will like at least as much as we did.
Bonus: Killer of the Flower Moonbecause the three and a half hours signed by Martin Scorsese compete on another playing field.
The surprise
Robot Dreams. Surprise because it’s splendid, surprise because deceptively passed off by Cannes as Kid Screening. Entertainment is for everyone, entertainment excites everyone.
The delusion
Asteroid City. The feeling is that it is the disappointment of Cannes 76 almost unanimously, because it is the usual Wes Anderson from a visual point of view, but tired from a narrative point of view.
Scena shock
Sleep e The Old Oak. Without spoilers, two films and two shocks for animal lovers.
Scena cult
The temptation would be to include the entire three and a half hours of Martin Scorsese, but the dance at a distance of Dog and Robot, the two wonderful protagonists of Robot Dreams.
Perfect Days, the review: a great protagonist in a film that celebrates simplicity and everyday life
The preferences of Luca Ottocento
Top 5
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The Zone of Interest. Jonathan Glazer returns to the cinema ten years after Under the Skin with a powerful, original and unconventional Holocaust film.
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Perfect Days. Wim Wenders really did a small miracle in recounting with remarkable tact and humanity (and very few words) the moving daily life of a lonely, sensitive and empathetic cleaner of Tokyo’s public toilets.
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Fallen Leaves. Delicious auteur romantic comedy, Aki Kaurismaki’s latest work hits the mark for irony, delicacy and restraint.
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Monster. With this new, delicate and intimate work of his, the Japanese auteur Kore-eda once again confirms that he is absolutely one of the most important figures in contemporary Asian cinema.
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Anatomy of a Fall e Kidnapped. The films of the French director Justine Triet and our Marco Bellocchio, very different from each other, were among the most stimulating from a visual and narrative point of view.
The surprise
Perfect Days. The great German author Wim Wenders finally returns to the very high levels he had accustomed us to until the first half of the 1990s.
The delusion
Asteroid City e May December (ex-aequo). Wes Anderson and Todd Haynes, the only two American authors present in the competition, brought to the Croisette two out of focus and uninspired works, far below their means.
Cult scene and shock scene
The final scene of The Zone of Interest, with which with an ingenious and simple choice of assembly the past is connected to the present. So powerful and amazing that it deserves mention for both the cult scene and the shock scene.
The Zone of Interest, the review: the horror of an inconceivable normality
Damiano Panattoni’s preferences
Top 5
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The malt. Alice Rohrwacher does not miss a film. From The wonders until Happy Lazarusthe director with The malt proves once again that she is among the most surprising European filmmakers, making a palindrome film of extremely rare beauty.
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Four Daughters. The true story of a mother and her four daughters. A film that is a documentary, but also a theatrical and organic representation, as well as a stream of consciousness that expands through three colors: blue, black, red. The Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania directs.
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The Sweet East. American independent cinema has never been so healthy, as well as punctual in photographing the welfare state of the United States. And so we fell in love with the film by Sean Price Williams (newcomer), a playful journey of a little girl in search of something. Protagonist, the revelation Talia Ryder.
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The Settlers. In a digital world, it’s wonderful to discover that there are still directors tied to another way of storytelling and directing. As in the case of Felipe Gálvez, the Chilean director with an interesting eye, who has staged a male western with the genocide of the natives as a backdrop in the early 20th century in Patagonia.
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Kidnapped. Marco Bellocchio’s narrative lucidity is incredible, incredible how much each of his films contains such power as to be unsettling. It is no less Kidnapped, imagined by the director as if it were a horror film. Space the soundtrack by Fabio Massimo Capogrosso. Refined the quote a The great dictator the Chaplin.
The surprise
Riddle of Fire by Weston Razooli. A film shot on film, which smells of summer vibrating like those afternoons without doing anything. The story of three children, a bit Goonies and a bit Stand by Me. Twenty minutes too long, but Razooli is a director to keep an eye on.
The delusion
May December by Todd Hayness. Net of its detachment and its coldness, the film with Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman appears as an end in itself, losing sight of a potentially explosive story.
Scena shock
The bird man who escapes from the ambulance, at the beginning of The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley. A crooked, strange, naive film. But interesting in its beastly digression. It looks like something out of a Stephen King novel.
Scena cult
Indiana Jones on horseback, on New York’s 5th Avenue, crossing the gaze of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins during the return from the moon parade. Perhaps, the most emotional and significant moment of the film.
The chimera, the review: life, death and rebirth in the new film by Alice Rohrwacher
Erika Sciamanna’s preferences
Top 5
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Monster. A poetic and unpredictable film that keeps the viewer glued until the last second.
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Robot Dreams. A film that manages to fully express the potential of animation with a delicate and disillusioned story.
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The Zone of Interest. An original and disturbing holocaust film, which shows the shocking normality of evil.
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The malt. A delicate and melancholy story about life and death.
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The Old Oak. Inclusion, loss and hope in the new film by the British director.
The surprise
Gloria time. Opening film of the Semaine de la Critique, a real discovery that impresses with its excellent writing and skilful and never intrusive direction.
The delusion
Asteroid City. A markedly self-celebratory film that in exposing the various themes ends up going around in circles.
Scena shock
The Old Oak. The fate of poor little dog Marra, sad and shocking.
Scena cult
Goodby Julia. Mona rests her head in Julia’s lap the night before they part.
