Cannes: Mad Max and modern technology, modern action and modern storytelling
The big budget cinema of spectacle should be better than it used to be. These films should improve with every passing year, as new technologies are developed and filmmakers are given a whole range of cutting-edge toys for their toolbox and, at the same time, the rich history of cinematic ideas and images they can draw … Read more
Cannes: Orson Welles – Shadows & Light and The Third Man
The first of two documentaries on Orson Welles to premiere at Cannes this year, each produced to coincide with the centenary of his birth, Orson Welles: Shadows & Light is a short and rather flimsy investigation into the great filmmaker that seeks to draw parallels between his work and his personal life. This isn’t a particularly new approach, and … Read more
Cannes: The Treasure review
From the very beginning of The Treasure, writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu is laying a trail of breadcrumbs for the audience, leading them directly to his final conclusion. The film opens, for instance, with office worker Costi (Toma Cuzin) reading Robin Hood to his son, a not-so subtle hint regarding Porumboiu’s viewpoint on wealth in the current economic climate. … Read more
Cannes: Yakuza Apocalypse review
Kageyama (Hayato Ichihara) made it his mission to become a yakuza following an encounter in a bath house with a charismatic yakuza boss named Kamiura, played by the wonderful Riri Furanki. But the way of the yakuza, and particularly so in the gleefully imagined reality of director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Yoshitaka Yamaguchi, is not an easy … Read more