The Tree of Life
Cannes Film Festival is currently in full swing, and with many forgetting that as well as a competition, it also an industry show, a place where financiers and distributors can purchase the rights to release hundreds of films all over the world. So what can we expect in cinemas this summer? Obviously we can expect the influx of multi-million dollar blockbusters, to which audiences will flock to, but for the more cerebral and artistic cinema goer, what films are there to look forward to this year?
Perusing through the list of films being released this year, its hard to not to notice the frequency of the 3D tagline, but in amongst these are a number of films worth seeking out if you are exasperated with the current crop of Hollywood. Terrence Mallick’s The Tree of Life was recently premiered at Cannes, and it has been six years since Mallicks last production so many people didn’t know to expect, and following its premier, the reception is still slightly confused.
The movie stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, with the film combining images of Sean Penn’s character as a child, focusing on his relationship with his father portrayed by Brad Pitt, with the story diverging to present day and also back to the beginnings of life on earth. Though in summary the picture sounds slightly confusing, most reviews, though not all, have been quite positive. Described by many as an arts film, it defies any conventional genre restrictions and instead is an epic rumination life, death and the legacy we leave. This being the antithesis to most contemporary summer movies.
Another picture which is bound to attract attention is Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, a family drama set at the end of the world. Starring Kiefer Sutherland and Kirsten Dunst, who won best actress at Cannes for her performance, the movie is a drama, beginning with the destruction of earth, and then rewinding back to the start of the story. An interesting choice as it makes a disaster movie, focusing on the human characters, as opposed to a disaster movie focusing on the insane amounts of computer generated havoc being caused.
Pedro Almodovar has cast Antonio Banderas in a Spanish film entitled The Skin I Live In, which has opened to critical acclaim at Cannes, telling the story of a brilliant but twisted surgeon, Banderas, who performs medical experiments on a girl he holds captive in his house. Based on the book Tarantula by Thierry Jonquet, Banderas’ surgeon character aims to create a strong type of skin which would have saved his wife who died in a car accident before the film starts. Reviews have been positive and from what has been told of the movie so far, one can expect the story to border on Oldboy territory, with some shocking and disgusting revelations in the final act.
Julia Leigh one of the few female directors in competition, has written and directed Sleeping Beauty a film starring Emily Browning as a student who accepts a mysterious job to pay for her education. Emily Browning performance has been praised as she portrays a student who is given sleeping pills and is left in a bed as men can do anything they want to her while she sleeps, and then wakes up with no memory of what has happened whilst she slept. Even on paper the plot is slightly high concept, and the film has received mixed reviews at Cannes so far, but in terms of an alternative summer movie, you couldn’t get anymore alternative.
Tagged in Sean Penn Terrence Malick