Translated material
Fly, pigeons, fly
A special look for Russia at the Cannes festival
So, the program of the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, which will take place from May 13 to 24, has been announced. The organizers have already announced that due to the crisis, everything will be much more modest than usual - the number of parties, receptions, and guests will be reduced. However, this saving will not be reflected at the competition level; rather, on the contrary - the lower the foam, the better the quality of the main dish.Perhaps the films presented in the main competition will not be as good as expected, but almost all the major cinematic authorities are present here. “Broken Embraces” by Pedro Almodóvar, “White Tape” by Michael Haneke, “Finding Eric” by Ken Loach, “Inglourious Basterds” by Quentin Tarantino, “Antichrist” by Lars von Trier, “The Face” by Tsai Min Liang, “Revenge” by Johnny To, “ Wild Reed by Alain Resnais, Conquer by Marco Bellocchio, Thirst by Chan-Wook Park, Bright Star by Jane Campion, Taking Woodstock by Ang Lee - just a parade of names.
Out of competition, Terry Gilliam's The Imagination of Doctor Parnassus and Alejandro Amanabar's Agora will be screened. The Coen brothers' film "A Serious Man" and Jim Jarmusch's "The Limits of Acceptability" were not included in the final list, which was previously expected.
Just like last year, there are no Russian films in the main competition. There are not even representatives of our cinema on the jury: neither in the main, chaired by Isabelle Huppert, nor in the short films - but this consolation label was given to us quite often.
But in “Un Certain Regard” - which is quite honorable, and even promising for young people (the prize in this program is awarded with the wording: “the most original film in ideological content and aesthetics, reflecting the freshness of the cinematic view”) - there are two Russian films at once. Both of their authors are longtime acquaintances of Kann.
Pavel Lungin not only attended the Cannes main competition, but also received awards: a prize for directing - "Taxi Blues" (1990), a prize for the acting ensemble - "Wedding" (2000). This time he will show a large costume film from Russian history, “Ivan the Terrible and Metropolitan Philip” (for Western distributors it was simply called “Tsar”). This is a worldview drama (starring Pyotr Mamonov and Oleg Yankovsky) based on the script by writer Alexei Ivanov (author of the novel “The Gold of Revolt”). The story of the confrontation between the first Russian monarch and the monk Philip, who was the abbot of the Solovetsky Monastery before the accession to the throne of the Metropolitan, is told here, who opposed the oprichnina and refused to bless his sovereign (which is depicted in the famous painting by Vasily Pukirev “Ivan the Terrible and Metropolitan Philip in the Assumption Cathedral”).
Young director Nikolai Khomeriki is also no stranger to Cannes. He already participated in Un Certain Regard in 2006 with the full-length film 977, and before that he received a prize in the film school program for the short film Together.
His new film “A Tale of Darkness” is based on a script by Alexander Rodionov, cameraman Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev, producer Roman Borisevich, starring Alisa Khazanova, the daughter of a famous actor. This is a story about a young policewoman engaged in risky experiments on her own feelings. In search of love and adventure, she provokes her acquaintances to take decisive action, pushes them away, fights loneliness with the help of dance lessons, tries to fall in love with either a man or a child, and yet again circles the streets of Vladivostok, not finding a use for herself.
Two other festival programs - Directors' Fortnight and Criticism Week - will be announced later. The debutants of Russian cinema Vasily Sigarev with the film “Volchok”, shot from his own script, and Alexey Mizgirev are vying for participation in them. “Tambourine, Drum” is his second film, the first was called “Flint” and was awarded the prize for best debut at “Kinotavr”.
While everyone is reducing their representative offices, Russia is expanding it, renting twice as much space for its pavilion as before, as much as 150 meters. On one day, en masse, “new Russian cinema” filmed this year will be presented there: “I” by Igor Voloshin, “Oxygen” by Ivan Vyrypaev, “Europe-Asia” by Ivan Dykhovichny, “Crazy Help” by Boris Khlebnikov, not yet the completed “Target” by Alexander Zeldovich and “Generation P” by Victor Ginzburg, and other low-budget works. But on another day, the film “The Path” will be awarded a separate presentation, about which the prospectus says that it can qualify for inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records for the number of sports stars participating in the filming. It’s very new-Russian to show an action movie with an honored judo master in the title role in the center of the festival cinema.
Perhaps the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and Sovexportfilm, which organizes the work of the pavilion, hope that this kind of cinema will help Russia pave the way to the main prize. Because our country has still not yet repeated the victory of Kalatozov, who received the only Russian “Palm Branch” for the film “The Cranes Are Flying” in 1958. The Russian pavilion widely celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of this prize last year.