Cannesversations

Welcome back to our coverage of the Cannes Film Festival! We (Patrick and Eliana) look forward to sharing our first reactions and giving a sneak peek at the festival's ongoing films and events. In this episode, Jakob Jurisch joins us on day two of twelve to discuss the festival's opening film, Le Deuxième Acte (Quentin Dupieux), other festival controversies, and film anticipations. Coming soon: Ma vie Ma gueuleBirdMegalopolis For those who are German speakers, you can also find Patrick and Jakob on moviebreak.de and can listen to their German-language podcast coverage here! Thanks for listening! Correction: Ma vie Ma gueule English title is This Life of Mine* If you have any 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 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, Patrick and Eliana discuss Marcel Carné’s 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise), which appeared in the 2011 Cannes Classics section. Filmed during the Nazi Occupation of France and released as the first film following its liberation, the film has continued to charm audiences in France and abroad with its gorgeous set design, iconic actors, and wit-infused characters, a result of the core collaboration between set designer Alexandre Trauner, screenwriter Jacques Prevert, and composer Joseph Kosma. Spectatorship and performance are at the heart of this farcical and bittersweet film, where four men vie for the radiant yet fugacious Garance as she flits between them, and they amongst themselves on the grand Boulevard du ‘Crime.’ It is a film about action and re-action, the verbal and the non-verbal, in a city too small for undying dreams. Resources: Affron, Mirella Jona. "Les Enfants Du Paradis: Play of Genres." Cinema Journal, vol. 18, no. 1, 1978, pp. JSTOR. Ebert, Roger. “Children of Paradise.” RogerEbert.com, Forbes, Jill. Les Enfants Du Paradis, British Film Institute, 1997. Mancini, Marc. "Prevert: Poetry in Motion Pictures." Film Comment, vol. 17, no. 6, 1981, pp. 34-37. JSTOR. Nye, Edward. Deburau. Pierrot, Mime, and Culture, Routledge, 2022. Picherit, Hervé. “A Strange Child of Paradise: The Artistry of Arletty’s “Self” in Les enfants du paradis.” Camera Obscura, Vol. 32, No. 1, Duke University Press, 2017. Reid, Tina. “Marcel Carné on Children of Paradise: Forty-Five Years Later” The Criterion Collection, 20 Sept. 2012, Sadoul, Georges. "The Postwar French Cinema."Hollywood Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 1950, pp. JSTOR. Sellier Geneviève. « Les Enfants du paradis dans le cinéma de l'Occupation.” 1895, revue d'histoire du cinéma, n° 22, 1997, pp. 55-66. Turk, Edward Baron. Child of Paradise. Marcel Carné and the Golden Age of French Cinema, Harvard University Press, 1989. 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. Excerpt

For the last episode of Cannesversations this year, Eliana, and Patrick are joined by critic friends Öykü Sofuoğlu (this marks Öykü’s second time on the podcast; check out our Cannes episode on About Dry Grasses and May December) and Lawrence Garcia to look back at their favorite films of 2023. Follow Öykü & Lawrence on Twitter/X Below, you'll find our Top 5 films. Top 5 Öykü Lawrence Eliana Patrick At the end of the second episode, we asked Öykü and Lawrence about writings they are proud of or happy with. Öykü interviewed Radu Jude for Mubi’s Notebook, which you can find here, and Lawrence referred to his 15,000-word deep dive into David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Make sure to check both of them out! We wish all of you a happy year of 2024 and are hopeful for many more episodes to come in the new year!

For the last episode of Cannesversations this year, Eliana, and Patrick are joined by critic friends Öykü Sofuoğlu (this marks Öykü’s second time on the podcast; check out our Cannes episode on About Dry Grasses and May December) and Lawrence Garcia to look back at their favorite films of 2023. Follow Öykü & Lawrence on Twitter/X Below, you first find all our honorable mentions, followed by our individual Top 10-6 films. Honorable Mentions Öykü Lawrence Eliana Patrick Top 10 Öykü Lawrence Eliana Patrick At the end of the second episode, we asked Öykü and Lawrence about writings they are proud of or happy with. Öykü interviewed Radu Jude for Mubi’s Notebook, which you can find here, and Lawrence referred to his 15,000-word deep dive into David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Make sure to check both of them out! We wish all of you a happy year of 2024 and are hopeful for many more episodes to come in the new year!

This week Eliana and Patrick delve into Lizzie Borden's 1986 dramedy Working Girls about a day in the life of a group of young sex workers in a middle-class brothel in 1980s Manhattan. A milieu rarely ever depicted on the big screen in American cinema (in their Criterion essay So Meyer stresses that it was not until Sean Baker's Tangerine in 2015—three decades later—that the lived reality of sex workers would take center stage of a major US feature film again), Borden, with her observational eye and collaborative filmmaking process, circumvents the common dichotomous portrayal of prostitutes as either glamorized or pitiable, shedding light on the profession that proves both sympathetic to its characters and discerning of the mundanity of their profession—ultimately highlighting the autonomy women can exercise while embracing that the world's oldest profession is just that—a profession. Resources: Lizzie Borden and Bette Gordon on Working Girls.Lizzie Borden Is Finally Getting Her Due.Vanity FairIndependent Female Filmmakers. A Chronicle Through Interviews, Profiles, and ManifestosThe Dialectic of Sex. The Case for Feminist RevolutionUnsung Auteurs: Lizzie BordenFilmInkDirector Lizzie Borden on Censorship, Community and the Movie She’s Kept in the Closet for Over 40 YearsThat ShelfLizzie Borden’s ‘Working Girls’ Is About Capitalism, Not SexNew York TimesWhatever Happened to Lizzie Borden?Hollywood Kills Feminism: the Work of Lizzie Borden.Blind FieldFeminist Hollywood. From Born in Flames to Point Break “Working Girls: Have You Ever Heard of Surplus Value?”CriterionSound CNN

On this episode of Cannesversations Patrick and Eliana discuss Tsai Ming-Liang's 2009 in-competition Cannes film, Visage (臉 | Face). Commissioned by the Louvre Museum and sprinkled with the ghosts of Nouvelle Vague and Truffaut's own muses, the Taiwanese director's own muse, Lee Kang Sheng, wades through halls of grief and desire while directing a film based on the incandescent and timeless biblical Salomé. Through long durational takes, absurd situations, and a composed acumen of transience, Tsai's cinema captivates with just one face, leaving behind a body of work that lends itself in equal parts to theatrical and institutional dissemination. Resources/Credits: NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studieswww.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15052Studies in European CinemaSenses of Cinema, https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/tsai/Tsai Ming-liang and a Cinema of SlownessTsai, B. 2017. The many faces of Tsai Ming-liang: Cinephilia, the French connection, and cinema in the gallery. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 13 (2): 141–160, https://doi.org/10.21315/ijaps2017.13.2.7Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy. Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liangPress Kit CannesSound: Intro Interview

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: https://doi.org/10.4000/histoirepolitique.5350Sound: 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: doi.org/doi:10.25969/mediarep/14375https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R24lXd8EmMASound: 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: www.eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/42587/1/Milovanovic-D.pdfwww.nytimes.com/1979/12/20/archives/the-screen-roy-scheider-stars-in-all-that-jazzpeter-pan-syndrome.htmlSound: 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) Anatomy of a FallL’été DernierLa ChimeraYou can follow Patrick and Eliana on Letterboxd! ~Until next time! Sound:

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 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" 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" 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!