Cannes continued today with a number of notable films, including the premiere of the latest film by acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke, entitled 24 City. Here’s Time’s Mary Corliss on the film:
“24 City is eloquent testimony to a China that is vanishing with each swing of the wrecking ball. But the memories of the workers in their factory microcosm, and telling documentaries like these, keep the past alive, so that later generations will know what once was, and what's been lost.”
Also in competition is Linha de Passe, the latest film from Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and collaborator Daniela Thomas. ScreenDaily’s Jonathan Romney writes: “The sheer hustle of Sao Paolo comes across vitally in the traffic scenes, with Denis risking his neck - and eventually others' - on the city highways. Brazil 's polarity between rich and poor is subtly handled in the scenes set in the household where Cleuza works as a maid. Above all, the film comes across as a film about religion - that is, Brazil's true religion of football. Salles and Thomas use on-field action to urgent effect.”
Boyd van Hoeij on Moscow, Belgium- “Especially during its first hour, the Flemish boxoffice sensation toys with cliché material with such an assured sense of direction and such a strong screenplay that it simply is a pleasure to watch. The closing 40-odd minutes do not sustain this sense of wonderment over the near-perfect almost-familiar, but thanks in large part to a wonderful cast led by Barbara Sarafian the film is still something that might light up screens elsewhere in Europe.”
Finally, Variety’s Leslie Felperin on Soi Cowboy- “As it happens, "Cowboy" is chock-full of allusions to Clay's pantheon of auteur heroes, including not just Antonioni and Lynch and many other Europeans, but also notable and newer Asian helmers like Hou Hsiao-hsien… and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Although Clay manages, just about, to keep these references in service of his story, it not yet clear what his own directorial voice looks like, or what exactly it is he wants to say.”