Cannes Marginalia (Final) (Patreon)

At the end of 2021, I set it as a personal goal to attend Cannes this year. Like many of my personal goals, I failed to achieve it. I'll spare you the details.

However I am reviewing a few Cannes titles for In Review Online, and I figured I'd mention it here.

Magdala (Damien Manivel, 2022)

[...] Magdala is a meditative film, proffering only the broadest outline of narrative information. That’s partly because Manivel is operating in the mythic register. This film observes the agonized final days on earth of Mary Madgalena, played by veteran actress Elsa Wolliaston in a bracingly physical performance. For much of the film, Magdala is hunched over and hobbling through a wooded thicket beside a stream, bearing herself along with a walking stick and soothing her parched lips with rainwater dropping off of leaves. At various moments, her survivalist resolve breaks down, and she curls up in anguish as she mourns for the lover she has, in a sense, outlived, but who of course is ever-present. [...] (full review here)

The Mountain (Thomas Salvador, 2022)

[...] But overwhelmingly, the first 90 minutes of The Mountain are a close observation of Pierre gearing up, pitching tents, and climbing the face of the glacier. This would appeal to specialized tastes even in the best of circumstances. But Salvador (who has appeared only in his own films) is a virtual black hole of charisma. His impassive gaze and immobile features could charitably be called “recessive,” but considering how Salvador the director places Salvador the actor front and center at all times, charity is quickly in short supply. [...] (full review here)

The Night of the 12th (Dominik Moll, 2022)

[...] The main problem with Night of the 12th is that Moll and Marchand (adapting a book by Paula Guéna) seem to think their audience is as incompetent as the police. Every primary theme of the film is stated outright in the dialogue, to make sure we don’t miss anything along the way. An insensitive cop remarks that Clara got around, which prompts the film’s second full discussion regarding victim-blaming and misogyny. And near the film’s end, Vivès remarks to a magistrate (Anouk Grinberg) that in fact “all men killed” Clara. [...] (full review here)

Harkis (Philippe Faucon, 2022)

[...] While there is nothing cinematically remarkable about Harkis, it makes its point with admirable economy (it’s a slim 85 minutes) and speaks frankly about a group of Algerians who were uniquely screwed by the false promises of colonial history, asked to betray their fellow Muslims in the name of some higher ideal that, as far as the Gaullists were concerned, evaporated as soon as these soldiers had outlived their usefulness. (full review TK)