We Went to Cannes! These Are the 10 Best (and Worst) Things We Saw.

[MUSIC] Just Wee, Sean Fettisie, just three Amanda Davins. And this is the Big Picture a Conversation Show about Cannes. Today on the show Amanda and I will recount our first trip to the Cannes International Film Festival, the movies we saw, the energy and controversies of the festival, how it all works, and all the titles you'll be hearing about for the next ten months. It's all coming up right after this. Okay, Davins, you did it. You did it. How are you feeling? I did it. I feel amazing. I made it to Cannes. You know, it came true to quote our beloved Anne Hathaway. Day nine for me? Is that right? Sure. Day seven or six for you? You make it sound like you've answered an extinction level of an all 20 years later. It is day seven for me. Yes. How are you feeling? Strong? Amazing. Yeah, I'm good. I would stay still moderately jet lagged. Our sleep schedules are interesting at this point. But I've adapted to being a festival creature just in time to leave. You know, this is my last morning and then I'm getting on the train. But it's been fascinating and fun and silly and sometimes frustrating and I'm so glad that we came. Me too. So yesterday was, I think an interesting snapshot of how this experience can work for me. After a long night the night before I woke up at 7.30 in the morning to go to an 8.30 a.m. press screening of a movie. We will talk about that movie, which is heartbreaking. And then I met you for an 11.30 movie and then I went to a 2.30 movie and then I went to a 5.30 movie in between, came back to our apartment, put on some deodorant and then went out and had drinks in my friends and we're out until two o'clock in the morning and we're up here at 9 a.m. recording a podcast. That's a good time. But that's okay. Good point. A little slower going this morning. That is a snapshot of what it's like here that if you want to do it right, if you want to experience everything, you kind of need to hard commit and decide to see everything and also be a social creature at the same time. And I'm certainly feeling the after effects, but I'm glad that we did it. And I'm feeling like, I really, the raft of movies that I've now seen, I just feel so powerful. I feel like like a, I don't even know, like the Dragon Ball's e-meme, you know, like I've just been powered up for the next six months. It's amazing. Most people don't do four movies in a day, as you did yesterday. Most people do, as I understand it, one to none and then take a bunch of meetings and go to parties. Sure. You know, I mean, so this has been interesting, right? Because in some ways, this is just another film festival, right? Despite the glitz and the glamour and the Europe and the yachts and the and the black tiger gales, we have been hoping and trying to see. I never did four in a day. I did a lot of three day movies, three movies a day, a couple twos yesterday was a two. It's fine. I've been here a long time. And, you know, trying to get tickets, trying to get into screenings, trying to find food in between them, like living by the same schedule that you live it in in Sundance or Telluride or Venice, to a lesser extent. But in a lot of ways, it is very similar to Venice in that it's another ticketed festival. So the anxiety is in getting the ticket and kind of making the schedule puzzle fit together and making sure that you can see everything. And then being heartbroken when you miss something as I did yesterday. But so we are just being festival rats, right? And then sometimes being a festival rat involves running back to the apartment to put on a a tuxedo or an evening gown in like 20 minutes flat because to go see the movie and to be there for the big premiere, you have to wear a tuxedo. And as I reminded you, the bow tie is the actual, it's the only remaining strict dress code as I understood it. I mean, they want evening dress. But the heels thing is gone. There were no heel checkers as far as I could tell. I mean, I did wear heels. So maybe it's not a full-time position with benefits. He'll check your fears again. Yeah. In France, you know, everything goes. And they're, you had to wear a gown, but it was more flexible for the women. But the men, you had to have a bow tie. Let's talk about the vibe more generally. Yeah. I would say I underestimated the hubbub, the intensity of humanity that comes to this place. And in retrospect, that makes a lot of sense because it is, this has become the central film festival in the world. Yeah. It is one of the longest running film festivals. If not the longest running, it's the one that has launched a thousand ships of cinema history. It's also one that, as we've been talking about for the last five years, has become so central to, frankly, US film and US film award shows. And so there's more attention on it than ever. But also, it's a European institution. And it's a puddle jumper flight away from many major cities in Europe. So you have not just the film industry that descends, but this kind of mass-tourist culture that also descends upon it. So there's just so many fucking people here. That's the one thing. It just differentiates it from other film festivals. Sundance is a crowded film festival, but not like this. You know, Telluride is not a crowded film festival. I know Venice is crowded, but Venice is also the Lido is small. And so it's like, it feels maybe more comparable than what happens here. Yes and no. Again, I think Venice is the closest con because it is also like a European tourist city. And I think what you and I have been taken aback by is not just the crowds in the French system of crowd control, which you can speak about whenever you'd like. But did there just, there are a lot of people here just vacationing, right? This is a beach town. It is the Cote de Zura. And so there are like many families and like pushing their strollers down the closet, like in the middle of a premiere, which is just a choice, not a choice that I would make, not even as a parrot, but as a person. You know, it's like when the circus comes to town, a man is leaving. But many people are like, Hey, let's go see the circus. And so it is, it is crowded. And there are a lot of people who also seem to come to like goc at the festival, right? There is a culture of not just, you know, camping out for the red carpets, but there are lots of people dressed up holding up signs, being like one ticket please for whatever movie. There are a lot of programs. I learned about three days in Cannes to kind of get younger people here for a certain amount of time, but then they also got a hustle for tickets. So I do think the festival is encouraging a lot of hubbub. But yeah, it's it like we're on the front for Vera. It's like, you know, there are just there are a lot of people here. Yeah, and I don't blame them for being here, but they're they're in my way is what I'll say. At least whenever I'm trying to get to a line just so that I can get into a film. The state of this year's festival is interesting. We talked a bit about what the lineup was and going in. And maybe there were some films that we expected to be here that turned out to not be here. I think maybe the most significant is the new Ruben Osslin film. The entertainment system is down. He's a two-time palm door winner and his next film is with Keanu Reeves in your beloved Sheerston Dunst set on an airplane in which the entertainment system goes down and everybody assumed that movie would be here and that and that Ruben would make a bid for his third palm. It's not here. And so there I would say that there was amongst those who really closely follow World Cinema a little bit of doubting in the nature of the lineup. We'll go through all the films at length after we get through our sort of temperature check. But you know from the moment that you arrived was it clear that maybe this was not quite the most elite can week in in recent years? Well, I mean, it is a tradition of grumbling about the lineup whether you're here or not, right? And it's certainly a tradition among critics, both the critics who get to go here, who get to come to Keanu Reeves, which we are now an elite few. To you know, complain, well, I wanted this or that. Last night at dinner, you had your phone out and you were just going through lists of previous years light ups with-- It's the most fun thing to do in the world, yeah. Sure. I was actually talking with our friend about human things. But so some of it I knew was just posturing. And also I arrived here a few days before you and didn't know anyone. So I spent my time trying to see as many movies as possible and posting on Instagram. And I wound up posting on Instagram like a little more than I needed to just because I went to see the movies, but it did feel like filler or didn't feel like anything in the first couple of days was going to be essential. Now one, I could be wrong and two, that is the case of any longer festival. That's the other thing that we should communicate about Keanu. This is two weeks long. And it is full of movies. And it's not there is the main competition, which is for the Palm Door. But then there are several other tiers than there are special screenings. So just the number of movies that you can see is overwhelming even as I was kind of like, well, what's going to be essential here, because you and I for the purposes of this show. And as you said, for the purposes of a American cinema, like we're Palm Hunt. a little bit because the Palm Door has been such a Oscars indicator for the last six years, really, I guess, since Parasite won in 2019, 2020. And has been kind of, you know, it's the top prize, so it opens the door to the rest of what's going on a kid and the rest of world cinema to an American audience. But it was slow. Yeah, it was a little slow. It was a little slow. And I don't think that anything that I saw the first couple days was like a Sean, you like, you got to figure out a way to go see that. That was in competition. Yeah, because one of the interesting narratives that has emerged out of this week and is that while there have now been, I think maybe three or four titles in competition that are very, very good. And they're like a couple that I find to be like top tier stuff. But many of the most exciting things have been out of competition or in the uncertain regard category, or in director's fortnight, or in the special screenings category, or even canned classics. And that's kind of fascinating because the the competition itself is full of former palm winners and former can attendees. And it is a very hallowed group of filmmakers that are here. But the sentiment amongst almost everybody that includes both press and your kind of common cinema goers who's come to this festival. I think through the first five or six days was, well, this is not this is not the best year. I think the tide is turning now as we get into the last third of the festival because of the handful of films that have now premiered. But that was interesting to have four or five days in a row where I was kind of rolling their eyes at what they were sitting through despite the incredible privilege and like just kind of general wonder of getting to see some of this stuff. I mean, for me, obviously, I have wanted to be here my entire life and have been almost afraid to come here. And there's been a little bit of like a myth to dispelling that's been going on. And it is you're right. In some ways, it is exactly like any other film festival. You know, you queue up and you wait and you sit uncomfortably for two and a half hours in a seat with thousands of hundreds of people that smell bad and that, you know, don't care about you. There's never enough legroom. Yes. Just absolutely, you know, the Europeans are compact. We are not. And when you're in when you're in an unhappy screening, when you're watching a movie, you don't care about that experience is magnified. But when you're in a great film, you don't feel it at all. You never, you know, I don't I never thought about legroom during one of the films that we'll talk about. I never thought about who was sitting next to me if it wasn't you. So I I'm having a great time and I'm hopeful actually for my last two days because you're leaving today and I have a couple of more days. So we won't be able to talk about the slate in full here. But I'm relieved that we were recording today and not on Monday morning. If we had recorded on Monday morning our time, I think we would have been a little bit more a little bit more concerned about the state of the festival. Yes, we've gotten several titles and I also our expectations were reset but positively because suddenly night at like what 3 a.m. We we we had we had one idea of how the festival would go and we had kind of arranged our screenings and our you know our tuxedos and our life around that. And then we walked out of the La Lumière which is the the largest theater where all the the films premiere and we were like oh or not even uh oh but we're kind of like well we're going to have to redo this this episode outline. We're going to have to put some you know extra work in the next two days but it worked out and you know again that is the way that all of these things go for all of the um there there's always an outside machinery that you know both making all of the like quote unquote glamour but also the narratives that we participate and I think you and I always watch this happening from afar and we're like no no I'd like to have an opinion and be able to participate and I I'm glad we are and I I think we can but at the same time it's funny how sometimes you don't even have to see the movies to to watch how the the narrative shapes yeah and that's the last thing I want to say before we get into the slate is that you pointed this out to me when we were waiting to walk up the red carpet steps at the Palais at the end of the premiere that which was so fun it was an incredible experience. It was ridiculous and unlike at other festivals at least for paper tiger we were set tripped fully up the carpet and we just walked in the middle of influencers posing for the banks of photographers on either side and I'm just like navigating various trains to make sure I don't trip in my heels you got scolded for taking some photos because that's not allowed on the red carpet no selfies no no phones it was a broken down palace situation I had to go away for a couple days but that was so sad it would have been so mad we walk up the stairs which and the lights are going and it's absurd and exciting and I'm so glad that we got to do it I don't know how many more times we need to do it in our life but I'm very glad to die too it was an amazing experience and I actually didn't even know we would be doing that even though we had orchestra seating for this premiere we still did that same experience that you know all the filmmakers did and then many other people do it like it's hordes of attendees go up and enter in that fashion too but I bring that up because as we were waiting to go up the steps you were sort of pointing out to me the photographers many of whom looked like they were in their 70s some even in their 80s who had been like real canned dogs they'd been doing this very long time also in Texas also until everyone was in tuxes and gowns and just the like the mechanics of this the orchestration of this the mechanized quality of the entire thing engineer quality of the entire festival is really interesting it's not that that perfect image that you see from the red carpet in order for that to happen it necessitates thousands of people millions of dollars loads and loads of preparation and planning and sort of watch it be happening and to have it kind of deconstructed in demothologist in real time was really interesting it made me a little more cynical as these things tend to and that maybe influences how I see the movies a little bit a little bit because most other film festivals don't have that and since I have not been to Venice yeah most other film festivals you'd certainly the filmmakers will be there and they'll come in and speak for a moment but this is a level of grandeur and I don't like social preparation that is unusual relative to those other other festivals I don't know if it makes me more cynical just because I am already cynical but you know what I said to you in line was you know all glamour these manufactured right and there's a lot of and it is kind of all fake and you're doing it all for the image and I just wanted to see how it was done and I wanted to see what this version and this scale was and it I thought it was fascinating you know I like I have looked at the photos of the red carpet and also the photo calls we went to you know there are a number of different theaters here at can where they do screenings and our favorite theater is behind the Lumiere and it's called the Agnes Verde and it's it sits up some stairs that has a beautiful view of the harbor the whatever we're calling the the Mediterranean that's what we're calling it and as soon as we got up there I was like oh this is where they do the photo calls because I have looked at those photos for 20 years and I instantly recognized like the scenery and the backdrop so I like understanding those things and I find it sort of comforting that it is all you know a lot of people put in a lot of work a lot of time and money and effort and it is it is made up but it's also something that people create out of nothing so they're looking at it yeah it's both things this is the absolute power station of world cinema this is where some of the most important films of all time have essentially been birthed to the world and this is also a place where like deor looms large with its storefront immediately across from the Lumiere you know like your and Chanel which is just for for my fashion heads it's really they're directly across from the red carpet on the closet and they both have their latest wears out including my dream Chanel dress right there in the window yeah and you almost broke the window last night at two o'clock in the morning to steal that dress and raise down the closet but you did not any anything else you want to close off on before we go through all everything we've seen you want to talk about the parties at all and party culture in the car you've been no more than I have I've been to a couple yeah in some ways yes and in some ways no because that's another funny one where it just turned out to be like every other movie party which I don't want to you know sniff at because we all know I like a party but they were all like the quote unquote beach clubs so the closet is a it's a road and it runs down the water along the Mediterranean and on the other side of the road are you know restaurant beach club types things in the European style right and they get rented out by either a movie studio or like misspresso you know brands and so then every night after the premiere is there are long lines and people are clamoring to get into these like frankly glorified beach tents with you know the same cocktails the rosé abundant I did have someone hand me a nagroni at one of the parties which was like you know when I died and went to heaven And at one point I am told I was in the same room with Dylan. Alepa, but did not know it, which was my real heartbreak. I've got two heartbreaks of Can so far. Number one, missing a movie we're going to talk about. And number two, not knowing that I and do Alepa were sharing beach tent space. But at the same time, there were plenty of parties as you pointed out that we were not invited to. We didn't get on the yacht. And so, you know, it's something to strive for next year. We didn't get to the cap, which is the famous hotel in Auntie, which, you know, I googled many times at like 4 a.m. And we almost made a last minute bid last night. And we, we, we, we restrained ourselves. Yeah, which, which was the right call because once again, we had to podcast it. We were supposed to be here at 9 a.m. I don't know if we really hit our call time. Sorry again, Jack and crew. But the, you know, it's the same thing as the carpet and everything else where the parties are the fixture. And, you know, Bella Hadid has been photographed like all over Kim, like enjoyed that. She was also on a yacht. Like sunbathing. And it's been 65 degrees and lovely weather here, but not, you know, yacht sunbathing weather. So what you see on Instagram or, you know, the photos and then the reality. They are like everything else different. And not bad, just different. I wonder as we talk about the movies, if there will be a similar experience for people when these movies start to come out into the world too. That's something I always think about is how much of the reaction is, quote, unquote, correct from the outset and not. I've pointed a couple of times to the infamous Eddington premier here last year. And when our actors movie opened here, it proceed a very negative response and then opened over the summer. And while it didn't make it very much money at the box office, it kind of very quickly accrued a staunch defense system for what it was trying to accomplish. And I think that reputation of that movie has transformed a lot in 12 months. And that's something that maybe will happen to some of the movies that we talk about here, where at first glance or in the room and how much the room affects your reaction will indicate in one way or another. I'm not sure if there's too many examples, not as divisive a slate this year, I can't think of a couple of examples where you and I, which room you and I saw a film here it can had a real effect on our interpretation of it, as opposed to people. And you know, it's really are you there for the Gallup premiere in the room with everyone versus a press screening, which it's not just the audience that's different, but the energy, it's a little, it's a little more work today. And what you're willing to buy into depends a little bit in which room you're sitting in, whether it's in a different room and can or at home. So that's right. And you and I have have access to two different press screening rooms in addition to the Varda, in addition to, you know, external movie theaters on the closet. There are various just general audience movie theaters that are screening films here all over this two-week period as well. So we, I feel like I've now really had the gamut. Like I've been in, I think I've been in every single room. I've been in the Boon Well, I've been in the Basin, I've been in, you know, the WC, I've been in arcades, I've been in Olympia. Like there's a lot of this single scene movies. You didn't go to synonym, but I did. And so that is it. Yeah, that's a movie theater like three miles away. And I mean, I saw a movie on the same floor as like a screen X. It was just a, a basic movie theater with like a lot of people going on a Saturday afternoon to see normal movies. And that was also cool because it was clear there was another can culture of seemingly younger or younger than me. People just waiting out at different location to kind of try to see the second and third run movies away from the hubbub. And they were just like sitting on the floor at your local AMC or whatever. I don't think AMC operates and it was allowed to operate in France. But just hanging out and trying to see movies. And so that's an even different kind of room and different reception. Which is cool. There are people here who like movies. There's an additional all the crusty dogs that I was talking about. There's just a ton of young people there. And I know I'm a clown whenever I say cinema is alive and we're back. But like it's impossible to not feel that way when you're here because everyone is just so excited to see things. There's just so much enthusiasm for this stuff. And I'll use that as an entree into the discussion of the films. The moment in which I felt that the most deeply this week was at an eight thirty AM screening of Jordan Firstman's Club Kid. Which is a movie that I will say candidly when I saw that it was accepted to the festival. I was surprised. I wouldn't say it was extremely high on my list of two C's because I arrived a couple of days late. It had already premiered. And gotten very warm reception. But I was like, I'll see for myself. And from my perspective, it may end up being my favorite movie at the festival. There have been a couple of movies in the last couple of days that have risen to it. But for three or four days, I was like, well, this is not just a surprise, but it is the straight up best movie here, even though it is in one certain regard and not in the main competition. And as soon as I saw, as soon as it was over, I texted you immediately. I was like, so we as fucking wonderful like you have to see this. And you did. I did. Yeah. Later that afternoon. Yeah. It was, you know, as you said, that moment very early on when you're sitting there in a movie and you're just like, oh, this is happening. Like it's all clicking. And you can tell very quickly. And it's such a special movie. It's really classical in a lot of ways, despite being a movie set in the like club kids, you know, in like queer clubs in 2016. And then now, you and I both learned a lot of lingo about some subcultures that we didn't previously know about. It's a very drugs-forward movie. But also not in an annoying way. I guess that is one thing that every description of it sounds kind of irritating if you're not a subscriber to it. But it is warm-hearted, a lot more depth than I think either of us expected. And like it hasn't, has as much in common with Kramer versus Kramer as it does with you know, recommend for a dream or whatever. So it's, um, but there is nothing like not knowing anything and going in or knowing very little or not having the hype of six months of, you know, second hand. Oh, I saw this in that. And just having something work so totally. And that's the other thing. It, it is completely formed. Like it works beginning, middle and end. They make several smart choices, great performances, very funny. Um, and funny even if you don't get all the New York inside jokes, um, as most of the crowd I was with didn't. But it also the New York inside jokes are great. They are. So first and then people will know him from, um, I love LA at HBO original Senate series, um, maybe rotting in the sun, which played Sundance a few years ago, just like a very funny online comic figure. And as you said, like I maybe had not expected that he would deliver a movie with this level of depth and craft and sincerity. Um, it very quickly pivots away from being a very in your face comedy to being a much more sincere drama, honestly, about, um, parenthood. And I'm growing up and growing certainly. And also maybe arriving at that stage in your life in your early 30s where you're like, oh, maybe I'm not wasn't as prepared for this part of my life as I needed to be, which is also I think will be very resonant for a lot of people. Um, and I very quickly noted that the producer of the movie, one of the producers in the movie is Alex Toco, who was Sean Baker's producer on a Nora and is widely considered one of the smartest independent film producers around. And you can definitely sense his influence and I'm sure helping first and develop this movie and get it to where it is because and they make just an incredible combination. Um, and I'm really excited about this movie and it was acquired by 824, which I think every living human who was watching it was like, how is this not already in 824 movie? Yes. But, uh, it was, it's the so far the big pickup of the festival and I expect to will be a big thing through the rest of the year. Any other thoughts on ClubKid? I'm just excited to talk about it for the rest of the year and it's gonna, it's gonna be a fun one to have around, very fun press tour. Uh, and like, like, it's gonna, it's gonna be a great, however many months once it comes out. So I'm, I'm really excited. Okay, let's talk about Fjord. Okay. Fjord is fascinating film. Um, it was my pre-festival pick for the Palm and I don't know if it's my pick for the Palm quite yet. We'll get to our predictions in a moment. Oh, so you're wavering now? Well, I don't, I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I have some, my feelings are moving in a lot of directions. But Fjord is Christian Monjou's new film, the Romanian filmmaker, um, who previously won the Palm back in 2007 and has been here a couple of times before. And this film is, I, I, I, reluctant to say that he's the most mainstream film, but it, it does start to bastion Stan and we're not to Rhynsva. And they play a couple that has immigrated to Norway from Romania. Rhynsva's character is Norwegian, but she lives in Romania with her husband played by Stan and they come with their five children. And once they arrive in Norway, they learn that the culture of Norway is very different from the country that they have come from. They're a very religious conservative family and Norway is, of course, understood to be a very progressive country. And the movie pursues the differentiation in cultures and what can happen to this family and the community surrounding them. And I absolutely love this and it is exactly the kind of thorny debate forward movie that I think thrives in this environment here at Cannes. It is the shades of anatomy of a fall, I would say, where as soon as the movie is over, you want to be like, well, okay, so what do we really think was going on here? And I would say a pretty strong reaction, not a rapturous response, but very clearly solidly. This movie is very, very good. What did you think? I think we both walked out and we were like, yes. And Fjord premiered on Monday, which was also essential because like we needed it, there was a lot writing on Fjord being good. I think it was probably, it's to both of our tastes, both in the actors, Sebastian San Renata, Ryan Zva, you know, it's set in a beautiful mountain town in Norway. So you were pretty psyched about that. And I thought it looks beautiful even though I don't want to visit. And I mean, it is, it's about kids among other things. So there was a certain like pulling, like a very personal pulling or gnawing in my stomach during all of the debates, which you lean it, right? It has, it's, it's definitely this year's anatomy of a fall. To me, it was a little, I was thinking of the drama a little bit where you're like arguing with the screen in real time. I'm like, no, I don't know. Who do I think is right? And why do I think is right? And like, where am I going? And it does maintain that tension. And I think gives you enough information. But to a point you made as we were walking out also withholds enough. It does not spell everything out for you in a way that I think is very smart and disciplined. So yeah, I was, I was really into it. And you know, once again, the Scandinavian peoples, like a, like a tough break in the, in the film space, I guess, depending on your, it takes, so they take some else in this part. Yeah. The Norwegians take some else. There's no doubt about it. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the people of Norway are wrong and the issues that are explored in the film. Sure. But that's sort of what is so fascinating about it. And you know, we're reluctant to release oil. Many of these movies because they made five, six, nine months away from release. But this one in particular is a unique case where I think in the wrong hands, and then this movie may get into the wrong hands who knows it could be refracted and misrepresented culturally in terms of what its purpose is. I think it makes a choice in the last third that I think I do think it worked for me and brings in another dimension, but to your point can also, can start, be, be taken down the wrong conversational path. Yeah. And I think if you're, um, dogmatic in your thinking, then the movie is not, and it necessitates a nuanced interpretation. Sure. Otherwise, I think the movie kind of much like the Norwegians. Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, my takeaway, as I said, you immediately after I walked out of the movie, I was like, It really feels like Christian Monjue went on like a terrible two-week vacation in Norway. Sure. His, his director's statement about the movie says this is set in Norway, but it could happen in any Nordic country. Yeah. Yeah. Still, we thought about it so often. Very, very entertaining. Um, Stan and Reigns about our both wonderful, Stan in particular, I thought was terrific as this extremely tightly wound Romanian man stands family, his mother is from Romania. He speaks Romanian. Um, this is a B shaped his head for this role. It's a very unglamorous part. Both actors, I would say, not very showy performances, much more restrained because this is a very kind of tight and religious family that they're portraying, but I was very impressed. I just think it's very cool that he and Reigns have chose to use this moment in their careers to make movies like this, which is really a difficult film. Um, and, but also very entertaining and kind of, I was going to say, it's, it's not, it's not fun. It's not club kid. It's not heartwarming, but it is absolutely engaging and watchable. That's the thing. You're not sitting there being lectured about capitalism. We will get to that. Want to segue? Yeah. Do you want to go? Let's talk about all of a sudden. Well, I would say, if you're, if you're rinking them, it's, we're getting close, right? Yeah. I think that this is, well, I, I'll, I'll, I'll hold off on Minotaur for a minute since you haven't seen that. Okay. But, um, yeah, we're sort of moving in order here in terms of preference. All of a sudden is, uh, Rice Gaze, um, a good cheese new film and it is a 196 minute epic about elder care and the French, uh, health social services system, um, and also, and also love and humanity. It truly is that, um, and it is, it's a ride. It's a ride. I would say, roughly halfway through the film, I was genuinely concerned that it was an, utter miscalculation. And by the end, I was in tears and it, it is durational and I think led me to like a real moment of kind of just like ecstatic realization of what he is pulling together, which is something that more or less happens in all of his movies. But yes, one, I would say it's also more didactic and more, even more ideas for it. As I said to you, like, it's so rare to see a director who takes his theme and just makes it the text in the movie. So this is a movie about the way in which systems degraded humanity, particularly capitalism and remove this kind of essential human connection that we seek because we are forced to participate in this broader system. And especially by saying the movie in a world of elderly people who are kind of at the end of their life and who have fewer people who are caring for them, we're looking after them and there's this very select group of people in these elder care facilities who have to like really take care of these people in every aspect of their lives, you know, taking them to the bathroom, cleaning them, you know, caring for them, making eye contact with them, like the every level of detail is portrayed in this movie. But also it has like a kind of like, um, puckish, sincere, funny spirit to it. You know, it's not, it's not a doom in glue movie, but the movie does spend a lot of time specifically talking through the ideas, including one, perhaps soon to be notorious whiteboard sequence in which capitalism is explained at large for 12 minutes. I mean, as I was sitting there, I just thought the memes will be amazing and, and I have found myself throughout the week as this scene, this is, this is the scene that turns a lot of people or that people have complained about, I guess, in the not so warm reviews, which it has been, people really admire this movie, um, if they aren't like jumping up and down about it. But then you hear about the whiteboard scene. And I just have to say that I instant classic, you know, I was like, oh, here we go. I know how I will be using this once, once everyone has seen this, I will be using it for many years to come. And you know, that is cinema in its own way as well. This one I was really moved by this one, which I did not expect to be about, you know, I'm not always a patient film goer. I also accidentally slept through my first screening of this film, you didn't sleep during the movie. No, no, no, I didn't sleep. Yeah, no, I accident, I set my alarm for PM instead of AM and I woke up at 2 30 in the afternoon and was like, well, there goes that. And meanwhile you are, you quite literally texted me, are you alive? So this is one where I, you know, met the rest of my commitments and I was there at 8 a.m. to see a three hour and 15 minute movie about the front health care system. And I was like, I don't know how this is going to go. I don't know if I'm going to be in the right headspace for this. And it does require you to give yourself over to it. And you know, you can almost, and I think this is like a good thing of like a public service. It can be a how to manual at times for how to care for an older person or a disoriented person, but also like how to be a person in the world. But to your point, there is that level of specificity. And that level of time spent, I don't think the truncated version would work because there is something magical that it does. It forces you to either leave or sit through all of this and learn and get into like a different headspace and a headspace where I am and Adavins don't spend a lot of time. I liked the whiteboard scene, but imagine me sitting through, you know, a lecture of someone drawing to me on a whiteboard in real life, even you would never happen. So we should start doing that though. If I start doing like coaching style breakdowns, like John Gruden style breakdowns with films while you watch. I mean, like coaching class, do you need access to a illustrator? You know, I just do. We just need Amanda's illustrator segment. I made this request, you know, just imagine like all of the production design breakdowns that I could do this, that and the other drawing the arrows. But there is something, there's something like meticulous and like kind of exquisite in the construction of the movie where, as you said, in the last hour it all comes together. And there is kind of a wonder of like, wow, I can't believe we all got here and I can't believe. 100%. That's it. I can't believe that you landed this. And I've never seen it done in quite that way, but it was very, very moving. and cool. And again, unique, I thought. Like I, it's an unexpected. Yeah. So Virginia Fira, the French actress plays the director of the nursing home and actress Tau Akamoto plays a woman named Mari who comes into her life. She's a theater director and they form a very quick bond and they create an unusually intense friendship connection. And it's really her performance. I think that kind of like makes the movie work ultimately. And she's a very empathetic, very open actor. And what happens to her character, I think is kind of what kind of transforms the community of the story. And it's your, I totally agree with you about that last hour, where you're almost like, I felt like with like 30 minutes after I was like, wow, this actually did come together. I can't believe this came together because I was like, like I said, I was very dubious halfway through. I was like, this kind of feels like a, like a bungalow. And it wasn't. It's clearly designed to do exactly what it does. But it is also, it's a, it's a really big cast because it's set at a care facility. And so, and you spend time with the patients, you spend time with the other nurses and caregivers. And then he nails every single forecasting, every single performance. And they're all pretty essential. It all has to, to work together. Like the puzzle pieces are very small. And so when you see this smaller bit characters also have growth and be resolved and they each kind of get their moment, but it doesn't feel like, oh, so and so got their moment too. It really just, once you see how it all works together, it's pretty sunshine. Hey, this, we will be covering it again in the future. Let's talk about paper tiger. That was the first premiere that we attended that you mentioned. I was in talks. You were in gown. This is James Gray's new film. It is extremely familiar terrain for Gray. In fact, the movie was originally conceived as a kind of sequel to Armageddon time. And it turns to become much more of a kind of genre crime film than what was, what transpired in Armageddon time. But it stars Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson. It is perhaps the story is movie that we have here. Driver and Teller were on the red carpet. And Gray has been to the can film festival six times. And this movie is, as I said to you, and as I feel with so many of Gray's movies, who's like, who's my buddy? So, you know, just all objectivity aside here. It's just so eerie how it's so similar to so many aspects of my family's life that when I watch his films, especially Armageddon time in this film and to some extent, we on the night too, that I had to like a little bit of an out of body experience at a certain point. Well, I'll just set up the movie as well. It's about two brothers living in Queens in 1986. And Teller is an engineer and kind of a working class guy, Mary to Scarlett Johansson. He has two sons. Driver is a retired police officer who's kind of a swashbuckling and devoring businessman. And he comes to his brother with an idea for a new business. And that business involves the oil industry in sheep's head bay and the Russian mafia. And I can imagine that things don't go well from there. And they get into some serious trouble. And the movie at times isn't utterly gripping thriller. There are some moments in this movie that I think are as good as any moments in James Craze entire videography. But there was a moment in the film where the camera leans in on a photograph of Adam Driver in a policeman's uniform. And he looks exactly like my father. And the home that Teller's family lives in, the brick home is the home that my mom grew up in. There are so many weird details. And this sounds a little bit like, well, you don't understand it if you don't have a kid. But he just kind of gets that world, which is his world. The film is extremely autobiographical, you can tell, gets it so right. And for me, it obviously elevates it. And I'm already lacking a certain objectivity when it comes to James's films. But I really, really liked this movie. What did you think? Yeah. This is a James Gray podcast. We are James Gray Stance. And this was the one where I was like, I need to be at this premiere. And it was a little bit, as you mentioned, as it was, it was the American movie in competition. And so kind of like the biggest stars, it had the Saturday night, Gala premiere, 930. And you know, lots of curtain calls. So I wanted to be there for the fanfare, but also I wanted to see these actors that I really love in a director who I really love. So it is, it's a James Gray movie. So, you know, two thumbs up for me. It has Farlett Johansson doing the, well, we all know that I'm up and down with Farlett Johansson. But and I think she's good in this, but she's doing now what I'm going to call either the song sung blue or mom drag, which is like a, you know, a modern glamorous actress putting on a bad wig and frumpy clothing and being like, ah, shucks, like I'm, I'm just a mom. And she's given more to do. And there's emotional depths. But I'm slightly, starting to come slightly to resistant to this particular type of performance on like everyone else thinks she's the best thing in the movie. So again, you know, it's always your mileage will vary. Yeah, we had some interesting conversations in the aftermath of this movie with other critics and folks who covered films where some said, this is Gray's best film, this is his opportunity to break into the Oscar race after all these years of being such a critical favorite. And some were like, I hated it. And it's an interesting divide. I'm, I'm, I'm much more leaning towards this is his best film, but it's, to me, it is not his best film. But it is still interesting the way it borrows from so many components of his other movies. I just spent a lot of time rewatching little Odessa in his debut film because I interviewed James for the criterion collection addition that they're putting out in August. And so I watched that would be maybe two or three times. And you know, it's a movie about two brothers in Brighton Beach who get mixed up in a world of crime and who have a complicated relationship with their families. Like, the same is true for the Yards, the same is true for we on the night, the same is true for a lot of these, it's kind of a, it's almost like a collage collusion of a lot of ideas that he's been working on over a 30 plus year period of time. The thing is, I thought the Scarlett Johansson performance worked because very similarly, she just sounded like my mom, like that character, like I was talking to David or like the indie wire critic who's family is also from that part of the world. And he was just like, that is what that woman sounds like. That's how she acts. And it can seem a little bit like drag when it's a movie started doing it. But I thought it was at least on point. Adam Driver in the movie is phenomenal. It is among the best things he's ever done. And his character is fascinating. And he's also a very familiar archetype to me of a certain kind of, you know, industrious New York guy. And also Miles Teller who I think has been kind of mailing it in for the last five or six years. But you can tell, put in a lot of work on this movie. He looks good. And he sold his wonderful alcohol company. I'm happy. What was that? Tall drink, long drink, long drink, long drink, long drink. He sold long drink. So it's very well. Someone DMed me being like, should I try long drink? I was like, why are you DMing me? Just buy that. It's, you know, five dollars. It's going to drink it on this podcast. Like her taste. It was pretty good. But I like Teller too. So I think all three of those kind of core performances are good. Driver is, I'm kind of wondering now if Driver's going to win Best Actor here. Like, you know, I don't, I don't, if the movie does catch the Oscar, he, like, there's a campaign there for him. You think he'd be in Best Actor and not best supporting? That to me seems like a real, a supporting strategy. Yeah. Launchpad. Yeah. And then he does, he walks away with every scene, but it is about the Miles Teller family. So I, he and Scargeau would both run in supporting where I running it. Because I don't care about category fraud. No, I think I think that's really smart. And maybe maybe you actually have a chance. He's dress like Patrick Bateman most of the time. And it's quite powerful. Or, you know, like Gordon Gecko, and it's, let's late, mid late eighties in New York and we're in the suits. And it's, it's powerful stuff. It's a movie about how, um, if only this family who was experiencing such turmoil could have waited three months to watch the Eric Mets win the World Series. You know, that's really what it's all about. It's 1986. That's what it's that we see a Mets banner on one of the young son's walls. Right. But they don't, they aren't watching any Mets games. No. Thanks. They've only, they have let themselves get on tour. We do, we see Shay in the background, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Shay, but I mean, it's, it's an, it's an elite, elite outer borough of New York movies like three minutes and you turned to me and you were just like, this is where, like, this is it. This is me, you know, once again, I've been in all those houses, you know, and there's just something, there's something to that. But, uh, yeah, so they'll be interesting to see this. How this is received because it has been divisive and, and Gray has just not been able to get over those humps, you know, he hasn't won a prize here again before. We'll see if he does this year. He hasn't been nominated for an Academy Award. There's definitely an original screenplay story to be told here. There's a bunch of acting opportunities potentially. This movie is coming from Neon, presumably in the fall. So we'll be talking about it again here soon. I'll talk about Minotaur and you talk about Kamiasno, okay? So, yes. Minotaur is Andre Ziegostev's new film. It is a kind of not-so-loose remake, of Claude Chabreaux, the unfaithful wife, which is also probably best known to American audiences as the Adrian Lahn film Unfaithful, starring Diane Lane in Richard Geer. And it is his version of that story, which is about a woman who's having an affair with a younger man and what happens when her husband finds out. And this is set against the Ukraine-Russia war. And so this filmmaker, this Russian filmmaker, who there's been a lot of press about him over the last five years, and how he hasn't made a movie in some time, and how he was very ill, and I guess was pronounced dead for like 40 minutes, a few years back, has kind of re-emerged left Russia and has made this new movie, which portrays the ways in which kind of individual violence is mirrored and protected by state violence, and the way that the kind of Russian oligarchy manages and navigates the way that individuals are allowed or not allowed to live in that country. Extremely interesting movie that plays for about an hour and a half as a pure thriller, and then pivots in its final 45 minutes into being a much more clearly socially constructed metaphorical pursuit. I think it's very good. I'm a little reluctant to proclaim it great. Some of our colleagues here are proclaiming it great. You didn't get a chance to see this movie. It does feature very strong performances from a Russian cast that I'm not very familiar with. And I found the like overarching metaphor to be an inch obvious, but I do think it has incredible social import, and so because of that, I do think that the film is going to draw a lot of attention, and it is a filmmaker who has not won the poem before, you know, has been considering he made Leviathan, he made endless, like he's made a bunch of movies now that are very, very well liked. And so I, I don't know if it's my resistance to it, in part because what happens is you see a movie like Fjord, and you're like, oh, well, that's what I want. That, that feels like the best to me. Well, you also want to be right because you predicted Fjord last week. And so yeah, and there is a bit of this where, you know, people here, critics, people on the street. I mean, we were stopped by a very nice listener. I believe from the Netherlands, who was just like Minotaur. That's it. That's the one. And I'm just, because for scheduling reasons, I couldn't get there. Also, I mean, I'm just pissed that I missed. I didn't, I didn't understand the premise and the connection to my beloved unfaithful, in quite the way that it's fine. I'll see the film in that. Part of my issue is I'm like, this is just unfaithful. Instead of, you know, set in the world of, of, of, of war in Russia. But, but let me say that I would watch an unfaithful every single year. I'm very, very pro that movie. Anyway, but there are, there are people. Everyone is picking their winner, right? You know, everyone's like picking their little bit of ground, I mean, like, no, it's going to be Minotaur. No, it's going to be Fjord. No, it's going to be the Hama Gucci. So you picked your corner and you're defending your corner. And I think that's fine. It's good to believe in yourself. Yeah. I like the movie. I was Lebedeva who plays the wife's, um, gives an amazing performance and a totally belly. It gives an amazing performance as the husband. Um, it's a very good film. But, and maybe it will emerge triumphant. We will see, but to talk about, um, right, teenage sex and death at the camp, my husband. So this is the new James Shonebun film. And it premiered. It's also an uncertain regard, a club kid, which is kind of like the, I mean, not to be rude, but sort of the JV leak. And, and it was the big premiere. So they brought the jury up on stage and it stars Julian Anderson and Hannah Andender. And they were both there. Uh, and, you know, dressed up. It's, it's not black tie required at the uncertain regard premieres, but people make their best effort. And this is, it will surprise no one to learn a, um, a meta slasher movie about a, a director who is trying to reinvent and kind of resuscitate an old genre, um, like an old, an old franchise. And goes to meet the Gloria Swanson-esque, uh, star of the original, the original franchise in in order to convince her to star in the new one. And then, uh, there are revelations about, uh, the self and one's relationship to, to screens and to, and to life. Um, it is definitely my favorite of the James Shonebren movies, because it's many of the same themes. And even some of the same executions, like there are many Easter eggs and lots of recreations and homages. And it comes from real love of movies and knowledge of, of movies. It's like, it's, it's playing, it's playing to the crowd, but also playing to personal interests. Um, and, but then also the themes of identity and sexual discovery and, um, how hard it is to be in, in the world. And, and what can make that easier? I found it, um, but a little more pop, honestly, there are a number of reasons for that, um, including that there is a, there's a whole plot line about the directors, uh, interactions with the agents and Hollywood individuals. So they're, they're, it's less academic and more, more accessible, is what I would say, some great music cues. Um, and it, it certainly gets involved in the last third of the movie, but I was along for the ride. So I, I, I thought this movie was really interesting and a lot of fun. And yeah, um, I'm excited for other people to get to see it. This is the one I'm most jealous to have missed. And because I came a couple of days after you, I, I wasn't able to see it, and hopefully it'll be able to see it. It's gonna cut, it opens in August. And, uh, yeah, Jane was on the show for I saw the TV glow, which I thought was utterly fascinating. And frankly, at a, a deep textual, uh, analysis of the relationship, for the relationship we have to slashers is like, yeah, nine, nine percent of my personality. So, uh, I'm pretty, pretty excited about that movie. Um, let's talk about Fatherland. We're still in the good category right now that these are movies that we like to hear at the festival. Fatherland is public, public house keys, new film, his first film, since Cold War. It is a, and yet another black and white, beautifully shot movie with Lucas all the cinematographer. Um, it stars Sandra Hooler and Hans Ziesler, uh, and August deal three icons of German cinema. And it is about Thomas Mann, the German novelist writer, philosopher, literary icon, his daughter Erica, and their return to Germany after World War II, after he and his family had fled during the rise in Nazi power. Um, a very brief film, sub 80 minutes long, sub 75 minutes long. Yeah, 72 I think was the clock that I checked, which is, uh, a very different here from most of the other films, which are roughly two and a half hours each. And this is a very stately, thoughtful examination of, uh, cultural and national identity, individual thought versus the state, some similar ideas to Minotaur and Fjord here. Um, it is a quiet movie. Um, I have, I did see a couple of people describe it as melatonin-esque. Um, I liked it more than that. That's rude. Uh, I think so too. It was like the third film I saw here. And so I think I was very eager to have a kind of quality otor effort. Yeah. I think that's what it is. I think this is a good movie. Um, I think Sandra Hooler is amazing in it, uh, as she often is in most things. And I think it had actually a little bit more of her. There's a party sequence. There's a lot of fun. Um, and a beautiful amazing sequence and an amazing opening sequence also, um, very memorable one shot. But as I, as I said to you, in the trilogy of a black and white examinations of post war trauma, which is, you know, Eda Cold War and, uh, now Fatherland, it's third, but that doesn't mean, that doesn't mean that it's bad. It just means that the other two are spectacular. And this is really good. And, you know, it's variations on a theme, which is cool. We should let filmmakers, you know, try things for the most part. And, um, it's much like the James Gray film, much like Paper Tiger. It is wrong wording to be familiar enough with the notura and their interests and their frame of reference to be able to compare and contrast. The, the Junction program is also like that. So I'm, I'm totally with it. But it, you know, it's, it's not Eda. That's all. And when you're making a film in the same visual style and the same thematic, like neighborhood, you know, you're, you're going to, you're going to think about it. Yeah. You are going to think about it. Okay. Let's talk about two more good movies. And then we'll talk about the bad and the what the fuck. Because those are also fascinating. You want to talk about Navi notes before I go last? Yeah. This is, this was another early in competition movie. It's directed by Koji Fukata. And based on a play and it is another quiet movie about people discovering things and also with the way that the systems of the world perhaps inhibit them from discovering things that set in a small Japanese town naggy where a woman comes home to yeah she comes home or she comes to see like her ex-ister-in-law and to like take a break from Tokyo and it's about these people's lives and they're you know they're artists and they're lost loves and also and it's all set to the backdrop of like a local military base and and the training that is going on um which is just kind of like in in the background setting the tone and setting the pace of the movie really uh but it's you know again it's about like self discovery and also it's it's about making art it's one of the characters as a sculptor so it has a lot of that cool um I love it when filmmakers really figure out how to communicate the actual them making the physical making of the art and the a lot of times spent on that and it is like the homoguchi in that people over time hopefully learn something about themselves but there is no it's not quite as didactic which is nice it's more observed um but I thought I thought it I thought it you know lovely can sound reductive but it is like a slightly wistful lovely film that's great I'm going forward to singing you know you gotta have a couple of those that I filmed festival you do um yeah the last one is that I was able to pre-screen this movie which is Kyoshu Kurosawa is the samurai and the prisoner which just screen last night it and seems to be getting borderline rapturous reviews which is very cool to see um Kurosawa has come up quite a bit on the show over the last two years I would say um veteran Japanese filmmaker probably best known for cure Adam Neiman is a is a super fan yes and has has very eloquently explained what makes him such a special director he had cloud last year he had the short film chime he remade one of his own film serpents path which was just released this year as well he's having a moment Kurosawa and this new movie is his first samurai film and it is a really interesting film it's basically if a what if a sort of samurai lord in 15th century Japan was also Sherlock Holmes and has to solve a series of mysteries while bunker down in a fortress during a time of with a war between clans and he takes a prisoner from the opposing side and that prisoner kind of becomes his Watson and so Masahiro Motoki plays the the um Sherlock Holmes-esque samurai and masaki suda plays um kane his kind of his Watson and even though he's imprisoned in a basement they kind of confer and they talk about the details of every mystery that keeps coming up it's really interesting movie beautifully staged um incredible production design it's it's missing just an inch of that like insidious discomfort that I think comes in a lot of curse I was best movies it's not quite as funny as cloud was to me which I thought was just a hilarious movie about dumb dumb criminals um but not interesting to see a guy you know who's in his 60s you know who's still it was kind of an icon of Japanese cinema at this point taking on what is widely considered the most hallowed genre to to the culture and making something new and different something that I've not seen before and last night at the premiere of the film there was this cool moment where all of the Japanese filmmakers who are who are present here um including here Koso Koryeda and and Hamaguchi and a handful of others were they're basically just to to doff their caps and cite the influence the Kurosawa has had on their careers so that's cool that that can happen I'm I wish I had seen it there instead of a loan in a screening room now because it would might have felt more like the more of an ecstatic moment of arrival for that movie but again that movie is also out of competition as are a bunch of these good films that we're talking about here that they're not really competing for the palm and there's something kind of fascinating about I don't know that I totally understand why this movie isn't in competition but I can I get the case for what James movie and Jordan Firstman's movie are in it in certain regard James movie probably should be in competition honestly yeah it's their third film their previous two films were huge critical sensations right they're becoming like a big deal in indie cinema um Firstman I get it as a debut this movie they're all like I don't this is a terrific genre mashup from a Japanese master wise is that okay yeah anyway maybe there are reasons that we don't understand but this is one of those things where they're still like they're still unexplained unexplored stuff when even when you come here yeah well I mean maybe one of the reasons and again we don't have access to theories google docs to to understand um what if we did oh yeah you think you think theories on google docs it could be um is that they had to make room for you know the the great masters of world cinema even if those films were not really up to par which perhaps takes us to the bad which includes some of the the greatest working filmmakers just not making their greatest films this year yeah the second movie that I saw at the festival is parallel tales which this is another 30 for you right it was yeah yeah you had seen this movie before me because when I arrived you and I did not immediately connect even though we're saying in the same apartment um I didn't see like the first 24 hours you said I would have just spared you and said you just don't need to go see this but yeah this is that's our far harry uh iranian filmmaker who is a popcorn door winner has made a great many terrific films over the last 25 years um a verse skilled master making a French film with Isabelle pair and Binsaca cell and uh virginia fira and um Catherine de nos shows up in this movie it is a it is a collection of French luminaries and it is a kind of soft adaptation of a handful of uh christophe quizlowski stories from the decalogue and and um I think red it has some elements of red in it and um it's a snooze man it's boring and it's d-o-a yeah it's just not very compelling the performances are a little dull it has a core idea in it that is actually somewhat similar to the idea in the Pedro Alamedobar movie that we will talk about around yeah creation and sort of like an author's vision and where those ideas come from but and in some ways they're they'd be in neat pairing but what Alamedobar does is like so much more interesting and entertaining and ultimately resonant um yeah you know that's we'll talk about that movie in a second but this movie is just like it's just it's two nine hours and dull and and cuss Isabelle who pair as a with the old crone who doesn't get to leave her you know it's like Isabelle who pairs rear window except if you know jimmy Stewart had no juice and and then there's and there's no like grayscale hate popping at any uh yeah yeah you can't do that and then vince cussales is cast he plays a double role but another man with no juice and you're just kind of like yes hello these are your french stars who have major juice what are we doing here and that's kind of the minute that you know and you keep waiting like oh are you gonna let Isabelle who pair outside is she gonna get to do anything and you know did she does not and the movie didn't know what to do with her or missies is her and missies is everyone else I don't I don't understand and that was a really why am I watching this movie I did feel the first few days I watched a lot of like just okay wise uh there is absolutely it's not even that I don't understand the personal connection it's just did anyone was anyone here what was interesting about this to any person and I well the premise sure but no I mean the the it raises a useful discussion also around the next film uh which uh you didn't get a chance to see but I saw it which is sheep in the box which is korea does new movie now for hiding korea are both palm winners and so if they have a new film and they're yeah directors with proven track records it's probably hard to say to them no you're not going to be in competition this year and so both of these movies are competition korea does film on paper sounds very like familiar terrain for him as well it's about a couple who are experiencing tremendous grief after losing a child and so in order to counteract that grace pursue a sort of like robot AI replacement for their son who is looks sounds and mostly acts like their son and you know we've seen stories like this before we've seen spielberg's AI um and it felt like korea did just not know what to do with this idea and the movie is kind of wandering and at times it feels like it is kind of in defense of this particular conceit and it wants to try to have empathy for the parents, but I found the characterization of both of those figures the mother and the father was too vague to really get emotionally connected to. You know, I was in the mood and looked that great. And I found that surprising. It had a kind of like hay load glow on it that Encore Edas films usually feel like so kind of grungy and in the real world. You know, like he won for shop lifters, which is one of the more beautiful evocations of family and like what you're forced to do when you're in a family. And this was just the huge mess. I heard in the room you could tell similarly it just died like it just this one you said I didn't get a chance to see it and by that you mean you told me like you really do not have to go see it go see something else. And and there was I'm at no defenders. So I did actually just skip the creative movie at can in competition. We felt a little erotical, but I you know there's no one saying this was a good idea. Yeah, it happens, you know, like in any filmmakers career like you just you do one and it doesn't work and the for how did it in work, the created in work. And honestly, John Lennon last interview I don't I don't think worked, but that for a very specific reason. And so we should talk about it. This is Steven sort of works new documentary. As much as this is a James Gray podcast, this is a Steven server podcast and a Beatles podcast and a Beatles podcast. Until the four movies in which case it's over. No, if that's then it's not a podcast anymore. So the last interview is a Chronicle of the last interview that John Lennon gave to three San Francisco radio hosts in was it is in 1980 when he passed. Yes. And in the year that he passed on the day on this yes, why didn't want to spoil that? I don't know. That was actually a revelation to me that he did that. Okay, sorry. All right. It doesn't matter. It's a it's a known fact in the world. But upon the release of double fantasy is album with yoga. Oh, no, no, they both sat for this extended interview with these radio hosts. And so the movie is a kind of Chronicle of how they got the interview, how the how the host pursuit it and there is interviews with all three hosts. And then much of the film is the audio of the conversation between Yoko Lennon and these hosts. And it uses a lot of your kind of standard archival music documentary and a lot of photographs, a lot of, you know, speaking over images that we would recall from the period of Lennon and all those lives. And it's an amazing interview. And and both Lennon and Ono speak insightfully. I think they have a ton of questions about where culture is going. It's interesting to watch them talk about their pasts, their their love lives, their their, you know, his notions of fatherhood. I found to be super interesting. I don't know that I had ever read this interview or heard it before. And so in that, even though there's just frankly too many John Lennon documentaries, the text I thought was interesting. Yeah, but but and we knew this going into the festival. Sotoburg makes this choice to solve a problem that I have thought about and that I have worked with filmmakers on and making music documentaries, which is what do you do when you don't have enough archival footage to help tell the entirety of a music story because music of course is an audio art fun. And Sotoburg chose to use AI to animate some of the themes and literal ideas that Lennon is talking about. And it's just a fiasco. Like it's just a disaster. And it's literally it looks like Groc AI images of like, you know, it very very obviously not very elegant constructions of these ideas. And it's distracting and weird and feels way out of place and kind of torpedoed the movie for me. It's thousand percent. Listen, Steven Sotoburg is my guy and he likes to try things and you know, it's everyone can try things once. So if this is the experiment and then it's done, we tried it, it didn't work, we move on, then I'm okay. But this categorically does not work. And it's not just an ethical AI, you know, don't use AI, you know, replacing like actual filmmakers and humans, all of which I believe by the way, but it's actually in the execution. All of the AI descriptions look like what your mom or grandma would produce when typing into like Sora or whatever. I don't even know what exists anymore because I've never done it, but they are so literal and it looks so bad. It's a useful case for, hey, actually, AI is not a helpful tool in filmmaking because there's there are many bad sequences, but there's one with some some cavemen and also some like imagined Napoleon battlefield shots where you're just like, what? How did this get past you, Steven Sotoburg? I mean, I guess I guess you were just like committed at this point and where all the all the other components are just so normal and well handled. So it really sticks out. And I agree that it is clearly like an experiment and let's see what this can manifest. And frankly, maybe made by a movie who doesn't spend all this time online. And if you are online and you see these images, they represent something different. They represent there's the kind of a cheapening of art. And if you're not living in that world. And frankly, if you're not living in that world, congratulations, that sounds amazing. But I am online. You know, still listen, if he's not online, he's got a screensaver and like, you know, and he's seeing what those look like. And this is worse. So I just am very, very confusing. I guess we'll like, we've all learned together that this is not an option. So and maybe that's good. So now we know the technology is not ready. This doesn't work. It's not a good idea. We'll all move on briefly. That's going to happen. No, no, I think I was going to take over and we're going to have jobs and then soon they'll be sky net and we'll all be dead. That's when that's going to happen. Great. Briefly speaking of our imminent demise, I saw a colony, which I was pretty excited about and disappointed me. It's young Sengho's new movie who directed Train to Busan, which is one of the best zombie movies of all time about a train full of zombies. And he is a like George Romero, which turns over and over again to zombie storytelling. This new one is has a really cool idea, really cool idea, which is that the zombies in this film, which there's an outbreak after a scientist develops a kind of concoction that infects people and makes them crave zombies. But they operate as like a hive mind and they use, he uses the technology after studying and colonies. And so they operate like ants. And so the actual zombie core ideas are very cool in this movie, but the movie features no real characters of interest. And I totally find performances and lead in storytelling. And it has like one or two cool actions that pieces, but it was a big disappointment because I like, you know, Sengho's movies quite a bit. It did remind me a little bit of another Asian action film that we will talk of South Korean action film that we will talk about momentarily. I don't know. Did you want to talk about butterfly jam at all? Sure. So this open director's fortnight, which is another category here at Cannes. And it's directed by Kantmer Balagoff, who was here at Cannes with Beanpole. And it stars a lot of actors, you know, Barachiogan, Harry Melling, Riley Kio. And it explores masculinity in, like in New Jersey, in a particular sarcasm. And I think, yeah, immigrant community. And so I thought that everyone was being a little mean about it because it got really panned, really, really very early on in the festival. But it's quite uneven. There is an entire sub-lot about a teenage wrestler. And there's a lot going on that just doesn't make sense. It looks very nice. The good actors aren't bad. But you know, this is another one where this is a director who's been to Cannes before, who's gotten some acclaim. And so the film's here, but it's not a competition. It's not even an uncertain regard, you know, so you kind and know going in, I doubt anyone's super happy. But it didn't work. Yeah, I probably will end up seeing this, but not not a very strong reception for that one. Let's look at the WTF a little bit. And there are different ways to define the WTF films this year. We'll first talk about Hope, which is Nahongjin's new film, his first film in 10 years that is in competition. And you and I attended the Sunday night Black Tie Gallup Ramirez at 930. And the reason we did that is because there was there was chatter and there was discussion that this could be a palm contender. And so I said to you, if it is, we want to be there in the room for it. You know, we don't want to be next door 30 minutes later in the press conference. You want to see you want to see the standing ovation, you want to see how it's received by the by the people. We haven't really talked about the the ovations, but that is very much a thing. - I mean, they're really fake. They're like faker than everything else. - Yeah. - And usually just, you know, people clapping politely while looking at their phones led on by the very hardworking movie teams who are trying to keep the ovation going for as long as possible and listen. Those people deserve my respect. They do a lot to make this happen. - They are hard. - But, you know, we knew that it was going to be like a high energy action creature movie because we saw a little bit of the footage that sent him a con and it came after many days of, you know, the interlives of Europeans and it's just the team of this festival and every festival. And we're like, we need, we need something different. Like we need a vibe shift, you know, we just, we need some of and we want to see it on the biggest screen possible. And if it is going to be that exciting thing, we want to be there with people cheering or see if people cheer or see how it plays and isn't it funny that they're going to do this for all of these Fusty people in Texas. And it will say it was funny that they did this for all these Fusty people in Texas. - And it was exactly what you just described. It was an incredible change of pace. And if I liked it, it's in part because of that. It was so different from anything else that we had experienced. It is hilarious that they put this in competition because it could not be further from a competition movie as we historically understand it. You know, not is a very respected filmmaker. The wailing is a beloved horror movie from 2016. But he's not exactly classy. He makes really nasty violent movies. And hope is a massive Michael Bayesque alien invasion thriller. And features, frankly, some of the most exhilarating action sequences that you'll see this year or really probably this decade. But also features like really bad monster CGI and very little characterization of any human people. And it may be aspires to a couple of social ideas about kind of closed off communities and how we don't understand each other. But like, it's not really what it's hard to do. - Yeah. - I mean, apparently in all the directors, in the director's statement, there's like pans to that. You know, like when two communities that don't understand each other could be like have conflicts. Here's what happens. Like, that's not what the movie is. The movie is a bug hunt movie. You know, it's a chase movie. - What's the other community, the aliens? - The aliens, yeah. - Okay. I mean, sure, they definitely don't understand each other. - Well, because something critical happens to one of the families and the film and that leads to a series of destructive moments. - That is true. A couple of things about this movie. Number one, it starts with what? A 45 minute opening set piece hunt that is exhilarating and amazing to watch and so exciting and crucially pre CGI. It is before you see any of the bugs. So it builds both like on the dread and the fear but is also just chasing all around this town. Like amazing choreography, really, really exciting. And that got like full applause when it was done. As if someone were seeing an aria in an opera. Like, it was awesome. Second thing is that. - There's a moment where Ho-Yan from Squid Game shows up that is like the room burst into a pause. - Totally. - It was like rock and roll James Cameron action movie moment. - And again, so that's why I'm glad that we made the decision to catch rest up and go see it without the other people. The other thing that I knew about this movie going in and that has been built and they were there on the red carpet was that Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell are in this movie. How they're used in this movie is that's something I knew going in and I don't want to spoil anything other than to say that it wasn't what I expected. And the moment when I realized that that was what was happening, I was like, oh, okay, so this is the kind of movie that this is going to be. Also, you realize that about an hour and a half in, you kind of keep waiting, you keep waiting. This is a long movie. It is two hours and 40 minutes. - It is really, really long. I don't know if it needs to be that long. - Yeah, there's those, you know, here's what I'll say. One, I had a really good time. - Yeah, that was why. - I really enjoyed it. I think it is very flawed and that's okay. Most movies like this are, I'm a Michael Bay fan. I'm a fan of the erector set filmmaking and there's some extraordinary production design in this movie in terms of creating the chaos. The only thing that really feels like CGI all the time are the aliens. Everything else feels deeply real and this kind of burned out post-apocalyptic. A presumably Korean setting, but actually, nah, I was sort of being playful on saying like, is this movie even set on earth? I didn't say it was. So something kind of funny about that too. - Okay, I mean, yeah, some incredible science corners for everyone once the movie is widely seen. - Yes, I think it's coming out this summer. And so we'll talk about it again, but you know, it looks like it's unfinished effectively. The CGI is not quite clean and click. Yeah, there are moments where it's very bad. And then also, as you said, it's just too long. And I'm a little reluctant to levy that criticism too often on the show because I like long movies and I want filmmakers to be able to stretch out. But this is a relic in action movie. It's not a personal drama. And unlike say the Hamaguchi movie, like you don't get to the third hour of the film and feel like, oh, wow, this patient's really paid off. It's just a series of action sequences over and over and over again. So I actually think they would do really well to cut about 20 minutes out of the movie and it would really help the movie. - Yeah. - But I still had a great time fascinating to watch the stuffy euros in the room, the utterly baffled diet. - I mean, and that is a little bit of the genius of the Ken film festival to your point. It's really, really funny that this was in competition and got a gala premiere. And it's maybe coloring like the reception of from those stuffy people. And from everyone saying, oh, this shouldn't be in competition. But also brings a lot of attention to the festival and the movie and it's on way. It's very savvy. Like, you got to make moments. - I agree. - And there are many different ways to make moments. And this was a really funny moment. - Yeah, I felt this immediately after this good screen. I woke up the next morning and I was like, I'm so glad we came for this. Like, it was just really a lot of fun. Also in WTF, one of the highlights of the festival for me was getting a chance to see The Devils, which is Ken Russell's long-simmering but difficult to watch Masterpiece starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave about a real life, French city, Loudon in the, I don't want to get their century wrong. I'll say 16th century, but I think that's wrong. That goes absolutely apeshit. And the movie, which was released by Warner Brothers, was considered an absolute scandal at the time, features some wildly aggressive and some considered anti-Christian imagery, extremely violent and sexual. And it's like one of the masterpieces of the 1970s. I'd seen the movie before, but I'd never seen this director's cut, which Russell helped to oversee before he passed away. The screening itself was amazing. It was one of the absolute toughest tickets I can. I was very lucky to score a ticket, thanks to a friend. And it's the first project from Clockwork, which is this new imprint that Warner Brothers has just launched. They're producing the new Sean Baker film. They also announced some other news that they're producing the next park chain woke film, which apparently they picked up here at Market for in Cannes. And they're also distributing through Warner Brothers this 1973 all-time classic that is just very rarely even seen. And even in the screening, I would say 90% of the people who were there and never seen it before, they raised their hands beforehand during an introduction with Mark Kermode, the credible British critic, who I got to spend a little bit of time with, which is also real highlight for me, 'cause he's such an icon. And yeah, the movie was extraordinary. I'd only seen it on a shitty DVD. And it just took my breath away and was hilarious in many ways. And the sequence that was missing from the original cut of the movie has been put back in at least one sequence that I could tell that was shocking and fun. And I hope people get a chance to watch it when it comes to movie theaters in October and the United States, which is a very cool thing the Clockwork is doing. Okay, let's talk about the unknown. Arthur Verrari is the co-writer of an Adam Abelfall and Justin Trita's life partner. And he has made quite a hilarious new film. I'm sorry. Transubstantiation, the Kafka-esque story of what happens when you fuck a stranger. - In a club basement? - Yeah, in a club basement. Not fuck a stranger in the ass as it announced in the Big Lebowski, but literally have sexual intercourse with a person you don't know who is perhaps haunted by some sort of demon force and allows that sexual act to then transpose your soul and brain into another person? - Yeah, well, I guess it's not very specific about what is being transferred and right? And that's the expiration is what is the self and what part of the self remains and what part of the self is trapped in Laos city's body. - Yeah, real head scratcher of a movie. Kind of pretty effective, I thought. I thought very unnerving and upsetting a real downbeat, difficult European film. You know, shades of David Lynch, shades of Bonwell, not a fun hang of a movie. Les, they do has 25 lines of dialogue over a two and a half hour film. She's the star, she's always good, but she is not given too much to play here. I found myself enjoying kind of unpacking the idea, but also this is a movie that people are like, this is a one-star disaster. So, you know, your mileage may vary on the unknown. I thought it was silly, good premise, right? And you and I have had a lot of fun, you know, arguing the specifics of it and its repercussions and what it's even trying to say about the morals or ethics as having sex with a stranger in a club basement. But I'm not sure what I learned, you know? Which is maybe that's a little on me for not fully emotionally investing. I will say it didn't really capture my, you kind of almost warned me off it because you're like, it's not an Amanda movie and it's really grim and a tough hang. And I guess maybe I was just tired, but I didn't find it that difficult to watch. Like again, I thought we were set enough for something really messed up. And instead it was just kind of, you know, what if you could fuck your way into someone else's body? - Yeah, it's unpleasant for sure. - Okay, let's ping through some European excursions. We briefly mentioned Bitter Christmas Pedro Almodovars, new film, which is already open here in Europe, but has not come to the United States yet. And another movie that through like an hour and a half, I was like, wow, what a fiasco. And then in the last 15 minutes, I was like delightful, absolutely terrific and terrific. And I kind of don't want to say anything else about it because it would almost ruin what I think was in part the design of the film, which is all about inspiration and where Almodovar takes his ideas from and the experiences he witnesses in real life and the way that that continues to become a part of his art. But just an absolutely hysterical final 15 minutes of this movie that I've really enjoyed. - Yeah, and you know, also has once again, like a perfect apartment. And I'm wondering now whether I should cut my hair to the length of the main character, you know, it has all of Ammodovar style and a lot of wit and knowingness as well, which I appreciated. But yeah, we won't spoil the ending. I was pro. - Yeah, I was doing, you know, back working in his native Spain after making an American feature and some shorts in the English language. And it's just very comfortable, clearly working with these actors, a bunch of actors that he's worked with before Barbara Linney. And so I would definitely recommend that one. Yeah, I didn't see the beloved though, you did. And I paired it here with bitter Christmas for a couple of reasons. It is also a Spanish film directed by Rodrigo Sorgoan and stars Javier Bardem. And I can best describe it as "normy Spanish sentimental value". It is Javier Bardem plays a filmmaker who is making a film set on the Canary Islands, which is also where part of bitter Christmas is filmed. We see the tourism jeep in both. And he casts his daughter, his adult daughter, who he doesn't have much relationship with in this film that he is making. And so then it is about the exploration of their relationship and making a film and art. And what you can mean to each other as parents or as directors and she's an actress. I mean, it opens with the scene. In a restaurant, just like the scene in sentimental value when "Stone's Garzguard" gets her run out of runs via the script and it's like, I want you to star in this. It's much longer. I found that cinematography is very obnoxious. But there's one really great set piece, like a making of a movie set piece that your movie, if you're a movie nerd, you get really into it. And it's funny and then it becomes like very emotional. And it's like, I mean, it's not the silent film scene from Babylon, but it encapsulates it all. And I was really excited by that scene and that performance. I always like "Havier Bardem". So I was not unchirmed by this, you know? - Okay, I'm gonna check it out. - Unfortunately, I can't see it here. - I get it's "Normi" said "Menow Value". But, you know, I'm a normie, I guess? - Well, okay, tell us about a woman's life in "Gental Monster". - Ah, yes, speaking of the inner lives of Europeans and/or women who cannot have it all. So a woman's life is directed by Charlene Bourgeois-Tecquet and it is about a woman of a certain age, who is a surgeon and is, she's working and she's living and she's trying to figure out how much she wants to work and how much she wants to live. And then she meets someone else and explores love and then then that also kind of recombobulates how much she wants to work and how much she wants to live. It was fine, it wasn't bad. There were a few things that made me chuckle, including at one moment when, you know, 'cause she's a surgeon and so they're moving, there's a lot of administrative headache, which I thought was portrayed well. It can be annoying when people, when you're managing stuff and people aren't doing whatever, but she just yells at the dentist or stealing our supplies and I have thought about that a lot. Just add a context, it's funny. - You're an antithesis. - Otherwise, as always. - Well, sure, but the dentist come in and they're stealing her supplies. It's not nice. I met a lovely listener here who said that the movie is divided into chapters and one of the subtitles was essentially having it all and this lovely listener was like, "I thought of you, Amanda." As soon as it said, having it all. So I guess that is my influence. But, you know, this to me is representative of the, they can't really, any film festival trend of, this is a festival set in France. And so we're gonna have a certain number of movies starring French actors about, French about, like the lives, inner or outer of Europeans. - Right. - That's fine. Everybody's gonna do what they're gonna do. The other general monster is written and directed by Marie Kruitzer, who made "Corsage," which we both really liked. And this one stars Laissé Due. And I thought that, and it's about, it's another movie about the lives of French people. In this case, Laissé Due plays a French mom, who husband is arrested within the first 15 minutes on charges of child pornography, sales, or, you know, whatever is going on in that world that I don't really wanna know anything about. So it is really grim and tough because it's what is this mom gonna do as her husband is accused of and goes through the system for these absolutely heinous charges. And it doesn't, I mean, it obviously doesn't show anything, but it's like, it is like grim. It uses, it doesn't shy away from the subject matter and makes you feel really bad. It also does the thing of that, fewer, it's the opposite of fewer where it like really kind of makes things very clear to you. You don't wonder what's going on, everyone, but Laissé Due seems to have figured out what's going on. So you just feel real bad. There's a hair-brained plot involving the investigator that is maybe trying to teach us something again about how, you know, women have to deal with men's imperfections and are always at a disadvantage, but that doesn't work at all. And I thought it was kind of trashy, honestly. Like I think it tries to get to some sort of revelation beyond the hallmark movie of it all, but it doesn't. And once again, Laissé Due doesn't really get that much to do except to, oh, I guess she's kind of Bjork. She's like a Bjork as pop star artist. So that's cool. Again, there's a lot going on in this movie. None of it adds up to anything. Catherine Deneuve Bingo once again. She's the mom, a concert pianist of her own. It's like, it's messy, it is provocative, but doesn't deliver. And it's also feel bad because it's about pedophilia. So good luck to everyone, but no. - I skipped this one. - Yeah. There's a couple of other movies that we haven't seen yet, or haven't seen at all, we both miss Mulan, which is "Losla Nemesis" new film. We miss "Garance", which is a new Adele XR chopper movie, which I'm actually kind of interested in, and I read some reviews of it that sounded intriguing to me. So I'm still here for a couple more days. So I'll be seeing Lucas Donz, "Coward", a film "Lubble and Negra", which is a Spanish movie that is generating some buzz the premieres tomorrow. And the man I love, which is Iris Saxx's new film, and one of the only other American films here at the festival. We didn't see it. Abidon, which I thought was a very good portrait of Richard Abidon, the famed fashion photographer, and Ron Howard directed it, and he was here at camp, and presented the movie at our screening. And pretty like standard, but comprehensive, and this is now the third consecutive documentary that Howard has made after Pavari and Jim Henson, I DMN where I'm like, "I'm glad I watched that. Learned a lot." Pretty went down easy, thoughtful, really good interviews. He kind of got everyone that you would want to hear from, I would say, maybe with a section of ad went to her. And yeah, I thought it was effective. Yeah, also, you know, that's one where you have enough archival to talk with. I mean, there's, I mean, there are a lot of, it's really helpful, but you could just, you can't do look at the photographs for a long time, and there are no AI cavemen, so thumbs up. That was relief. Okay, let's do some brief predictions here. Got checked based on everything you've seen and heard. What do you think is winning the Palm Door? I'm going to tag because I think the jury might tag, and I think it's going to be the, the homoguchi. Okay, that's interesting. Homoguchi did not win for Drive My Car in 2021, and that was considered a bit of a snub at the time, and the film went on to have this incredible run where it got nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, still one of the wildest Best Picture Noms in the history of the Oscars. Um, Arkshin, what is the jury president? And so I am certainly wondering if we are all playing the game wrong somehow. One of the reasons why people thought hope was getting a chance to potentially win the Palm before anyone saw it is because a, you know, is also a South Korean filmmaker, it's a genre movie. Um, I think I'm going to, I am going to pivot my prediction to Minotaur now because of the murder plot quality of it, you know, that comes from that story that, you know, it's a movie that has like some stuff in common with decision to leave, and so I don't know how, you know, aggressive park is going to be. To me, it really does feel like it's between Fjord and, and this movie, maybe, maybe something like a liberal in Edgar, like bricks through nearly into the festival, too, there that's all, that's also a possibility. But I like that you're predicting all of a sudden, and I'll, I'll go officially with Minotaur. But frankly, I'm rooting, I'm rooting for Fjord. But this is the, why are, this is like F1 and Best Picture all over again. It is. And I know why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? Well, because I just can't help but overthink these things, you know? Okay. So then the Grand Prix, what do you think is going to win the second place prize? Let's see. I'll, I'll go with Fjord. Okay. All of a sudden. And, and Fjord, sentimental value on the Grand Prix last year, right? So different movies, I guess I'm just being, you know, to Scandinavian here, but they, they could occupy a similar spot for me. Okay, Jerry Press. And that's just for the one. You could see that going to hope, right? Have a little fun. Well, that would be fun. That would be fun. Yeah. Okay, I'll get on board with you on that. Throw something out. Faster, best, no, no, I think that's, I don't know, I don't know, I don't even know what else could possibly be contending. That's the thing is when you've got this situation where you've got club kid and you've got a T.H. sex, a death of a camera. Those movies are not up for these prizes, you know, to have around the prisoners, not up for those prizes. I think, I'll stick with hope on the Jerry Press. That would just be really funny if that happens. Best director, public nasty. Yeah, could see it. Right? Yeah, it's, it's, it's currently, I checked this morning and it's still leading the, Father Lynn is still leading the Can critics poll, which is very unscientific for a number of reasons. It is, but it isn't indicative typically of prize winners and he's, he's very admired as a filmmaker. So that feels like, feels like where it's going. Okay, actor and actress thoughts. You, I have, you throw some out. Here's, here's like good right now. Yeah, it'll be driver and actor for paper tiger. Interesting. Great. And, and maybe let us say do for the unknown. As an acknowledgement of her contributions here. Yes, you know, that, that feels like something that could happen. Yeah, I, I can see a cooler is also possible for Father Lynn to see that as well. Sure, but I know I think director and then, you know, they, this festival is proud of its, its French actors and actresses. And I know that the, the jury is separate. There are a lot of Americans on the jury. Have you been following the jury fashion competition at all? I haven't. They're, they're really using this to debut their looks. They're spending a lot of time in money, the women at least. Okay, that's good. I like it. I, you know, lay us, I need to put in the work, even if it didn't deliver. She's, she's doing her best. Has she ever won? And she's the best up in coming actress. I don't know if she's ever won best actress, it can. I don't think so. And I, something to keep in mind. I could be wrong about that. Okay, last prize is best screenplay. I mean, I'd really like for it to be James Gray for paper tiger. It's a, it's a wish casting thing. Uh, definitely could happen. Okay. It could happen. Best scene, I think you should get. There's a scene at the end of the movie that is, yeah, unreal. That is, it is, I don't, I don't want to spoil it, but it is amazing. Who's winning on certain regard? Teenage Sex and Death or Club Kid? Club Kid. You think I'm about, I don't know. I don't know. Club Kid is very American. Sure. And it's not been an American festival, but we were remarking after paper tiger. And this was the, this was the first week, the end of the first week was paper tiger, but the three titles that people were most excited about were, "Can my asthma, Club Kid, and paper tiger, the American films, and a very un-American film festival." Sure. So, you know, things, things have loosened up a bit, um, but it's a different jury for uncertain regard. And it's, you know, my asthma is definitely more, more mainstream than any of the other films, but there's just kind of something irresistible. Club Kid, you just settle right in. And it's irresistible. And he thoughts on the camera door, the best first film prize. See that? See to me, if you go can my asthma for uncertain regard, and the camera door, if you go to first man, that feels like a way to kind of split the baby. Do the juries. You collaborate in that way? Is there like backroom dealing? Because you can go for many. Okay. And I'm, I'm but a, but a naive first-timer here at Cannes, so I haven't dug into the rules. What do you think? Do you think it's going to, do you think it's going to split? Yeah. I mean, maybe there'll be something completely different. You know, it could be a movie that were not, it could be "Mobile and Egor," it could be something completely different. You know, like I, we didn't mention, like, Rami Mollock. People say, I think, has a chance for best actor here. We haven't, I haven't seen it. I have sex film yet, but he's an easter star of the man I love. So there, there's still some, some things to be played out by. I think by this time, two years ago, and Nora had not yet premiered at the festival. So it's like, we feel like we're recording late, but there's still a lot of festival to go. So it's a little, it's impossible to be accurate with these predictions. Also, who knows? It's all based on the jury. It's not, it's not a point scoring system. It's what is, how do Danny Moore and Park Chan will speak to each other on this jury? I genuinely don't know. I hope, but I hope. I would like to know. Yeah. Yes. I would too. Oscar implications. We should at least briefly mention this, because coming out of last year, I think, I mean, north of 10 films that premiered, or north of 10 nominations from films that premiered at the Kent Film Festival hit last year, including the bulk of the international feature slate, two movies and best picture, multiple acting categories, multiple screenplay nominations. You know, that included, it was just that accidental value, the secret agent, Sarat, there were a number of movies here last year, and it really made their way into the award season. I'm kind of interested to see if that's the case this year. There is a part of it to think so, like maybe not a lot of these movies make it in, and maybe only one or two based on what I've seen so far. What do you think? Well, they've revamped international a bit this year, not as much as we would like, but that there can be multiple submissions from a single country. If they win a prize at a festival, if they won a prize. Oh, right. So, who did we, who did we predict? In this, we predicted Fjord or Minitor. Yeah. I don't know. Like if Hama Gucci wins a prize here, you could Japan, you could, or maybe France would, I have maybe all of a sudden is considered a French film, and so France could have two submissions based on this film that they would impress you. Yeah, but it is also that this is a year where, aside from the French films, we're seeing like, you know, one from each country. So it's like, it's maybe moot at least in the can lineup. I don't know. I think, you know, fjord for sure, because it has those recognizable Hollywood or Hollywood crossover stars. You've, I'm so mad about Minotaur, but it does seem like it will break through when it has enough in, you know, common with movies that people are familiar with to be like, oh, sure. I'll check out this version. It's been a while since there's been like a big Russian breakthrough. That's not, it hasn't been super strong in recent years. Yeah, I mean, it does feel like all of the, all of the authors who made like decent to good movies. So publicowski for Fatherland, and James Gray for Paper Tiger and, you know, I'm a Gucci for all of a sudden will be in the conversation 'cause they have name recognition from previous films. Yeah, it's almost like it's the ghosts of can pass doing the work in order to let these through. I don't, I can't tell what any surprises would be yet, but again, there's more can to go. And there are more movies to go. Yeah, and you gotta go. You gotta go to, you gotta go to your train. Yeah, you gotta come with me, actually. Yeah, we're gonna carry some bags. You're going to Paris. I'm going to see more movies. You happy that we made this happen? I really am, thank you. Thank you for, thank you for doing this with me. I'll say that off mic too, but I'm very grateful. And it was really fun. And I want to come back. Also, thanks to everyone we met who listens and who said hello is really, really nice. You guys are all very cool and international and I'm not sure why you need to hear from two people podcasting from their apartment, but we appreciate it. It was wonderful to meet everybody. It was so sweet, however, and was like, this is your first can. They were excited for us. They seemed to know that. I know it was really nice. That was, it's been very special to just wait in line and hang out and talk to people. And that's one thing I do love about going to film festivals is just kind of making new friends every day and connect to a people and just talking movies all day. It's a really, really lucky thing for us. And you know, as always, we always travel well together. We had a lot of fun. That was good. It was great. So see you next year. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see mom. I want to say thank you to Jack Sanders our producer and Lucas Kavanaugh and Sarah Ready for being up at gun guy Lee Hours to record this episode because we are in Europe. Thank you to the two, all three of them for helping us arrange this. If this episode doesn't look that good, I'm sorry, this is the best that we could do. That's really all I have to say about it. We will be back next week. You will return from Europe as well. I and we will go see the Mandalorian and Grogu and we'll take our nods together. And, you know, early word, not strong. Okay. But, you know, you never know. Star Wars could be back soon. Could not be back. We'll talk about it all next week on the big picture. Thank you for spending this time with us at Cannes. We'll see you very soon. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)