My Cannes Ratings

I saw several films at this edition of the Cannes Film Festival, in all four categories (Official Competition, Un Certain Regard, Directors' Fortnight and the Critic's Week). Obviously the three best films for me are Sokurov's Alexandra, Kawase's Mourning Forest and Reygadas' Silent Light.

It's too bad that Alexandra did not get any prize since this newest opus by Sokurov is a chef d'oeuvre about the War which does not include any single drop of blood. The performance of the main 80-year old actress is stellar.

My other two favorites would be Mourning Forest, an absolutely enchanting fable able love and death, shot beautifully and yet disturbs with its beauty and Silent Light which opens and ends with a supremely brilliant shot that starts with a starry night, to the daylight and segues to present the viewer to the village of a reclused Mennonite family in Northern Mexico.


Other highlights include Hou Hsiao Hsien's magical Flight of the Red Balloon with a striking performance of Juliette Binoche, the Iranian animated feature Persepolis which retraces the life of director Satrapi in the various turbulant years of Iran, a breathtaking Breath and a very sweet Caramel.

Here are my ratings. I will add the Cannes prizes (if any) for each film.

Five Stars
Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov) - Russia - Official Competition

Four and a Half Stars
Stellet Licht / Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas) - Mexico - Official Competition *Cannes Winner - Jury Prize*
Mogari No Mori / The Mourning Forest (Naomi Kawase) - Japan - Official Competition *Cannes Winner - Grand Prize*

Four Stars
Du Levande / You, the Living (Roy Andersson) - Sweden - Un Certain Regard
Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge / The Flight of the Red Balloon - (Hou Hsiao Hsien) - Taiwan - Un Certain Regard
Persepolis (Marjane Setrapi & Vincent Paronnaud) - Iran/France - Official Competition *Cannes Winner - Jury Prize*
Soom / Breath (Kim Ki-duk) - South Korea - Official Competition

Three and a Half Stars
Caramel (Nadine Labaki) - Lebanon - Directors' Fortnight
Import Export (Ulrich Seidl) - Austria - Official Competition

Three Stars
A Lost Man (Danielle Arbid) - Lebanon - Directors' Fortnight Both (Bassem Breich) - Lebanon - Critic's Week
My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar Wai) - China - Official Competition / Opening Film

Two and a Half Stars
Auf Der Anderen Seite / The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin) - Turkey/Germany - Official Competition *Cannes Winner - Best Script*
California Dreamin' (Cristian Nemescu) - Romania - Un Certain Regard *Cannes Winner - Best Film Un Certain Regard*
Promise Me This (Emir Kusturica) - Serbia - Official Competition

Two Stars
We Own the Night (James Gray) - USA - Official Competition

One and a Half Star
Les Chansons d'Amour (Christophe Honoré) - France - Official Competition

One Star
Une Vieille Maîtresse (Catherine Breillat) - France - Official Competition

[Picture credits are - from top to bottom: Alexandra (Sokurov), Silent Light (Reygadas), Persepolis (Satrapi & Paronnaud), Mourning Forest (Kawase), The Flight of the Red Balloon (Hsiao Hsien), Import Export (Seidl) and Promise Me This (Kusturica)]