For film buffs three key months make life worth living: January, when the best of the world s independent cinema is unveiled in the Sundance Film Festival; September, when Oscar contenders emerge through the Toronto Film Festival; and May, when the greatest film carnival is held near the shores of the spellbinding French Riviera in the small city of Cannes.
It is a chance for serious fans to examine the new film trends and appraise new productions. The festivals are also a guideline for the movies every film lover will look forward all year.
The 60th anniversary of one of the oldest film festivals in the world, which ended on Sunday, was not only a huge success commercially, but was also a critically victorious one for the first time in years.
Despite the fact that movies showcased in Cannes almost every year end up occupying the largest number of slots in the critics best-end-of-year lists; some observers have been vocal about the dwindling value of films featured within and outside of the main competition in the past few rounds.
But this year critics had nothing to complain about as even the biggest non-believers had to concur that the majority of films demonstrated why Cannes remains the most important and exciting cinematic event all year.
This year s main competition, alongside other sections such as Un Certain Regard and the Hollywood films screened outside the main competition, was overflowing with some of world cinema s biggest names whose works didn t disappoint.
Michael Moore s highly anticipated new documentary Sicko, screened outside of competition, captured the attention of most attendants. The film, a satirical assessment of the American healthcare system, saw its controversial filmmaker receive the best reviews of his career to date. Heartfelt, personal and far less livid and manipulative than his past works, Sicko lays the facts on the table and makes a good argument without losing the entertainment value or compromising.
Americans have actually had a pretty good round this year in Cannes. Julian Schnabel led the American charge with his best director win for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a French-language film that tells the true story of Elle France magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby ( Before the Night Falls ) who suffered from a stroke at the age of 43 that left his entire body paralyzed except for his left eye.
The Coen Brothers No Country for Old Men, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson and Spanish actor Javier Bardem, was a strong contender for the coveted Palm d Or and marked a return-to-form for the duo who have participated in the festival seven times before. The film is a violent, character-driven neo-western about the nature of good and evil.
Former Palm d Or winner Gus Van Sant s Paranoid Park though was widely regarded as the best American effort shown in the festival. Park, Van Sant s first film since his trilogy of death ( Gerry, Elephant and Last Days ) is a throbbing, sorrowful, impressionistic study of adolescent alienation about a teenage skateboarder who inadvertently kills a security guard. The film won Van Sant a special jury prize.
The Arab contribution, on the other hand, was poor.
Most films were about Lebanese affairs that most critics, including Egyptian ones, ranked below average. The presence of the Lebanese sidebar existed solely because of the political ties between France and Lebanon, proving that politics will always remain a hallmark of the festival.
Danielle Arbid s critically panned Un homme perdu ( A Lost Man ), a self-important pointless journey about the search for identity, was not only among the worst of the Lebanese movies but one of the weakest films screened during the whole 10 days of the festival.
Nadine Labaki s feature debut Caramel was the only saving grace of Arabic cinema. Sweet and unpretentious, Caramel is a story of five Lebanese women who meet at a beauty salon. The film takes a stab at both the Christian and Muslim communities in Lebanon and underlines the internal conflict between western liberation and traditional conservatism that most of these women face.
The most successful Middle Eastern movie was, surprisingly, an Israeli film. The Band s Visit is a pure apolitical, delightful and entertaining story about an Egyptian band lost in an Israeli city. Although Israeli films are banned in Egypt, this warm film, which won over the Egyptian critics who have watched it, might finally break the rule.
Young, anonymous Asian filmmakers stole the thunder from their revered mentors this year. Naomi Kawase s The Mourning Forest, a thoughtful film about a woman working in a retirement home after the death of her child, won the Grand Prix, while Jeon do-yeong’s intense and shattering performance as a grief-stricken mother won the best actress award.
New films by veteran Asian filmmakers Ki-duk Kim s Breath, Kar Wai Wong s first American film My Blueberry Nights starring Norah Jones and Jude Law, and Hsiao-hsien Hou s Flight of the Red Balloon, were met with mixed reactions. The works of these men have always been regarded as an acquired taste though and their new films, will probably satisfy their legions of fans that savor their dazzling visual landscapes.
The Edge of Heaven, Fatih Akin s best script winner about the identity crises of several Turks in Germany and Turkey, was one of the few Western European films shown this year. The French films, as always, were received with indifference except for Catherine Breillat s custom drama Une vieille maîtresse.
The 60th Cannes festival will always be remembered, however, for the heralded rise and triumph of Eastern European cinema.
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was the frontrunner for Cannes top prize very early on and, as expected, the film went all the way to win the Palm d Or, beating the heavyweight filmmakers who returned home empty handed.
Shot on a shoestring budget six months ago, this masterful film tells the harrowing story of a young female student helping her friend have an illegal abortion in the last days of the soviet domination. The brutal, stark film which is full of suspense, arrives hot on the heels of the brilliant black comedy The Death of Mr. Lazarescu which won Romania the Un Certain Regard award in Cannes two years ago.
There are many other remarkable films that could take another article to discuss and several others that are yet to be discovered and enjoyed. The gems of Cannes will, as always, yield little commercial success in the US and, as a result, will sadly not be released in theaters in Egypt.
