S Viswanath

Making its 78^th royal return to covet cineastes of the cinema cosmos at the Boulevard de la Croisettewhere stands the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, the Cannes Film Festival has made the annual line up of films that much richer and more resplendent for avowed audiences to binge upon.

The festival’s programming team, this year, has assembled an additional attractive assortment of 16 more choicest films to its official selections that it had announced just few days back.

Of these 16 new films, two join the impressive scroll of competition films vying for the prestigious Palme d’Or taking the number to 21 all seeking to catch the discerning and critical eye of the Jury chaired by the celebrated French actress Juliette Binoche as the President.

The two, which will join the other 19 elite ensemble in competition will be Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love and Saeed Roustayi’s Woman And Child(Mother and Child)bringing the total to 21 films.

Billed as an American dark comedic thriller, the film, based on 2017 novel – Die, My Lovean adaptation of the 2017 Man Booker International Prize finalist novel, by Ariana Harwicz, centres round a young woman, who has just given birth, and lapses into postpartum depression and affected with psychosis.

Co-scripted with Enda Walsh, the film, set in a farmhouse on the Montana countryside, sees the young mother wage a valiant psycho9logical battle to keep her equipoise and sanity even her marital home crumbles and falls apart.

How the new mother to a newborn son, fights with her claustrophobic situation caught in prescribed roles and makes bold to emerge out of the constricting situation through increasingly erratic, disoriented manner, including an affair, forms the fulcrum of this horror-comedy.

The Iranian film Woman And Child (Mother and Child) by Saeed Roustayi, whose thematic focus is primarily the portrayal of women in Iranian society, shackled and stifled by the strict State code imposed on them and the social injustice they face in the regime controlled society.

Saeed, whose earlier third feature Leila’s Brothers, a FIPRESCI Award winner, also was part of the 2022 Cannes Competition Section, brings Woman And Child aka Mother and Child centring around a widowed nurse saddled with a rebellious son, in a highly patriarchal society and its social expectations.

In the familiar Iranian cinema idiomatic style, the film, while exploring the challenges and complexities of a son coming to terms with his identity and a mother navigating her grief and isolation, follows the mother’s journey as she tries to connect and understand his rather rebellious disposition, partly ignited by the loss of his dad, and humungous societal expectations placed upon his shoulders as the new man of the house.

Incidentally, the competition section also sees Saeed’s fellow compatriot and equally versatile and erudite film maker Jaffar Panahi also showcasing his film A Simple Accident, making it a double delight for the Iranian cinema at the Cannes competition hustings.

Who among the 21 will wearthe Palme d’Or tiara as the paparazzi go berserk to catch him/her in the limelight and the golden bytes post the winnings is to be seen.

Meanwhile, the Cannes other equally watched and graced section the Un Certain Regardsees its line-up swell by an addition of another four films taking the total toll to a score (20) in the coveted segment. The quartet that made it to section’s scroll include Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender, A Poetby  Simon Mesa Soto, Pedro Pinho’s I Only Rest In The Storm and last but not the least The Chronology Of Water by Kristen Stewart.

It seems man, woman and child, and a broken or falling marriage and marital blues seem to be the dominant thematic concerns of a few films in fray. Tackling and touching a similar modern day relationship drama is Anna Cazenave Cambe’s Love Me Tender wherein you have Clémence, a lawyer, walking out of her marital home to discover her true self. In the custody battles that results of her decision for the son Paul, we get to witness how Clémence braves to maintain her maternal bond even as things continue to fall apart all around her.

The Colombian fare A Poet(Un Poeta)by Simon Mesa Soto tracks a man so obsessed with being a poet despite his output never fetching him the elusive fame or glory he so tragically and obstinately seeks to achieve. Irascible with aging and resigned to the cliche of the poet in the shadows, he chances upon a teenage girl from humble roots, hoping to cultivate her talent which brings some sunshine to his otherwise gloomy, dreary existence. However, dragging her into the world of poets is certainly the young lass’s idea of climbing up the social and status ladder.

Likewise, the Portuguese counterpart Pedro Pinho’s I Only Rest In The Storm (O riso e a faca)the sophomore feature by the film maker, follows Sérgio, an environmental engineer who travels to a West African metropolis to work with an NGO constructing a road between the desert and the jungle. The film, it is stated, in the course, spotlights on how he strikes an intimate but unbalanced relationship with two city dwellers, Diara and Gui, while delving into the neocolonial dynamics within the expatriate community, fighting against loneliness or barbarism.

Based on the memoir of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch, the film, Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology Of Water is a biographical tour de force which focuses on the author’s bisexuality and her addiction issues.The film touches upon how a young woman ultimately finds her voice through the written word and her salvation as a swimmer – ultimately becoming a triumphant teacher, mother and a singular modern writer.

Additionally, the Cannes Premiere Segment sees the inclusion of Japanese film Love On Trial, by Koji Fukadabased on real life incidents about a rising pop idol who violates her ‘no love’ clause conditionwhen she unexpectedly falls in love. When her relationship is exposed, her agency takes drastic action, dragging the couple to courtthrowing her life into chaos. The filmmaker continues with his exploration of love tales intertwined with sharp social commentary about freedom, defiance, and a woman’s fight to reclaim her life.

The Icelandic-Danish family drama of a family navigating through the parent’s separation The Love That Remains (Ástin sem eftir er), by Hlynur Palmason and Magellan, the shortened version of the nine hour epic saga about the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan focusing only on the adventurer’s life by Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz renowned for his long stretching, languid, subtle and ruminative features.

In the Midnight Screenings you have two additions in No One Will Know(Le Roi Soleil)by Vincent Mael Cardona and Honey Don’t!, by Ethan Coen, while the Special Screenings features the additional quartet of films in Little Amelie by Mailys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Mama by Or Sinai, Arcoby Ugo Bienvenu and The Wonderers by Josephine Japy.

With these set of additional sixteen films offering a panoply of perspective narratives and polyphonic directors pickling the picky palates of the cine aficionados, the Cannes Film Festival’s offerings have not only gotten bigger and better but richer in variety to savour and binge upon. Happy viewing! The More the Merrier!

S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.