Best press Conference: Nymphomaniac: Part I (Uncut)
Few can elicit such press salivation as Lars Von Trier. The
grade-A messer was dubbed Persona Non Grata at Cannes for slightly sympathising
with Adolf Hitler in the Meloncholia press junket. He hasn’t given one since
but showed up in Berlin in a t-shirt emblazoned with the French festival's logo.
Still he did not sit for the conference but a fellow headline grabber did. Shia
LaBeouf stole the show from the great Dane by sitting in silence, chewing gum
in a baseball hat, till the first banal question came his way. His response was
to quote Eric Cantona’s Sardines/trawler quip and leave the room.
The director stayed silent but the Von Trier circus was most certainly in town.
Best Line:
“It’s just posh cunts
telling thick cunts to kill poor cunts”
-
A Belfast republican gives his glowing review of
the British armed forces in surprise favourite 71’.
Top 5 films:
5. The Little House
Yoji Yamada
A wonderfully traditional portrait of romance in wartime
Japan delivered with the assured delicate touch of its old pro director. It was
the last competition film to screen and we welcomed it with open arms.
4. 71’
Yann Demange
From the eyes of a young British soldier, 71’ not
only captured the incredible complexity of what was going on in Belfast in the
lead up to Bloody Sunday, but also managed to do so without taking sides. We entered the screening with extreme prejudice but soon gave in. A remarkable
achievement from first time director Yann Demange and, let’s hope, a
springboard lead role for the inexplicably overlooked Jack O’Connell.
3. Nymphomaniac
Lars Von Trier
If Lars Von Trier was put on this earth for the sole purpose
of annoying everybody, this could very well be his magnum opus. The feeling of
anticipation at the packed house press screening is something only Von Trier could muster. He shows us we’re nothing more than a bunch of degenerates, and we love it.
2. Jack
Edward Berger
There is more than a hint of the Dardenne brothers to Edward
Berger’s Jack, but the German director has taken their story out of the
council estates and plopped it smack in the narcissistic middle class. The
results were fresh and defiantly powerful.
1. The Kidnapping of
Michel Houllebecq
Guillaume Nicloux
Michel Houllebecq played
himself with nihilistic swagger for this fly on the
wall Stockholm syndrome gem. Guillaume Nicloux's film was like a bucket of paint
stripper to all the festival's showbiz and nonsense.
It was also very very funny. Simply unmissable.
