Nick's Flick Picks: The Cannes Film Festival

<BODY text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFCC" link="#003399" vlink="#003399" leftmargin="35" rightmargin="35"> <table width=680><tr><td> <br> <TABLE cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0> <TR><TD width=60% valign=center><Font Face=Garamond Color="#003399" Size=+3><b>Cannes Film Festival <a href=movies74.html target="_new" style="text-decoration:none">1974</a></b></Font><br> <B><Font Color="#660066">Jury President:</Font> Ren&#233 Clair</b><br> <Font Color="#660066">Other Jurors:</Font> Jean-Loup Dabadie, Kenne Fant, F&#233lix Labisse, Irwin Shaw, Michel Soutter, Monica Vitti, Alexander Walker, Rostislav Yurenev</TD> <TD width=40% align=right valign=center><img src=cannes74tab.jpg></TD></TR></TABLE> <hr> <br> <TABLE cellpadding=3> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Palme d'Or:</b></Font></TD><TD width=66%><a href=converst.html><b>The Conversation</b></a>, USA, dir. Francis Ford Coppola</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Grand Jury Prize:</b></Font></TD><TD width=66%><Font Color="#003399"><i>Arabian Nights</i></Font>, Italy, dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Jury Prize:</b></Font></TD><TD width=66%><Font Color="#003399"><i>Cousin Angelica</i></Font>, Spain, dir. Carlos Saura</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Best Actress:</b></Font></TD><TD width=66%><Font Color="#003399"><i>Les violons du bal</i></Font>, Marie-Jos&#233 Nat</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Best Actor:</b></Font></TD><TD width=66%><Font Color="#003399"><i>The Last Detail</i></Font>, Jack Nicholson</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Special Mention:</b></Font></TD><TD width=66%><Font Color="#003399"><i>Stavisky...</i></Font>, Charles Boyer</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Best Screenplay:</TD><TD width=66%></b></Font> <a href=sugexprs.html><i>The Sugarland Express</i></a>, Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, Steven Spielberg</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Technical Grand Prize:</TD><TD width=66%></b></Font> <a href=mahler74.html><i>Mahler</i></a>, Ken Russell</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>FIPRESCI/International<br>     Critics Prize:</TD><TD width=66%></b></Font> <a href=alifear.html><i>Ali&#150Fear Eats the Soul</i></a>, West Germany, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder</TD></TR> <TR><TD width=33%><Font Color="#003399"><b>Prize of the Ecumenical Jury:</b></Font></TD><TD width=66%><a href=alifear.html><i>Ali&#150Fear Eats the Soul</i></a>, West Germany, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder</TD></TR> </TABLE> <hr> <br> <img src=cannes74c.jpg align=right width=200 height=75><Font Face=Garamond Color="#660066" Size=+1><b>Competition Films I Have Seen:</b></Font><br> <Font Size=-1><b>Ranked in order of preference</b></Font><br> <Font Size=-2>  <br></Font> <Font Color="#003399"><b>My Palme d'Or</b></Font><br> <a href=converst.html><i>The Conversation</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(USA, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)</Font> - Four-faced pyramid of hypnotic formalism, era-specific paranoia, trenchant character study, and mercurial thriller </Font><br> <br> <a href=alifear.html><i>Ali&#150Fear Eats the Soul</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(West Germany, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)</Font> - Sirk distilled to pure vinegar, under a lepidopterist's eye. Mira's ardor, ben Salem's tenderness enthrall. </Font><br> <br> <a href=sugexprs.html><i>The Sugarland Express</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(USA, dir. Steven Spielberg)</Font> - Hour Two plays as comfier Bonnie and Clyde, but images, structure, actors, and script have feeling and verve </Font><br> <br> <a href=thvslike.html><i>Thieves Like Us</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(USA, dir. Robert Altman)</Font> - Outlaw life as watercolor holding pattern. Better at idiom and tone than story or balance, but quite insinuating. </Font><br> <br> <a href=catsplay.html><i>Cat's Play</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(Hungary, dir. K&#225roly Makk)</Font> - Woman's memories and envies rendered with remarkable tactility. Intense but oblique, like a Sokurov <i>Notes on a Scandal</i>. </Font><br> <br> <a href=nickelrd.html><i>The Nickel Ride</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(USA, dir. Robert Mulligan)</Font> - Great Jason Miller perf, tonal restraint, and slithery use of sunny Bo Hopkins. Blurry around every edge, though. </Font><br> <br> <a href=mahler74.html><i>Mahler</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(UK, dir. Ken Russell)</Font> - Ken Russell offering more flim-flammy semi-period psychedelica. At least half nonsense, but with odd, hurt, wild conviction. </Font><br> <br> <a href=9lvfritz.html><i>The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(USA, dir. Robert Taylor)</Font> - Interestingly grubby animation, but flashes of wit are sparse amid flat-head misogyny and lewdness </Font><br> <br> <hr> <br> <img src=cannes74pwds.jpg align=right><Font Face=Garamond Color="#660066" Size=+1><b>Sidebar Selections I Have Seen:</b></Font><br> <Font Size=-1><b>Ranked in order of preference</b></Font><br> <Font Size=-2>  <br></Font> <a href=domslave.html><i>Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(Directors' Fortnight: West Germany, dir. Alexander Kluge)</Font> - Nuanced, headstrong docu(ish)drama takes nimble range of positions on radicalized wife-mother. </Font><br> <br> <a href=hrtsmnds.html><i>Hearts and Minds</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(Critics' Week: USA, dir. Peter Davis)</Font> - As acute and moving a witness-based documentary as one could hope for amidst an ongoing, culture-cleaving conflict </Font><br> <br> <a href=bigsplas.html><i>A Bigger Splash</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(Critics' Week: UK, dir. Jack Hazan)</Font> - Spindly, semi-sunlit metafiction starring David Hockney, edited like a Roeg thriller and scored like a ghost story </Font><br> <br> <a href=spirtbee.html><i>The Spirit of the Beehive</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(Critics' Week: Spain, dir. Victor Erice)</Font> - </Font><br> <br> <a href=gidiamin.html><i>General Idi Amin Dada</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(Perspectives on French Cinema: France, dir. Barbet Schroeder)</Font> - Amin's paradoxes engrossing enough to save a doc that often remains stuck on discomfiting but opaque surfaces </Font><br> <br> <a href=migrants.html><i>The Migrants</i></a> <Font Face="Arial Narrow">(Directors' Fortnight: USA, dir. Tom Gries)</Font> - Benefits from Gries' typically tender style and light touch with actors but could stand a tad more friction and depth </Font><br> <br> <hr> <br> <Font Face=Garamond Color="#660066"><b>Competition Films I'm Curious to See:</b></Font><br> <Font Size=-1><b>Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup <a href="http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/1974/allSelections.html" target="_new">here</a></b> (opens in a new window)</Font><br> <Font Size=-2>  <br></Font> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072204/"><i>Stavisky...</i></a>, France, dir. Alain Resnais<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070290/"><i>The Last Detail</i></a>, USA, dir. Hal Ashby<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071502/"><i>Arabian Nights</i></a>, Italy, dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123277/"><i>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i></a>, USSR, dir. Georgi Daneliya<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073034/"><i>Scorching Winds</i></a>, India, dir. M.S. Sathyu<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072030/"><i>Cousin Angelica</i></a>, Spain, dir. Carlos Saura<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071841/"><i>Milarepa</i></a>, Italy, dir. Liliana Cavani<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072239/"><i>Symptoms</i></a>, UK, dir. Jos&#233 Ram&#243n Larraz<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133334/"><i>Abu el Banat</i></a>, Israel, dir. Mosh&#233 Mizrahi<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073656/"><i>The Holy Office</i></a>, Mexico, dir. Arturo Ripstein<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071609/"><i>Himiko</i></a>, Japan, dir. Masahiro Shinoda<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072371/"><i>Les violons du bal</i></a>, France, dir. Michel Drach<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071649/"><i>Once Upon a Time in the East</i></a>, Canada, dir. Andr&#233 Brassard<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071404/"><i>Crime of Love</i></a>, Italy, dir. Luigi Comencini<br> <br> <TABLE border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5><TR><TD valign=top><Font Color="#660066" Size=-1>Also in Competition</Font>:</TD><TD> <Font Size=-1> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177128/"><i>The Last Word</i></a>, Bulgaria, dir. Binka Jeliaskova<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211287/"><i>The Bear Cage</i></a>, Belgium, dir. Marian Handwerker<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071177/"><i>The Others</i></a>, France, dir. Hugo Santiago<br> </Font> </TD></TR></TABLE> <hr> <br> <Font Face=Garamond Color="#660066"><b>Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See:</b></Font><br> <Font Size=-1><b>Listed alphabetically; more on this year's lineup <a href="http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/1974/allSelections.html" target="_new">here</a></b> (opens in a new window)</Font><br> <Font Size=-2>  <br></Font> <TABLE border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=8><TR><TD valign=top><a href="http://www.quinzaine-realisateurs.com/archives/1974/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_new"><Font Color="#660066">Directors' Fortnight</Font></a>:</TD><TD> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070379/"><i>Mean Streets</i></a>, USA, dir. Martin Scorsese<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070498/"><i>Padatik</i></a>, India, dir. Mrinal Sen<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072235/"><i>Sweet Movie</i></a>, Canada/France, dir. Dusan Makavejev<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151035/"><i>There Once Was a Singing Blackbird</i></a>, USSR (Georgia), dir. Otar Iosseliani<br> </TD></TR> <TR><TD valign=top><Font Color="#660066">Critics' Week</Font>:</TD><TD> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070811/"><i>The Death of the Flea-Circus Director</i></a>, Switzerland, dir. Thomas Koerfer<br> </TD></TR> <TR><TD valign=top><Font Color="#660066">French Cinema</Font>:</TD><TD> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071381/"><i>C&#233line and Julie Go Boating</i></a>, France, dir. Jacques Rivette<br> </TD></TR> <TR><TD valign=top><Font Color="#660066">Out of Competition</Font>:</TD><TD> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071129/"><i>Amarcord</i></a>, Italy, dir. Federico Fellini<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072307/"><i>And Now My Love</i></a>, France, dir. Claude Lelouch<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070188/"><i>The Homecoming</i></a>, UK, dir. Peter Hall<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071737/"><i>Lancelot du Lac</i></a>, France, dir. Robert Bresson<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071968/"><i>Parade</i></a>, France, dir. Jacques Tati<br> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072107/"><i>S*P*Y*S</i></a>, USA, dir. Irvin Kershner<br> </TD></TR></TABLE> <hr> <Font Face=Garamond> <table cellpadding=12><tr> <td>Trackbacks:</b></td> <td><b><a href=cannes74.html target="_top">Permalink</a></b></td> <td><b><a href=cannes.html target="_top">Cannes Page</a></b></td> <td><b><a href=movies74.html target="_top">1974</a></b></td> <td><b><a href=movarchs.html target="_top">Home</a></b></td> <td><b><a href="http://blog.nicksflickpicks.com" target="_new">Blog</a></b></td> <td><b><a href=email.html target="_top">E-Mail</a></b></td> </tr></table> </Font> </center> </body>