Cannes. Red Road.

Anyone who's seen Andrea Arnold's Oscar-winning short, Wasp has been anxious to hear how her debut feature, Red Road, has turned out. In the Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt explains the background here: Lone Scherfig and Anders Thomas Jensen have developed a set of characters for three films by three different directors. "All stories must be set in Scotland and the roles will be cast with the same actors in each film. The first film, Red Road by Andrea Arnold, is a nervy and taut thriller in which a woman stalks a man whose past sin is only made clear at the end of the film. Where the series goes from here is anybody's guess, but Red Road certainly gets this intriguing project off to a rousing start."

Updated through 5/27.

Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE: "While broadly similar to such recent films as 21 Grams and Open Hearts, Red Road features the dreamy and ominous visual handiwork of Arnold and her Wasp cinematographer Robbie Ryan; using mostly handheld cameras and long lenses, Jackie's harrowing journey feels, at times, like a blurry nightmare from which she cannot wake."

"Sensual, dark in every sense, but a touch derivative," writes Variety's Leslie Felperin, for whom the film "[feels] like a somewhat attenuated short with the de rigueur sting-in-the-tail payoff."

Update: "[O]ne of the best films I've seen at Cannes this year," announces Cinematical's James Rocchi. "As it plays it seeps into your consciousness; when it's done, it haunts you.... It's a film with unshakable images and moments of sorrow that asks hard-to-answer questions about what real redemption and forgiveness demand."

Updates, 5/22: The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw: "The Rear Window-style atmosphere and tension are expertly maintained, and the sense of impending horror has the feel of a Michael Haneke film."

For Time Out's Dave Calhoun, Red Road "proves that Arnold is one of the more interesting and promising filmmakers to emerge from Britain in recent years."

Updates, 5/23: A "startlingly confident feature debut," writes the Telegraph's David Gritten. "Red Road is tough, miserabilist viewing.... But it announces Arnold as a British director of stature - and [Kate] Dickie as a searing screen presence."

An "extraordinary debut," concurs James Christopher in the London Times. "What's impressive is how much great cinema Arnold has clearly absorbed from directors such as Ken Loach (also in competition with The Wind that Shakes the Barley). She is half the reason why the Brits might scoop their first big Cannes prize for years."

Update, 5/24: "Arnold displays an unsettling command of atmosphere, emotion and tension that can withstand comparisons with the work of Michael Haneke or Lars Von Trier," writes Allan Hunter for Screen Daily.

Update, 5/25: Matt Dentler: "I was chatting with one distribution exec who made a really solid point... if we were living in the indie film business of 10 years ago, Red Road would have been an instant acquisition."

Update, 5/26: Sheila Johnston in the Independent: "[T]his spare, tense film marginally overplays its climax but still shows a new director well in command of her craft."

Update, 5/27: For Salon's Andrew O'Hehir, it's "a gritty, surprising and well-crafted tale of crime, retribution and forgiveness."

Posted by dwhudson at May 21, 2006 5:10 AM