Cannes. Alexandra.

"Alexander Sokurov's latest feature is his most conventional film in recent memory," writes Premiere's Glenn Kenny of Alexandra (in Competition). "Not a shot is fired in this antiwar film; what Sokurov is up to here is bringing to light the tedious oppression of occupation.... Conventional as it may seem, this is actually one of his most subtle pictures."

Nick Holdsworth talks with Sokurov for the Hollywood Reporter.

Updated through 5/27.

Updates: "Though he's sure to deny it, Alexandra is Alexander Sokurov's most directly political work for years," writes Variety's Jay Weissberg. "Alexandra inhabits a world of specificity and universality. The setting is Chechnya, and Alexandra's questioning of 'what is the Fatherland?' is an undeniable critique of that particular conflict, sure to make Vladimir Putin mighty uncomfortable. But Sokurov uses this one seemingly endless conflict to reflect upon the totality of the war experience, not in some superficial and sentimental way but by revealing the loss of basic humanity."

"[Galina] Vishnevskaya is superb as the plucky old woman whose eyes convey the sadness of everything she sees but who has the gumption to insist to the Chechen woman that she must come to visit her," notes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter.

Update, 5/27: "I've never understood Sokurov's appeal and apparently never will," writes Mike D'Angelo at ScreenGrab.

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Cannes @ 60. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at May 24, 2007 7:15 AM