Cannes. Tokyo!

"Two Frenchmen and a South Korean make a great deal of mischief in Tokyo!, an uneven but enjoyable trio of films that take affectionate (and sometimes literal) aim at the Japanese capital," writes Justin Chang in Variety.

"Fittingly enough, horror and sci-fi rep the primary building blocks of these Tokyo stories, though the ingredients aren't always doled out in the proportions one would expect from filmmakers Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho."

"I liked the Michel Gondry entry more than Manohla Dargis does in today's Times," blogs the Boston Globe's Ty Burr. "Ayako Fujitani stole my heart as a bohemian newcomer to the city who loses her nerve and turns into a chair (yes, that's right). The Leos Carax installment, starring Denis Lavant as a kind of evil Id that crawls from the sewers and stalks the city, is fun for a while, but Bong Joon-Ho's final chapter, about a recluse who discovers he's not alone - in so many ways - bears real emotional/metaphorical fruit."

"Whimsical Michel Gondry delivers a thirty-minute segment that resonates, while compatriot Leos Carax spoils an otherwise tasty genre exercise by pressing it into service as a message film," writes Lee Marshall in Screen Daily. "Korea's Bong Joon-ho, meanwhile, delivers an artsy rom-com that is too slight even for its half-hour running time."

Un Certain Regard.

Update: "I was surprised to see Gondry turn out for the screening at the Debussy, given his open disregard for Cannes ever since Human Nature got slammed there years ago," writes Eric Kohn in Stream. "I'm glad he turned out again, given the quality of the new project, which deserves a decent American release based on the sheer cult reputation of its various authors. Before a crowd of fans enshrouded him after the screening, I went up to Gondry and asked, with a half-smile, if he was glad to be back at Cannes. He grinned back, hesitantly nodding. The cameras were watching. This was not the time for complaints. "

Updates, 5/17: "I liked the Gondry portion, found Carax's a promising joke stretched too thin (though it attracted the most applause at the screening) and Bong's pretty damn disappointing," writes Alison Willmore.

But Cahiers du cinéma's Emmanuel Burdeau finds the Corax "funny, ferocious, and often facile.... [W]e'll certainly be talking about it in the days to come. A cinema of anger and furor."

Blogging for the Boston Phoenix, Rob Nelson finds Carax's installment not only the "coolest" but also "an alternately nasty and tender throwback to the sympathetic-monster movies of the early 20th century."

Update, 5/18: "Tucked in the middle of the surprisingly inspired omnibus Tokyo! is the first masterpiece of Cannes, Leos Carax's short feature Merde," declares Daniel Kasman in the Auteurs' Notebook. "A sneering dark comedy pastiche combo of ,a href="http://www.greencine.com/central/guide/godzilla">Godzilla and Oshima's Death by Hanging, it captures in wicked digital imagery (by the unbeatable Caroline Champetier) the emergence from the sewers of a hideous Denis Levant to wreck havoc on the unprepared Japanese city.... Carax [relishes] an all-too-rare opportunity to make yet another unqualifiable, indescribable work of pure cinema, an ode to the monsters of the world."

Update, 5/21: For Matt Noller, writing at the House Next Door, Carax's Merde is "one of the most unbearably shrill, unfunny things I've ever seen."

---

Coverage of the coverage: Cannes 08.

Last year: Cannes @ 60. And Cannes 06.

---

Posted by dwhudson at May 16, 2008 10:46 AM