Cannes. Modern Life.

"Modern Life is the name of a lovely new documentary by the French director Raymond Depardon, and the title, like the film itself, carries a gentle but unmistakable irony," writes AO Scott in the New York Times.

"Mr Depardon's subjects - as they were in Profils Paysans (2000) and Le Quotidien (2005), to which Modern Life is in effect a sequel - are small farmers who work the land in a remote and mountainous region of southern France where, at first glance, there is nothing very modern at all.... Mr Depardon resists the temptation to wax elegiac on the disappearance of family farms or to mystify the bond between the land and those who draw their living from it."

Updated through 5/21.

"It's a love-letter, really, made up of virtual still-life portraits of the grizzled and taciturn men and women who cling to their harsh profession," writes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter. "Depardon has been photographing the hardy small-holders of French agriculture for a very long time and his admiration for these rugged characters and the wild terrain in which they live and farm shines through every image."

In Variety, Leslie Felperin notes that a standing ovation followed the Cannes screening. "Although some are happier and better off than others, the message that times are tough for agronomists gets a little repetitive after a while. At least moments of warmth and humor jolly things up occasionally, such as one little boy refusing to be put off his ambition to be just like his daddy when he grows up, or Cecile tottering over the rocks in her high heels on her wedding day."

"The film is full of dignity and empathy for its characters, connected to the land and the seasons and to the animals they keep," writes Facets' Milos Stehlik.

Un Certain Regard.

Updates: "Taking on the triple role of interviewer, cameraman and narrator, the filmmaker's affection for and rapport with his subjects is obvious, his tenacious patience a welcome contrast to the aggression employed by so many self-referential documentarians," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog. "There's not a superfluous moment in the film, but most of the Moderne's core ideas come across most beautifully in the narrative thread about the Privat family, who have appeared in each of Depardon's farmer films."

Agnès Poirier meets Depardon for the Guardian.

Update, 5/21: "Depardon composes in very wide images to give the work and the land scope and breadth in light of the lonely and diminishing local population, yet also to hold down his interviewees for friendly but somehow constrictive conversations," writes Daniel Kasman in the Auteurs' Notebook. "His intent and attitude is that of a empathetic comrade, but the way he shoots his friends and acquaintances admits to a minor tremor of uncomfortableness between filmmaker and subject on camera, despite their obvious rapport in person."

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Coverage of the coverage: Cannes 08.

Last year: Cannes @ 60. And Cannes 06.

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Posted by dwhudson at May 20, 2008 1:45 AM