Much like this year's Sundance, there was one film that stood head and shoulders above the pack at Cannes. There will be more to say about The Zone of Interest, but for now, I'd like to point out that this is the first time I've been in Cannes where journalists and critics wanted to rewatch a movie a day after seeing it. Such was the power of Jonathan Glazer's fourth feature that people felt a desperate need to get a second helping immediately. (If I hadn't had a conflicting assignment in the same screening slot, I might have been tempted myself.)
The question of how good any one Cannes is depends on two factors: the movies you saw and the overall experience you had at the festival. On the latter front, I can't complain. I was lucky to stay with great roommates, the weather basically cooperated, and the unexpected hassles that can bedevil your trip thankfully steered clear of me in 2023. I had friends twist ankles, lose their apartment key, and battle shitty wifi. I dodged all those bullets.
As for the movies themselves, looking at my ranked list below, I'm forced to conclude that this was merely an okay Cannes. Some of the films on my list scream out for a second viewing so that I can wrap my head around what works and what doesn't about them. (In particular, I'm curious what Killers of the Flower Moon will feel like with fresh eyes.) But the consensus on the ground was that there were lots of strong films without as many gems as in past years. And, as always, I lament the movies I simply couldn't get to, including About Dry Grasses, Anselm, Eureka, Occupied City, Pictures of Ghosts and Youth. I look forward to catching them all down the road.
Without further ado, here is my list of everything I saw either during or before the festival. Links lead to individual reviews:
33. Riddle of Fire
32. Project Silence
31. Black Flies
30. Firebrand
29. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
28. Conann
27. Hypnotic
26. The Sweet East
25. Elemental
24. Perfect Days
23. Jeanne du Barry
22. Room 999
21. Acid
20. The King of Algiers
19. Club Zero
18. Last Summer
17. Rosalie
16. La Chimera
15. Monster
14. Cobweb
13. Omen
12. Fallen Leaves
11. Asteroid City
10. How to Have Sex
9. Robot Dreams
8. May December
7. Anatomy of a Fall
6. The Delinquents
5. The Animal Kingdom
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. The Pot-au-Feu
2. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
1. The Zone of Interest
Now I'd like to take a moment to talk about my No. 2 film. I couldn't have been more exhausted than when I went to see director Pham Thien An's three-hour-long debut, which is about a young man on a spiritual quest of sorts in Vietnam. It's rare when a movie wakes me up to the degree that Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell did. It's an extraordinary experience, although it did inspire plenty of walkouts at my screening. Well, it's their loss: The film is transporting, moving, a total stunner. It deserves to win the Camera d'Or for best first feature. I hope an adventurous distributor picks it up soon: In a completely different way than The Zone of Interest, it needs to be seen on the big screen.
Finally, let's engage in a futile annual tradition wherein I try to predict what will win the Palme d'Or. I have been going to Cannes since 2013, missing one year because of a book project and another (in 2020) because Covid shut the festival down. And in all that time, I have never been right with my guess. Do I have any more confidence this year? Not really.
Nonetheless, I'm going to go with my heart and say that Ruben Östlund's jury will go for The Zone of Interest. It's easily the boldest film in the Competition, but it's also divisive among critics, which may prove true for his jury as well. Anatomy of a Fall may be a safer consensus pick, although part of me wonders if Sandra Hüller will take home Best Actress, which means that film couldn't win the Palme as well. (It's possible she gets Best Actress for Anatomy of a Fall, and then her other movie, The Zone of Interest, collects the big prize.)
My sleeper pick is The Pot-au-Feu, which surprised a lot of folks here at the festival. On paper, it looked like a middlebrow food-porn period piece. But Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel are simply terrific in this deeply felt love story. Plus, the film can be read as a metaphor for the importance of art, and a Cannes jury could certainly get behind that message. Also worth noting: Documentaries are almost never part of the Competition, so perhaps Wang Bing's three-and-a-half-hour Youth will emerge victorious. I could just as easily see Glazer win Best Director, but fool that I am, I'm picking The Zone of Interest. I look forward to finding out just how wrong I was again.
