The Good, the Hellish, and the Just-OK from Cannes

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2:43Hello and welcome to Little Gold Men, Vanity Fair's podcast for film, TV, and awards lovers. I'm Rebecca Ford. And I'm John Ross. John, I'm back in LA, but you are still in Cannes. How are you feeling? This is my home now. Is it empty? Does it feel less crowded? You know what? Actually, it's interesting. It's not as empty as it normally is. Or maybe I'm just not used to this much crowds in general. Yeah. I had a wonderful last day. We'll talk about the films a little bit later, but it was really fun to go to our last gala together and walk the carpet together and be in the rain, which hadn't happened during the festival.

3:21I really think I'll remember that last day for a while. That was really fun. It always rains in Cannes, and for her private hell, which was my own personal hell, it rained only for the red carpet. Because when the movie got out, not in an hour and 20 minutes like I had thought. I was like, oh, on top of everything, now I'm going to have to run back to my apartment in the rain. But then it had stopped. So it really only rained for the red carpet. So we got to experience that, which is like a canned staple, which is the French being rushed in the rain. It's a different type of French than just them yelling at you normally on the carpet.

4:05it. And we did get a photo, even though it's not allowed. John took a great photo of me, broke the rules, totally worth it. So thank you. And then I guess the only other news is Barbra Streisand. Barbra Streisand has read that it's a quieter can and has decided to skip out as well. She's not attending the closing ceremony where she was going to receive an honorary palm. She's recovering from knee surgery. But the festival announced they're still going to, the show must go on. So I guess they're still going to honor her in some way and I guess mail her palm to her. I don't know. But that's a little bit of a bummer.

4:42She'll be on Zoom. Yeah. This is our third and final dispatch from the festival. We'll be back on the podcast next Thursday once we've gotten a little rest to wrap everything up and we'll talk about the palm winner. But today we're going to be giving our final impressions of the festival.

5:02So let's start with the film we've seen since our last recording, which is actually a lot for just a couple days. I think we should start with the best experience we got to have, or at least I got to have on the day before I left, which is we both went to the screening of Fjord. This is Christiane Manju's latest film. It stars Renata Reinsva and Sebastian Stan. They play parents who move to sort of a remote Norwegian town where she is from with their kids. and they are sort of treated like outsiders and then some stuff happens that really threatens their family. And I love this movie. John, you turned to me like during the screening and were like, this is great.

5:45This is good, yeah. And I was like, I'm so happy because I hadn't really had that experience. So I'm relieved and happy that we got to see it. Well, just to go a little further, because, you know, I don't think this is a spoiler, but they're this religious family And they don't let their kids go on YouTube and they pray every day. And there's five of them, which is, you know, a lot of kids in this day and age. And they get sort of entangled with child protective services. And every 15 minutes of this film, your mind kind of changes. And then what's so fascinating about it is it's Norwegian, but it feels like such a commentary on how Americans feel about like personal liberty versus big government.

6:39You know what I mean? It plays with you back and forth where you're like, that's not fair, but I don't like that. Right. But that's not fair. But I don't, it just, I can't describe it. The performances are so good. And it's the film that has left me thinking the most of any film I've seen here. Yeah, I've been comparing it to Anatomy of a Fall. Like the story is very different, but it has a large part of it that's set in a court case. And it really makes you, as you're saying, you sort of can't figure out which character you're rooting for because it's so complicated and your loyalty keeps switching.

7:18And I think that's just proof of a really intelligent filmmaker. And even if it is, you know, restrained at times in the performances, it also like is a gut punch at certain moments. Yeah. It gets you riled up. Yeah. Like I cried at one point when something happens. Because you're like, whoa, like this isn't okay. Right. And it was a reminder like, because this first half of Cannes, we've been struggling. And maybe I was like, maybe I've just like. Maybe I'm the problem. Yeah, like maybe I've just become like a populist or something. I don't know. Like, I don't like, and then I saw this and I was like, no, this is why a great screenplay does change how you are watching something.

8:05Because it doesn't need to have big, you know, speeches or sweeping cinematography necessarily, although this has some beautiful cinematography. it keeps the audience on its toes the whole time. Like I'd never felt like I knew exactly where this was going. Yes, totally. And Manju won the Palm in 2007 for his film Four Months, Three Weeks, and Two Days. So he's a returning champ. I feel like it will be getting some award. We'll talk a little bit more about our Palm predictions later, but I feel like something in this movie will be rewarded. I don't know what, but I feel like it's played quite well overall for most people.

8:44Where should we jump? Okay, so you saw Bitter Christmas early. I saw Bitter Christmas last night. This is Pedro Almodovar's film. It feels like he always has a film in Cannes. It's very meta. It's about sort of the writer's process. It goes back and forth between a writer who's writing a screenplay for a current movie and the story that he's sort of drawing from in order to write this adaptation. it doesn't have any of the staples in his films, except there's a brief scene with Rosy De Palma. She's in all of his films, but we don't have Antonio Banderas. We don't have Penelope Cruz. We don't have some of his staples.

9:30I think you maybe like this one a little more than I did. I have this problem where when I start watching an Almodovar film, I sort of fall into his world and I love the production design. I love the costuming. Many of the actors are very good. And then I'm like, oh, I'm so happy to be back. But I think by the end of the film, I realized it wasn't coming together. It felt a little like helter-skelter. I don't know how to explain it other than I feel like it didn't coalesce. And that's the feeling I left with, which isn't great. So it's not his best. We put a very high bar for him when you think about things like Pain and Glory and Parallel Mothers, not to mention like his early films.

10:08Like he can make incredible films and this is not in his top, maybe even like 10. 10, yeah, because he's so prolific. So, you know, someone mentioned to me, they feel like there's a lot of returning auteurs who just aren't quite doing their best work, which is a hard feeling because you're expecting the best from them. So I think that's sort of the challenge with it. Yeah. I mean, that's the, when they announced the lineup for the festival, that was the takeaway way was that, oh, they have all these auteurs coming back, but not all of them are hitting. Let's go from there to the very crazy movie I saw, Hope.

10:48Yes, I want to hear about it. Hope is directed by Nahang Jin, a Korean director, and is two hours and 40 minutes. It is an alien invasion movie. There's a ton of monsters. The aliens are played by Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, and allegedly Taylor Russell. I have no idea who she's playing in it, despite asking around. It doesn't seem even people working on the film have a total handle on who she's playing, unless it's a baby alien. And that's not giving anything away. This film is nuts. However, some of the action sequences are spectacular. And this director should be given like the Fast and the Furious new movie if he wants.

11:36I mean, I don't think he does because allegedly he's already written the sequel to this film, which is ambitious. Some people are like, the effects are bad. But I'm not exactly on board with that because some of the sequences are so sweeping and there's so much effects, but they do look video gaming. I can't even say if I liked it or not. Like the answer is like, no, but I was so impressed by some of it that it, it sort of won me over by the end. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely, I feel like the most talked about and debated film at the festival. People are very passionate one way or the other on this one.

12:19And it's in competition. Right, which is surprising because this is not the kind of movie that would usually be in competition. So I wonder if just because it stands out so much, it gets some attention. I don't know. I mean, this might be something Director Park, who is the jury president, likes, like the kind of aligns with his taste. So I'm really curious how this goes. I mean, a couple people, we don't know if this is totally true, but a couple people told me it's like the most expensive film ever made from the country. I don't know if that's true, but I heard that on the plane back and we don't have the budget.

12:58But there's a lot to talk about with this one and I can't wait to see what happens. We don't have the budget and don't you know I've asked. I have asked everyone and their mother what the budget is because this movie has got people talking. Yeah. Because it's just so outside the realms of like a Cannes movie. It's outside the realms of like any festival movie except maybe South by in a weird way. Yeah. And the tone, it goes from like comedy to serious to comedy to violent to... It's just all over the place. if I'm a studio executive and I saw this movie, I would be like, let's take a meeting with this guy.

13:44Right. Because some of the sequences, like I said, are like, whoa. A little how they do that. And I'm a real crazy person about action sequences. I love James Cameron so much. Terminator 2 is one of my favorite movies. And part of it nowadays when I see action scenes, it's like you don't know where anyone is. Do you know what I mean? Yep. You're like, I have no idea where anyone is in the shot. The way he films some of these sequences are so fluid that I was really impressed. And in my screening, the first big action sequence got a round of applause. That's fun. So I don't know. I go back and forth.

14:27Let's take a break. When we get back, we'll talk about the rest of the films we saw at the festival.

14:35Thank you.

15:05and Jonathan Anderson. On Thursdays, join head of editorial content at Vogue, Chloe Mao, and head of editorial content at British Vogue, Chomanadi, as they explore style and culture through the lens of fashion with guests like Martha Stewart, Kamala Harris, and Tracee Ellis Ross. The Run Through with Vogue, new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

15:37Welcome back to Little Gold Men. Let's talk about a film that I feel like neither of us is going back and forth on, which is the last film we saw together, Her Private Hell. We mentioned it earlier. This is the latest film from Nicholas Winding Refn. He hasn't made a film for 10 years. And I usually very much like Refn. I think he's a very strong visual artist. This movie has Charles Milton in it, who I'm also a big fan of. Unfortunately, the movie is no good. And I think probably got the most walkouts that I've seen at a gala this year. It's just, it's so thin and it's, I don't even know what to say other than it just doesn't work.

16:25So, John, you want to explain what it's about? No. No, it's about a young actress living in some weird, you know, fake sunset tower. They're filming a movie. There's a mythology of a man who's killing women that also might be her daddy. There's lots of daddy stuff. No scene really is connected to the scene prior. so it's not really about anything. Some of it is beautiful to look at. It was my third movie that day. So I went from Hope in the Morning to Fjord to this and I was... What a journey. What a one-day journey. Yeah, what a one-day journey. And I was about... I was done. I know, I know. You know, I mean, Refn made Drive, which I consider such an incredible film.

17:24And Only God Forgives, which also starred Gosling, I thought was good. The Neon Demon, which was in 2016, which was his last movie, skewed much more towards what we're seeing now, but I think he's kind of fallen off a cliff when it comes to— This made less sense than Neon Demon. Yes, yes. He's just going in that direction. He will never return to the storytelling of a drive again if this is the direction we're going. But Charles Milton plays a man whose daughter has been abducted and or killed by this Leatherman monster. And he is like an action star in the movie. And I thought very good. And we haven't seen Melton do something like that.

18:02So I'm all for him doing a blockbuster someday. Yeah. Charles Melton is a movie star. He's a movie star. This movie didn't, he didn't need this movie for me to know that. Yeah. But it did make you look at him and be like, he is a movie star. And he'll be on the podcast in June talking about beef, but he also talks about sort of his film choices and what he's looking for. So stay tuned for that. More Melton on the way. Yeah, and he's phenomenal in beef. Yes, but I think we can agree. I mean, this film is out of competition, so it's not competing for the Palm, but I think we can agree it didn't work for either of us.

18:36Yes, we can. Okay, but there's one more. I saw yesterday Minotaur from director Andres Vagintsev. He also directed Loveless and Leviathan, which were both films that won awards at Cannes and were nominated for Academy Awards in international feature. He's a Russian director. He doesn't live in Russia anymore. To quote RuPaul, we have a winner, baby. Like, I go into it, as everyone at the pod is learning, I like to go in pretty blind, so I had no idea what this film was about. And midway through the film, I was like, huh, it's kind of like Unfaithful. And it is kind of like Unfaithful because it's a remake of Unfaithful, which is a remake of a French film from the 60s, La Femme Infidèle, except he moves it to modern day Russia.

19:32And there's all of this like political backdrop to the domestic drama of a man who uncovers that his wife is maybe having an affair. and some of the filmmaking is jaw-dropping. Literally everyone in the audience, like you could feel like everyone moved to the actual edge of their seats. It's really good. This and Fjord, just like, that's why we're here. That's why we come to this festival. We come to this place for magic. You're like, wow, like that is filmmaking. I'm glad, I'm glad. We had heard that this was a possibility. I think the talk on the ground was that it might be great. So it sounds like it was.

20:19Yeah. I mean, Rebecca, the second they have a screening, go see it. Mubi is releasing it in the States and in other territories as well. Right. So we have a couple days left. And I think there are a couple films we need to watch out for. There's Ira Saxtaman, I love. There's the Lucas Daunt Coward. and there's the film that a lot of people keep talking about. I know. Called La Bola Negra, The Black Ball. Oh, I thought you were going to say something else. What did you think I was going to say? Gentle Monster. Oh, Gentle Monster, we've both missed. So we have failed. If that wins the palm, we've officially both missed the palm.

20:58But are you going to see any of the ones that are still outstanding? I'm seeing The Man I Love Tonight and Coward Tomorrow. Okay, great. So now that we've caught up on the films, I think we should talk about what is going on with this festival because we both agree it has been quiet. I've had people say, this feels like a down year or everything feels very restrained. There's a lot of polite ways to say it, but this festival is the weakest we've seen in quite a few years, I think. Right? Yeah, for sure. However, I think that this happens once every four to five years it can. And it's just the ebb and flow of the studio system, the trajectory of when filmmakers who are can quote unquote filmmakers are done with a project.

21:47We've, you know, yes, there's no major U.S. film like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I don't count the Indiana Jones and the Mission Impossibles quite so much. But like last year, there was Eddington, right? An A24 film, a ton of stars. Yeah, yeah. Ari Aster, you know, we don't have that this year. So there's that mixed with some of these auteurs that have come back, you know, these aren't their strongest works. So when you combine the two, you just sort of have a quieter year. Although oddly, in certain regard, is kind of having a strong year, don't you think? Yeah, they are. Yeah, which is so interesting because I can't remember the last time that I would say that.

22:39Sidebar did better. But between Club Kid and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, I feel like they've had a couple breakouts, which is interesting. You know, I've been asking around about why people think a studio movie didn't come. And editing is a good example of that because a lot of people are telling me if you bomb here, it's very hard to recover. And, you know, this audience does not hold back if they don't like a film. And so the cost and the risk is not worth it, some people feel. So I don't know if this problem is going to be resolved after this year, but I think it's a feeling that seems to have, it's not just about the cost.

23:21It's sort of about if the reception is bad, it's very hard to recover. And then the other thing I think, which I was thinking about this on the plane, is that so many of the films already have distributors, mostly Neon, but the fact that there actually can't be a lot of big sales hurts the festival because that is something that gets headlines, that people write about. You look at what happened with Club Kid, but we're not going to have a lot of those because almost everything is already bought. So I think that's actually a problem and I don't know if it's a fixable one. Maybe Neon needs to pump the brakes a little bit here.

23:57But that's a result of Cannes being so successful in the last four years. So it's like everyone, I just want to be like, everyone lay off them. Everyone's allowed one slightly off year. The festival has been so successful in the past four years, especially at the Oscars and, you know, getting those films past international into best picture. So these films that are going into competition, these indie distributors are buying up before they've even announced that they're in competition or like almost immediately following the announcement. So that leaves less sales on the ground, except for in certain regard, which, you know, the biggest sale of the festival is so far Club Kid.

24:48And it's A24, you know, who's not here. They don't have a festival. Yeah, they don't have any films at the festival. So it'll all work itself out. You think? Yeah, I do. I think actually we might find that this year in the fall festivals, some of the bigger films choose to sit out as well. For what you said, it's the feeling of the critical reception affecting the release of the film. All of the standing ovation stuff, I think, is now played out and tired. And now I think we're back into what I feel is more regular territory where people are nodding and they're happy. But, you know, they're not going to give the performance of a lifetime during their standing up.

25:41Unless you're Vin Diesel, which one of my favorite moments. Well, unless you're Vin Diesel, who, you know, he took a note. All right. We're going to take another break. And when we're back, we're going to talk about which canned films might be awards worthy.

26:21On Tuesdays, join me to hear interviews with influential leaders in the industry like Calvin Klein, Daniel Roseberry, and Jonathan Anderson. On Thursdays, join head of editorial content at Vogue, Chloe Mal, and head of editorial content at British Vogue, Chomenadi, as they explore style and culture through the lens of fashion with guests like Martha Stewart, Kamala Harris, and Tracee Ellis Ross. The Run Through with Vogue, new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

26:59Welcome back to Little Gold Men. The awards from Cannes, including the Palme d 'Or, will be given out this Saturday during the closing ceremony. I think it's very hard to predict who's going to win the Palme, but let's try our best. What are you thinking at this point? I think Minotaur is going to take the Palme. But the only thing is they like to give it sometimes to a director who no one's ever heard of until they get the palm. Not always. And so there could be something in this competition that is a quiet front runner that we just don't know yet. but like you were saying before, this film does align with jury president Park Chan-wook's style of filmmaking.