By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Kiarostami, Nasrallah

Posted Friday, May 4th, 2012 - Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Kiarostami, Nasrallah
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The third in a series of snapshots of the twenty-two filmmakers in Competition for the Palme d’Or at the sixty-fifth Festival de Cannes.


ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Background: Iranian; born in Tehran, Iran 1940.

Known for / style: Taste of Cherry and The Wind Will Carry Us; films that explore life and death; a blurring between fiction and non-fiction; avant-garde camera techniques and angles; a founding figure of Iranian New Wave

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Like Someone in Love, a Japanese-language drama about a young woman who pays for her education through prostitution. Stars include Rin Takanashi (who some may know from 2007’s Goth) and Ryō Kase (Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage and Gus Van Sant’s Restless). Cinematographer Katsumi Yanagijima’s work includes Battle Royale, The Grudge 2 and at least thirteen movies by Kitano.

Rin Takanashi.

Notable accolades: In Abbas Kiarostami’s more than 40 years as a filmmaker, he has won the Palme d’Or (1997’s Taste of Cherry, shared with Shohei Imamura’s Unagi), Venice’s Silver Lion (1999’s The Wind Will Carry Us), Locarno’s Leopard of Honor (2005), and the Federico Fellini Gold Medal (UNESCO Special award, 1997).

Previous Cannes appearances: Like Someone in Love will be Kiarostami’s fifth film at the Festival. In addition to his golden Taste of Cherry, Cannes has also played Kiarostami’s Certified Copy in 2010, Ten in 2002, and Through the Olive Trees in 1994.

Kiarostami.

Could it win the Palme? There are many who think 2010’s Certified Copy was worthy of the Palme, but jury votes went elsewhere. That’s likely because Kiarostami’s films are often laden with intricacies that are difficult to pick up on the first viewing, which can alienate audiences who may have missed them. This could have been the case with Certified Copy, which got much better press when it was released in North America, forcing critics to view it a second (or even third) time. For a gifted filmmaker like Kiarostami, though, it’s entirely possible he can pull off another win. However, the odds seem to be stacked against him: not only was the production of Like Someone in Love delayed by 2011’s tragic earthquake (and resulting tsunamis) in Japan, but his actors will be relatively unknown to both the Jury and the press. I imagine it is also extremely difficult to write a movie in a language you do not speak (Like Someone in Love is Japanese-language, as well as capture the essence of a foreign country you do not live in, but Kiarostami is a proven director.

Why you should care: Like Someone in Love is only Kiarostami’s second (fictional) film made outside of his comfort zone of Iran, produced and shot in Japan. The first was Certified Copy (shot in Italy), which proved to be an excellent experiment for the director, eventually landing Juliette Binoche a Best Actress prize in Cannes 2010. If it is a success, Like Someone in Love sounds like the continuation of a new trend out of Kiarostami, who has already been incredibly influential for Iranian (and Middle-Eastern) cinema.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_bFyunXmEQ

YOUSRY NASRALLAH

Background: Egyptian; born in Cairo, Egypt 1952.

Known for / style: The Gate of Sun; working under Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine; contributing to the revival Egyptian cinema since 1985’s Summer Thefts; reflecting on Islamic fundamentalism

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Baad el Mawkeaa (After the Battle), an Arabic-language drama that appears to be a reflection on the “Battle of the Camels”, a real incident on February 2, 2011 that had pro-Hosni Mubarak supporters charge Tahrir Square riding camels. These supporters of the Mubarak regime were armed with weapons in the attempt to chase down protestors, with several civilians dying in the process.  Stars include Bassem Samra (who has been in four of previous Nasrallah’s films) and Menna Shalabi (Sorry for the Disturbance, one of the highest grossing Egyptian films of 2008).

Notable accolades: Nasrallah won Venice’s Lina Mangiacapre award for 2009’s Scheherazade Tell Me a Story (previous winners of the Mangiacape include Sofia Coppola, who won the award in 2003 for Lost in Translation). Nasrallah’s 1999 film El Medina also won a few Locarno lauds, including the Special Jury Prize. The same film also landed Nasrallah a Best Director win at the 1999 All African Film Awards.

Previous Cannes appearances: Nasrallah’s films have never competed for the Palme d’Or, but he has been to Cannes a number of times: 1988’s Sarikat Sayfeya played in a non-competitive parallel programme; 2004’s The Gate of Sun played out of Competition; and 2011’s 18 Days was a Special Screening. After the Battle will be Nasrallah’s first film in Competition.

Could it win the Palme? A global affairs student doesn’t need to tell you twice: the Arab Spring has been a huge renaissance in the Middle East. If After the Battle appropriately capitalizes on the immediate relevance of the ongoing revolution (Syria, for example), Nasrallah could gain a large amount of international attention. We can also assume through geography that Jury member (and Palestinian actor) Hiam Abbass will undoubtedly be very interested in what Nasrallah has to show. On the other hand, Nasrallah will likely be a relatively new face for the other eight Jury members (and of course, the critics). In the end, it will ultimately depends on how powerful Nasrallah’s film is, but on a superficial level, the world stage has undeniably been set for him: Egypt is about to hold their second-ever presidential election in their nation’s history (voting occurs between May 23 and May 24, 2012). In other words, the relevancy readings are off the charts with After the Battle, and that could mean gold for Yousry Nasrallah. Egypt has never won the Palme, but time heals all wounds.

Why you should care: Nasrallah has been a cornerstone in cultivating Egypt’s cinema for the past few decades, alongside his mentor and late director Youssef Chahine. Additionally, the immediate relevancy of the Arab Spring has made the world ask a lot of questions, and Nasrallah’s film may indirectly answer a few. A dramatic look on the Egyptian side of the revolution (by a local director, no less) should prove to be fascinating, even if it gets snubbed.

Below, a profile from the time of the showing of 18 Days at the Cairo Film Festival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ILfHoDELQ

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon