POMO

A young, novice actress’s whining that shooting an intense scene for a butter commercial with Bernardo Bertolucci and Marlon Brando ruined her life. Without mentioning that it also made her a global star (which she definitely didn’t want). The first half of the film with Matt Dillon as Brando provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Last Tango in Paris. In the second half, however, Being Maria is a boring, artificially dramatic film that uses a well-known event from the history of cinema to raise the profile of its creator in the post-Me-Too era. The only thing that we learn in the second half of the film is that Maria Schneider let another guy tempt her into heroin and that she found refuge in a lesbian relation (which wasn’t her first). [Cannes FF]

A sex-packed would-be thriller/drama with a dysfunctional romantic motif. When the main characters aren’t having sex, donkeys are mating in the yard or one of the dozen couples or threesomes are going at it in a by-the-hour hotel, where half of the film takes place. And if not that, at least the sound of intercourse is heard from the televisions in the hotel rooms. Heavy breathing can be heard in the background in all of the scenes set in the hotel, even when the main characters are just talking. While there is an abundance of sexual elements to marvel at, there is zero emotion and somehow no joy in the filmmaking. I find that disconcerting coming from Karim Aïnouz, whose The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmao was for me the greatest surprise of Cannes 2019. Two and a half stars. [Cannes FF]

A crime film in a European setting, like Refn‘s Pusher, but with younger gangsters, a gay relationship between the main male characters and the sister of one of them, who serves as our guide through the film. The linking of the film to an RPG, which provides an alternative life for her and her brother, is surprisingly conceptual and gives the film a distinctive dimension and sense of drive. The armed heroine in the game is the sister’s alter ego and fills out the depiction of her real-life emotional states. The frequent intercutting of the game with the dramatic action of the film is also a parallel to the perception of reality through the eyes of teenagers who are not fully aware of the seriousness of their criminal behavior (producing and selling drugs). The content of the film is indicative of the youthful creativity of screenwriter and director Caroline Poggi, next to which her imaginativeness and feel for taking an unusual approach to storytelling stand out even more. [Cannes FF]