Home » Entertainment » Watching the French, I faint: Review of Cannes laureates ‘Anete’ and ‘Titan’

Watching the French, I faint: Review of Cannes laureates ‘Anete’ and ‘Titan’

This year, after a year – long break at the Cannes Film Festival, the laurels were picked by the hosts – the “Golden Palm Branch” was received by the provocative Julia Dikurno film “Titan”, but the best director was awarded the living classic. Despite the difficult situation in our home, both films still had the opportunity to meet the Latvian audience – “Titan” was shown at the festival “Pearl of the Baltics”, while “Aneti” had just had the opportunity to watch “arcdauna” at the festival “Riga IFF”. Paradoxically, these seemingly radical and progressive cinematic works function as a respectful reversion to the recent history of French cinema, that is, they do not stand out against the general background of French cinema, but rather fit into it naturally.

Julia Dicurno once managed to shock the world with her debut film “Body”, which was released five years ago. With this hybrid of body horror and family drama, he convincingly presented himself in the cinema field of a young and talented player in the “French new extremism”. This peculiar trend has been discussed in French cinema since the beginning of the 21st century (the name was coined by American critic James Quantum) and, although it does not lack male directors, including the well-known Gaspar Noah and François Ozone, it has been associated with a number of brave women. Catherine Bray, Claire Denny, Virginia Depanta are the most famous directors of the “French New Extremism” wave, whose feature films include “Romance” and “Fuck Me!” convincingly shocked and provoked viewers already 20 years ago, changing perceptions of both the limits of art and the manifestations of feminism in cinema.

A few years ago, Coral Farge with the highly stylized thriller “Revenge” and Julia Dikurno with “The Body” joined their group – both of these works were noticed in the festival environment and in some screenings were also shown in Latvia. Dikurno “Miesa” surprised with the author’s humane and realistic approach to the theme of cannibalism, playing it as a growth story of a young veterinary student. Although “Flesh” is a brutal film that does not lack elements of shock, the scariest aspect of this film is Dickurno ‘s refraining from the usual clichés of cannibalism films, playing it as a human tragedy against the background of civilized Western middle class life or trying to make the incredible.

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