The French critics' verdict - 15/05/2009

Fish Tank has its doubters

By Caroline Bodin

The French critics have been wandering about wide-eyed like children after Cannes' first day of competition delivered the kind of day they had been longing for. There's been unanimous support for Lou Ye's Spring Fever, which was shot without the authority or knowledge of the Chinese government.

Ye, who is currently banned in China from making films, may face yet another sanction. His new venture is a homosexual love story - a huge taboo in China where it is still considered a mental illness. For Olivier Séguret, critic of the left-leaning Libération, those feverish Chinese nights shot by Ye are testament to his immense talent. Séguret even termed the last half hour of the film "a frozen elegance".

Le Parisien described the film as a cross between Jules et Jim and Brokeback Mountain, while Catholic La Croix highlights the sharp twist in mood following a light-hearted first day that took off with Pixar's Up, in which the search for freedom plays a central part.

Also in competition was Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, a suburban drama set in Essex that tells the story of a rebellious teenage girl. The film, which remarkably only wrapped up a few days ago, was described by Olivier Delcroix from the right-leaning Le Figaro as truly emotional. Where Le Figaro sees some part-autobiographical work at play, Libération headlines with a scathing "Fish Tank swims round and round in its fishbowl", declaring Arnold's portrait a cold observance of the white proletarian entangled in its daily problems.

None of the French critics can deny the talent of newcomer Katie Jarvis (pictured), who plays the rebellious teen. It is said she "almost carries the whole film on her shoulder". While Libération says the film is fortified by the mixed feelings of her character, Mia, it says the subtle ambiguities brought to the screen are broken halfway through, resulting in a gradual loss of emotion altogether.

Francis Ford Coppola's film Tetro that was also left out of the main competition is nevertheless creating a stir. "Nothing's true but it all happened! My film is just like The Godfather, but with less beheading and murders," the man himself told Le Parisien.

Coppola's black and white family drama is competing in the Quinzaine des réalisateurs section. It has a most unusual casting with hollywood outcast Vincent Gallo, Carmen Maura, who is one of Almodovar's early muses and Alden Ehrenreich, a newcomer baptised "the new Leonardo di Caprio" by the French media.

Azoury published an in-depth analysis in Libération about the film he calls a "coup risqué". He sees Tetro as a creation where creation is the key to it all. "The black and white redemption of a failed artist" - that could certainly reflect Coppola's personnal reassessment. Azoury says Tetro becomes a mirror to the act of creation where characters are caught staging themselves.

Out of the competition, Un Certain Regard delivers another pleasant surprise with Kore-Eda's Air Doll. The director awarded in 2004 with his film Nobody Knows is back on the Croisette with a film shot by Mark Lee, the very talented In the Mood for Love director of photography.

Inspired by a Japanese comic book, the air doll of a wage-earner is brought to life just like Pinocchio. For Philippe Azoury from Libération and Jean-Luc Wachthausen from Le Figaro, Kore-Eda effortlessly travels through genres, from comedy to drama, and from erotism to poetry, succeeding with a film that says a lot more about human nature than the story of a plastic doll.

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Fish Tank has its doubters

The French critics' verdict - 15/05/2009