**Disclaimer: this blog has no link to the amazing 2006 documentary but we do adore Slavoj Žižek. Who doesn't?**
This year, Cannes premiered a few saucy titles. Here's the ones you should seek out:
L'APOLLONIDE - SOUVENIRS DE LA MAISON CLOSE (HOUSE OF TOLERANCE)Dir/scr: Bertrand Bonello. France. 2011. 125mins
The dawn of the 20th century: L'Apollonide, a house of tolerance, is living its last days.
In this closed world, where some men fall in love and others become viciously harmful, the girls share their secrets, their fears, their joys and their pains...
Basically a whole bunch of French tit-tillation, from the the director of The Pornographer (2001), On War (2008), Tiresia (2003), and the 2005 homage to Cindy Sherman.
Set for release in the following territories so far:
France - Haut et Court (21 September 2011)
Australia - Rialto Entertainment
Brazil - Petrini
Former Yugoslavia states - MegaCom Film
Germany - NFP marketing & distribution
Greece - Strada Films
Portugal - Atalanta Filmes
US - Sundance Selects
LA PIEL QUE HABITO (THE SKIN I LIVE IN)
Dir: Pedro Almodovar. Spain. 2011. 116mins
Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault.
In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig...
An erotic thriller by Almodovar starring Antonio "I was in gay porn before I was famous" Banderas. What's not to love?
Set for release in the following territories so far:
UK - ? (26 August 2011)
Spain - Warner Bros. (2 September 2011)
Russia - ? (15 September 2011)
Germany - ? (20 October 2011)
US - Sony Pictures Classics (18 November 2011)
Canada - Sony Pictures Classics (18 November 2011)
France - Pathé (18 November 2011)
Italy - ? (18 November 2011)
Benelux - A-Film
SLEEPING BEAUTY
Dir/scr: Julia Leigh. Australia. 2011. 101mins
Lucy, a young university student, takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty to fund her studies.
She goes to sleep. She wakes up. And it's as if those hours never existed...
Psycho-sexual drama starring Emily Browning - for those of you who bothered to see SUCKER PUNCH (we did - it sucked) will recognise her impish face - and Rachel Blake from the amazing LANTANA. The young girl accepts work that involves being drugged and allowing old men to do as they wish while she is knocked out. Should be interesting.
Set for release in the following territories so far:
Australia/ N.Z. - Transmission (23 June 2011)
Russia /CIS - Carmen Films (25 August 2011)
US - Sundance Selects
France - Arp
Benelux - WIld Bunch
Greece - Seven Films
Switzerland - Xenix
Baltics - Incognito
Canada - eOne
Israel - Lev Cinemas
UK - Revolver
SKOONHEID (BEAUTY)
Dir/scr: Oliver Hermanus. South Africa/France. 2011. 104mins
Francois lives a skillfully controlled, well managed life, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Father of two daughters and a devoted husband, he is wholly unprepared when a chance encounter unravels his clean and ordered existence.
23-year-old Christian is the son of a long lost friend. By all accounts he is the personification of a handsome young man in the prime of his life. Francois is so disarmed by the young man that it instantly ignites within him an all consuming infatuation and misplaced lust.
Despite his careful concealed disgust for himself, Francois pours out the lost emotions he has despised all his life in what becomes a desperate attempt at taking from the world that which he has always secretly wanted: Happiness.Winner of this years Queer Palm award, you get the feeling this story of repressed desire and secret longing doesn't have a happy ending....
---------------
Also see Romanian coming of age drama
LOVERBOY, and the opening sequence of French film
L’EXERCISE DE L’ETAT (THE MINISTER) with an opening dream sequence in which a naked woman disappears into the mouth of a massive crocodile
And for a bit of trivia, remember the amazing blue opera singing Diva Plavalaguna in the brilliance that was THE FIFTH ELEMENT?
Well, Maïwenn Le Besco who played her just directed and starred in
POLISSE, which won the Jury Prize :)
