Things are finally on the way in Cannes with Croisette theaters beginning in earnest to churn screenings of actual films (remember, those works that we are actually all here to see among the attending hoopla). Opening night of course belonged to Emmanuelle Bercot’s, La Tête Haute (Standing Tall) and the general consensus is that it was a less than stellar inaugural. Ms. Bercot, who previously had her 2001 film Clément in the Un Certain Regard selection and whose On My Way premiered at Berlin in 2003, has crafted a troubled teen drama which lives as a grittily social realist yarn on the lives of disadvantaged banlieu youths, but struggles to find its narrative footing beyond hardship and redemption clichés.
The story is that of Mallony (non-professional Rod Paradot in a remarkable debut performance) a child of a broken home raised by a dysfunctional single mother and an array of foster and institutional palliatives. Faced with almost insurmountable developmental odds Mallony takes to a predictable drift into juvenile delinquency and institutional codependency as a probational magistrate of the tribunal for minors (a game Catherine Deneuve tries all solutions at her disposal to rehabilitate her charge). He is assigned to a succession of foster families, boot camps and juvenile halls that reads like a manual of French juvenile justice as his repeated court hearings assume an almost informational tone. In the end, the film, even with its dramatic interludes, ends up feeling as a facile celebration of the imperfect but well-meaning probationary system and overworked the functionaries that staff it, more of a “boys town” celebration of the judicial system than an earnest social commentary – especially given the all too real news emanating from French and European cities currently facing an unprecedented crisis of immigration, integration and religious and ethic and social malaise. Catherine Deneuve, as a stately but humane juvenile judge, tries for a nuanced performance, but in the end has little latitude to avoid resembling the embodiment of the benevolent system so integral to French conception of state – almost a version of Marianne, the allegorical figure which embodies La République (and shoes bust the actress once posed for). Alas allegories are the enemies of dramatic tension, which may account for the silence with which the end titles were greeted at the Palais press screening. The first day also featured the jury’s press conference – an affair as star studded as any film premiere what with the presiding sibling presidential tea of Joel and Ethan Coen flanked by a stellar roster of fellow directors Guillermo del Toro and Xavier Dolan, as well as thespians Jake Gyllenhaal, Sienna Miller and Bond girl Sophie Marceau.
They will be tasked to choose winner a from a field that includes films as diverse as Umimachi Diary (Our Little Sister) by Japanese festival regular Kore-Eda Hirokazu and fellow Cannes favorite Matteo Garrone. The Italian double winner (with Gomorra, in 2008 and Reality in 2012) will show the anticipated Tale of Tales, for him a departure into fairy tale and fantasy territory. Stay tuned for more on those.
Luca Celada