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Jessica Hausner presented Little Joe at Cannes 2019, and Emily Beecham won Best Actress. Club Zero left Cannes this year without an award at Cannes, and yet for me it's a more accomplished film. But it's true that maybe it could have been a bit more extreme, like The Wave. Here we follow a group of students who sign up for a "mindful eating" course that ultimately leads to no eating at all. Under Ms. Novak's manipulative influence, the students are very passionate, even sectarian, about their project, and we can observe the reactions of their families. The film opens up many themes: nutrition trends, eating disorders, escalating beliefs (thoughts shape our reality, I can do anything if I think it – best portrayed in a disturbing, absurd yet brilliant vomiting scene). The film is funny, but at the same time tragic and especially brilliantly acted by the young cast. [Festival de Cannes 2023]

The only film at Cannes that I really suffered through and wondered how it was possible that something like this could be screened at the world's most prestigious film festival. I admit that I went to the film without knowing what it was about and the beginning was not bad at all, on the contrary it looked very promising, with heavy fog on a bridge and a mass; I was looking forward to what was to come. I would have gladly taken the Korean version of The Mist, but  then there were those loaded killer dogs and my chin dropped in great WTF amazement, which I mean in the most derogatory way possible. Terrible rubbish! [Festival de Cannes 2023]

I must admit that until the last 15 minutes I was having fun :) It's probably all a bit far-fetched, in particular the ending, but if you expected it and if you tune in to the wave and decide to play the game, I don't think you'll be offended. I guess there really are a lot of lapses in logic and absurdities, and I decided not to notice them so much or to forgive them. Anyway, what irritated me a lot was the character of the fifteen-year-old rebel Selma, whom I felt like slapping. Ungrateful, whiny little brat. I really liked it visually, the scene when Selma runs out of the forest with the horses, and the black clouds behind them – beautiful. [Festival de Cannes 2023]

I'm pretty clear about the kind of place and time in the past I would never want to live in: the bloodthirsty American Wild West and the court of Henry VIII, with all the intrigue and the paranoia, I like my peace and I really wouldn't have the nerve for that. Anyway, I've always been utterly fascinated by Henry VIII and his women, I loved watching the The Tudors, so I'm always happy to watch any film treatment of that era, and this one is very good. It's very intimate, understated, and kept me entertained the entire time, thanks to the lead acting duo of Alicia Vikander and Jude Law. We have already seen Alicia once in the great historical drama A Royal Affair; she was great there, but here she is even better, the role suits her beautifully. It's quite a turnaround for Jude, though, from a likable pretty boy to a chubby, grumpy, paranoid curmudgeon, I don't think many people will even recognize him! I must also highlight the beautiful sets and costumes, they were a feast for the eyes. I can surely recommend it for lovers of historical dramas. [Festival de Cannes 2023]

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe left me with a very similar impression to Along Came Love, also from the Cannes Première 2023 category: a well-made, likeable, visually beautiful, convincingly acted film, but still forgettable and mediocre. [Festival de Cannes 2023]

What I appreciate the most in May December is the originality. The topic of a mature woman's relationship with a young boy, discussed in the media, is something I may have seen in a TV movie, but certainly not on the big screen. And I've certainly never seen the theme of an actress preparing for a role in a film inspired by a real event. She is to portray the mature woman, and therefore, as part of her research, she briefly intrudes into their lives and privacy. It’s a very good combination and brilliantly acted. The most curious thing about the whole film is the music, it is perhaps overly dramatic, you are expecting some brutal drama, a violent scene, and then something quite ordinary comes along. To illustrate: the scene that sticks in my mind the most is when Julianne Moore is in the kitchen preparing snacks for a garden party and when she opens the fridge and stares staring into it, this brutally dramatic music starts playing, making you think she's found a severed head, or maybe she's going to grab a knife and slit her wrists, only to say that there aren’t enough hot-dogs. The result is very comical, and there are several scenes like that. There is also some drama there, Julianne and Natalie Portman are both great, and as I said, it's all very original. I also enjoyed very much the role of Charles Melton, the young father who begins to analyze and question his life and his relationship with his much older wife. [Festival de Cannes 2023]

The best and strongest moment of this film is its black and white opening. After the Second World War in France, women who’d had anything to do with the Germans (collaborators, lovers, informers, or workers) were publicly lynched: painted with swastikas, shaved bare, forced to undergo humiliating shame marches. This is how we meet the main character Madeleine, who later tries to start a new life with her young son. Years later, he meets a young rich student named François, who is also trying to make a fresh start and escape from a certain part of his life, which the film gradually reveals. Their bond and love is beautifully and delicately portrayed, but it brings nothing new. Much more interesting for me personally was the line of Madeleine's complicated and cold relationship with her son, which had a lot of potential, and it's a great shame that it wasn't handled more skillfully and in more depth, I think it would have elevated the film and set it apart from the others. The beginning of the film was very gripping and dramatic and I was very intrigued, the rest, on the other hand, was pleasant, well made, well acted, but it left an impression of incompleteness and mediocrity... [Festival de Cannes 2023]

I was looking forward to this film because Cate Blanchett is usually a guarantee of quality and the available blurbs promised an interesting story. An indigenous boy finds himself in a remote convent run by Sister Eileen. Gradually, she begins to see in him much more than just an ordinary boy, but that fades away towards the end. Unfortunately, I was disappointed because, even though it was quite nice and funny at times, it was a bit of a quirky film very reminiscent of The Green Mile in places, and which I guess I just didn't get in the end. Perhaps I would have been able to understand it more if I was more knowledgeable about the Bible? Hard to say. The performances were certainly more than okay, Cate was her standard good, as was the rest of the cast, although the red-blond halo of the "new boy" irritated me a bit. It was also visually arresting and has a beautiful soundtrack (several times I thought the music was too good for this film). But... It was weird. [Festival de Cannes 2023]

Banel & Adama is the story of a couple trying to build a future together, but one that is at odds with their socially predetermined destiny. While Banel rejects her stereotypical female role and is authentic in every situation, fighting for the right to be herself, Adama tries to do what is right, even if it is not in line with his own wishes. Adama is the center of Banel's universe, and her uncompromising pursuit of her dreams is sympathetic only up to a point. She is possessive, she goes very hard after her own and is capable of anything to achieve her goal. I'll admit that I didn't find the characters very likeable, and Banel not at all, despite being able to fully understand her in some situations. Visually the film is gorgeous, with a very nice soundtrack, and the story itself is not bad at all, but I can't give it a higher rating, something was missing. [Festival de Cannes 2023]

We have seen the horrors that took place in concentration and extermination camps many times on the cinema screen, but this time we take an unconventional look from the other side of the wall, at the life of an Auschwitz commander and his family. Well, it's a disgustingly perfect idyll: a lovely home, a beautiful garden with a pool, a house full of servants; the Höss don't lack for anything. What is happening behind the wall is presented to the viewer only in small "icy" details: the young son playing in the beautiful flowering garden and behind him in the house we see only the steam rising from a train arriving at Auschwitz; the family celebrating a birthday in the garden and behind them we see the incinerator in full swing; they are bathing in the river and suddenly ashes start falling down on them. We all know very well what that means, Jonathan Glazer is counting on it, and he manages to create a perfectly chilling contrast. It also presents a picture of a happy family, which is something I thought about many times in the past because I always found it very controversial. We know all too well what monsters the SS could be, but at the same time they could be, and probably were, loving fathers, something that is beautifully portrayed here. Rudolf Höss is a likeable dad (if it weren't for his uniform, he wouldn't be so different from your friends), but then he picks up the phone and starts figuring out how to streamline the final solution to the Jewish question; at a social event his wife asks him who were the people there and he answers that he doesn’t care about the people, that he was thinking how to gas everything, but it was logistically difficult – that was quite hard to stomach. It took me a while to get used to the way the film is shot, it feels a bit documentary-like, and by the end credits I almost ripped my ears off from the accompanying "music" in agony, but it was a very powerful experience. [Festival de Cannes 2023]