It's as if some generalized anxiety disorder had wrapped Cannes 2008 in its clammy embrace. The 61st edition of the fest got off to a somber start with the premiere of
Blindness by
Fernando Meirelles, an allegorical tale of a group of urbanites who lose their sight in an apparent epidemic, and quickly descend to pre-civilized savagery. Hard on its heels came the riveting
"Waltz with Bashir by
Ari Folman, an animated doc about a former Israeli soldier whose traumatic experience of a massacre of Palestinians in Beirut has induced nightmares and memory loss. While Day 3 brought a heavy helping of disease and angst in
Arnaud Desplechin's VERY LONG
Un Conte de Noel, a fable about a family battling a mother's illness, and, if I got Desplechin's drift, permanently whacked out by the past death of a son. Add dismal rainy weather on the Croisette, and you've got one bunch of grumpy journos.
As in
City of God, in
Blindness Meirelles deftly choregographs the movements of frenzied crowds. But even the committed international cast,including Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Alice Braga, can't breathe life into what is essentially a parable about humankind, which apparently worked far better as a novel. Weakest link in the cast is Mark Ruffalo as a doctor and would-be leader in the crisis -- somehow with his mellow slacker affect, you wonder how his character got through med school. Bottom line, though, we believe in none of these characters as individuals.
After interviewing Meirelles, who's engaging and charming, I wanted to like the film more. But it's hard to guess what made the filmmaker and his scripter Don McKellar imagine they could flesh out this philosophical tale -- and brief against capitalist greed -- for the screen. (Yeah, I know, Julian Schnabel filmed the unfilmable in
Diving Bell, but that was a miracle of sorts.) Meirelles also took on a daunting challenge, conveying on screen the milky white radiance experienced by his sightless characters. Yet you admire the technical inventiveness without being grabbed by the story. And in a bogus feeling ending, when a new community emerges, lead by a dressed-down unmade-up Julianne Moore, with all the women washing each other's backs in the shower for godssake -- well, cue Kumbaya on the soundtrack. That said,
Blindness does succeed in tapping into the growing fear of pandemics and meltdown, suggesting that apocalypse may not come now, but maybe sometime next week.
More later about the amazing Israeli doc.
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posted by Erica Abeel @ 5/16/2008 09:06:00 AM
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