Cannes’ Palme d’Or winner Titane is out this week. (Koch Films)
It’s a good week for new releases, and nothing can prepare you for our top pick, one of the most talked-about films of the year: Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or-winning Titane.
Having shaken the Cannes Film Festival to its core this year with this blisteringly graphic and tantalisingly surreal thriller – which made the French filmmaker only the second female director to win Cannes’ Palme d’Or – Ducournau found the time to speak to us about her cinematic gut-punch – Read our interview with Julia Ducournau here.
If all that sounds a bit much – and we can’t blame you, Titane is a hard film to recommend due to its more extreme moments – there’s a palette-cleansing alternative that operates in a totally different lane: The Sparks Brothers. It’s Edgar Wright’s first documentary, which pulls back the curtain on one of the most idiosyncratic and hugely-influential-even-if-you’ve-never-heard-of-them art-pop-prog bands. Highly recommended stuff.
Sergej Kreso’s documentary Here We Move Here We Groove screens at Kino Central and Moviemento.
On the events front, here are four recommendations for you:
There’s Sergej Kreso’s documentary Here We Move Here We Groove, about former Yugoslavian refugee turned Balkan Beats founder and DJ, Robert Soko. We see how he journeys through Europe, his emergence on the club scene in 1993 and his travels back to his native soil. This excellent and socially engaged doc screens tonight at Kino Central (21:00) and on the 13/10 at Moviemento (21:00), both in the presence of Soko.
On Saturday, Creepy Crypt are screening Requiem For A Dream, Darren Aronofsky’s blisteringly bleak sophomore feature (Rollberg, 22:30). Great though it is, fair word of warning if you happen to have missed it since its 2000 release: this is not one to go to if you’re feeling in the slightest bit vulnerable!
There’s Mongay’s screening of Supernova (11/10, Kino International at 22:00 – and out in cinemas next week). It’s a superb and deeply touching story of a couple (Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci) who go on a trip, with one of them suffering from early-onset dementia. The film and its central duo were unfairly overlooked during awards season, and it’s well worth catching, simply because it’ll break your heart and put it back together again in the most tender way possible. Just don’t forget to bring tissues. Bring all the tissues.
Finally, don’t miss out on a preview screening of Effacer L’Historique (Delete History) at Cinéma Paris on the 12th at 20:00. One of the rare comedies to have been selected in Competition at last year’s Berlinale, Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern’s eighth joint feature went down a storm and even won the new Silver Bear Special Prize. The laughs in this satirical look on 21st century connectivity come thick and fast, and what remains once the giggles have dissipated is a wonderfully caustic gem that’s well worth your time. The film comes out in kinos on Oct 28, so rush to see it early – and as an added bonus, the directors will be in attendance.
That’s it for this week. Dare to see Titane, clue yourself up on Sparks, cry your heart out with Supernova, and see you next week.
