The Cannes Film Festival often seems to be little more than an opportunity for celebrities to appear on the red carpet/fight off rumours of an imminent break-up/gain more column inches (Brad and Angelina are the perfect example of this- don’t pretend you weren’t analysing their body language too). But apparently this is rather a serious affair, which can make or break films. This year ‘The White Ribbon’, directed by Michael Haneke, won the coveted Palme d’Or award, but one of the films that has really captured my attention is ‘Visage’, directed by Tsai Ming-Liang.
Admittedly Visage initially attracted my attention because of the costumes- designed the great Christian Lacroix- but this is a visually stunning film. Beautifully confused and abstract in the extreme, dreams intertwine with reality. Visage follows a Taiwanese film director, who speaks neither French nor English, as he shoots a film based on the myth of Salome at the Louvre, in Paris, where much of the film is shot.
The rich religious painting from the Renaissance which can be found in the Louvre provided inspiration for the film- Ming-Liang himself draws parallels between filmmakers and painters-‘each of my films is a painting and here it is a b,ig painting which has no logic in its dramaturgy as we are used to seeing’. This is possibly the prettiest, film to come out of Cannes this year…I will definitely be keeping an eye out for it’s UK release.
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