In Like Father Like Son, a wealthy family learns that the child they have been raising for 6 years isn’t theirs, 2 babies having been swapped at birth by a malevolent nurse. They then decide to meet the other – more modest – family to get their respective kid back.

With social commentary as a backdrop, the film portrays two very different families that however share the values when it comes to unconditional parental love. Without Manichaeism, Kore Eda watches with tenderness his characters: fathers, mothers and children and most particularly their weaknesses, doubts and fragility, but also those moments of sharing and complicity. The Japanese filmmaker has a natural talent when it comes to filming families and the ties that unite them. Parents might have different ways to raise their children but in the end, they always have something in common. For example, one father communicate his love to his kid with piano and photography, the other one uses games and baths as a vehicle for his feelings. One dad likes to repair things while the other one just buy new stuff, but both always try to be present for their son

The film could easily fall into easy sentimentality but the director knows how to balance his work by injecting humor and tears without ever being judgmental. Like Father Like Son doesn’t try to find out which family raises its son the best but rather simply aims at being a celebration of love. The other strength of the film is that it gives equal importance to all its characters, whether they are mothers, fathers or children.

Focusing mainly on of one of the fathers, an ambitious and busy architect who wants his son to be successful like him, Kore Eda constantly compares his characters with each other, whether it’s a dad vs. a grandfather, a dad vs. another dad or a son vs. a father; all kinds of emotions abound, good or bad, but the director never goes overboard, emphasizing positive elements that make families happy and help them overcome obstacles. With this minimalist story about two families, Eda Hirokazu Kore has created a simple but beautiful work.

Director: Eda Hirokazu Kore – Actors: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yoko Maki, Lily Franky – Running Time: 2:00 – Year: 2013 – Country: Japan

The actress Bérénice Béjo is at the center of this film and her performance is surprisingly subdued, even if she still carries the scars of her silent performance in The Artist, accentuating at time her gesture and facial expressions – for example, watch closely the scene at a crowded, noisy, airport terminal where she seems to overdo it in order to convey emotions amid the chaos. But is she really overdoing it or is just a way to convey the couple’s communication issues?

While watching The Past, you will probably ask yourself a lot of questions and chances are the answers will surprise you every time, the relationship between the characters shifting constantly as drama develops. The main strength of this film is obviously the actors’ performance (Béjo quickly shades off her excesses to finely tune her acting): just like if they were walking on a wire, their characters manage to keep their balance, advancing slowly but surely. Asghar Farhadi’s script however suffers from being overwritten, as everything seems to have been planned meticulously – after a while, this makes you anticipate what’s to come, overshadowing in the process some of the performances  (more particularly Ali and Mosaffa, Pauline Burlet and Tahar Rahim). With a clockwork precision, Farhadi delivers one twist after the other, every time shattering even more the fragile bound holding a family together. Revealing one shocking secret after the other, the script becomes somewhat ridiculous, giving you at times the feel you are watching some cheesy soap.

In the end, does it really matter who’s done what? Farhadi would have gained exploring those relationships closely rather than diluting them – and the audience – in a strong dose of dramatic suspense. Both his direction and the performances get spoiled by a showy script that tries to be too smart for its own good. The film does have some strong scenes – most particularly the embarrassing meeting of two men in a kitchen – but these moments are too rare to save The Past from its pretentious, exaggerated script.

Director: Asghar Farhadi – Actors: Tahar Rahim, Berenice Béjo, Pauline Burlet, Ali Mosaffa – Running Time: 2:10 – Year: 2013 – Country: France

Young and pretty is the story of Isabelle, a young girl who embraces quietly, secretly prostitution until the truth comes out following some dramatic events. With this film, Ozon clearly focuses on our society’s sickness, with pornography, Internet access and dating sites opening the door to teenagers to explore their sexuality without boundaries; and to his credit, Ozon tackles this tricky subject with surprising subtlety. Avoiding vulgarity and the exploitation of an erotic sensuality, the filmmaker keeps his heroine’s motivation secret: She comes from a wealthy family, has good relations with her brother (her confident), her young mother and her stepfather … so why is she selling her body? The answer will remain a mystery and this actually doesn’t really matter as the real theme here is teenage prostitution and post-adolescence melancholy.

In the sequence where Isabelle loses her virginity, her character splits into two doubles, one of them watching the scene, like a witness. This duality is omnipresent throughout the film and even if it might be some showy trick, the actress’ performance makes you forget this superficial aspect of the movie.

Young and pretty isn’t far from being flawless though, the film suffering from being clearly underwritten. Ozon accentuates the character’s traits and succumbs to the temptation to take the spectators’ hand to lead them through his story. He uses several obvious devices to provide us with information about his character; for example, a birthday cake lets us know about Isabelle’s age; in another scene we hear a Françoise Hardy songs featuring explicit lyrics while books from Rimbaud and Choderlos de Laclos (Dangerous Liaisons ) are part of Isabelle’s life. There are also quite a few clichés, whether it’s in the depiction of her clients – from dirty old men to friendly regulars –  or a subplot involving a boyfriend and showing them kissing on the Pont des Arts (the Parisian bridge where lovers come to kiss). All those scenes might be successful, mostly thanks to solid supporting performances from the likes of Charlotte Rampling (great as Françoise Hardy), Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot and Fantin Ravat (the young brother) but this isn’t enough to save Young and pretty from its cliché-ridden storyline; once you leave the theater, Marine Vacth’s presence is probably the only thing that will remain from that movie.

Director: François Ozon – Actors: Marine Vacth, Frédéric Pierrot – Running Time: 1:35 – Year: 2013 – Country: France

The first 40 minutes feature a series of repetitive scenes, with dialogues consisting mostly of variations of “oh my god”. We follow the wannabe-scenesters breaking into the houses of several Los Angeles stars where they do their “shopping” based on what they saw in women’s magazines. We watch them admire the shoes and purses collections from victims such as Paris Hilton, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan. We also see them going for joy rides in stolen luxury cars, taking drugs and spending money in nightclubs, all of this being of documented on their Facebook accounts. The filmmaker obviously wants to portrait a specific group of wealthy, careless teenagers blinded by their illusions and unaware of the severity of their actions, but she is never able to share the characters’ fun with the spectator who quickly gets bored watching redundant sequences.

To her credit, Sophia Coppola tries to tackle this true story with lightness and irony. Some celebrities have cameos playing their own role – Kirsten Dunst and Paris Hilton – and there are a few good moments – most particularly a depiction of a bored rich family life. The Bling Ring however misses the mark when the second part of the story comes, from the arrest to the media coverage, the trial and the aftermath where the girls try to capitalize on their 5 minutes of fame. The movie would probably have gained focusing on this twisted exploitation of fame; it unfortunately spends too much time dragging, stuck in its own superficiality, leaving the audience frustrated about all the missed opportunities.

Director: Sofia Coppola – Actors: Emma Watson, Claire Julien – Running Time: 1:30 – Year: 2013 – Country: USA

(Berenice Béjo – The Past © Moland Fengkov)

Apart from that, it seems that Coppola’s bad girls got some followers as 1 million euros worth of  jewelry was stolen from hotel room on the Croisette – sometimes, true stories are based on fiction …

In another genre, Sofia Coppola opens Un Certain Regard with The Bling Ring , based on a true story, about a group of teenagers who broke into the houses of celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan Paris Hilton and Megan Fox. While it is somewhat reminiscent of Harmony Korine’s Spring breakers,  this proves to be an empty work: despite all the break ins,  partying, drugs and shopping, we are left pretty empty handed.  (Photo below: Claire Julien).

If the film includes a few scenes that will most likely shock the most sensitive spectators – most particularly a long torture sequence orchestrated by kids – violence is the backdrop of this story, omnipresent in each plan, whether it’s in everyday life or relayed through the media. We witness it in various forms, from insults to kicking against a door, the roar of machine guns, the killing of a puppy and bodies left on the side of a road. More importantly, it also follows survivors, threatening their post-traumatic recovery, bullying them into silence, while a – corrupted – police remains powerless. It even comes back to haunt them, as in this metaphoric – or would I say nightmarish – scene where an armored vehicle stops in front of a house and then leaves while making everything shake.

Following Los Bastardos’ brutal depiction of immigrants in Los Angeles, Mr. Escalante offers here a frightening vision of a country caught in the middle of a vicious war between drug traffickers and corrupt cops, with a high collateral body count. The film actually opens with a long, beautiful and disturbing sequence featuring a boot crushing a swollen face, in the back of a pickup truck. The camera first gets close to the body and then moves inside the vehicle to watch the road. This brings us to a bridge where we see criminals hanging one of their victims. Pulling with a dolly shot, the movie then transitions to a flashback, which establishes the premise of this story: Heli, a factory worker, lives with his wife, baby, father and his 12-year sister who’s dating a police cadet. Things however quickly get out of control after Heli gets rid of a couple bags of cocaine stolen by his sister’s boyfriend.

Escalante’s talent lies in his ability to introduce setting and characters in just a few short sequences before letting the camera walk us slowly through the story, making us experience the protagonists’ difficult journey. The scene where the camera follows the wife as she gets home and discovers that her house has been ransacked and that there is a trail of blood on the floor captures the character’s surprise and dismay. And when she collapses on her doorstep, the filmmaker pulls away quietly, like a discreet, silent witness, offering there a great moment of cinema.

Director: Amat Escalante – Actors: Andrea Vergara, Armando Espitia – Running Time: 1:45 – Year: 2013 – Country: Mexico

Read our exclusive movie reviews below  and check out our festival blog.

Headed by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), the 2013 Cannes jury includes Australian actress Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy), Austrian actor Christopher Waltz (Django Unchained), French actor Daniel Auteuil (Caché), Indian actress Vidya Balan (Kahaani), Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee (Life of Pi), Japanese director Naomi Kawase (Hanezu), Romanian director Christian Mungiu (Beyond the Hills) and British filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin ).

Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt) is the president of the jury for Certain Regard.

The official poster (on the right) features actors – husband and wife – Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

The French actress Audrey Tautou (Amelie) is the Mistress of Ceremonies, hosting both the opening and closing ceremonies.

Here is the full line-up:

IN COMPETITION

Behind the Candelabra – Steven Soderbergh
Borgman – Alex Van Warmerdam
Grisgris – Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Heli (Heli review) – Amat Escalante
Inside Llewyn Davis – Joel and Ethan Coen
Jimmy P – Arnaud Desplechin
La Vie D’Adele – Abdellatif Kechiche
Like Father Like Son (Like Father Like Son review) – Kore-Eda Hirokazu
Michael Kohlhaas – Arnaud des Pallières
Nebraska – Alexander Payne
Only God Forgives – Nicolas Winding Refn
Straw Shield – Takashi Miike
The Great Beauty – Paolo Sorrentino
The Immigrant – James Gray
The Past (The Past review) – Asghar Farhadi
Tian Zhu Ding – Zhangke Jia
Un Chateau en Italie – Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi
Venus in Fur – Roman Polanski
Young and Beautiful (Young and Beautiful review) – Francois Ozon

OPENING FILM

The Great Gatsby 3D (The Great Gatsby review) – Baz Luhrmann

CLOSING FILM

Zulu – Jérôme Salle

OUT OF COMPETITION

Blood Ties – Guillaume Canet
All is Lost – J.C. Chandor

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

Blind Detective - Johnnie To
Monsoon Shootout – Amit Kumar

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Max Rose – Daniel Noah
Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight – Stephen Frears
Otdat Konci – Taisia Igumentseva
Seduced and Abandoned – James Toback
Stop the Pounding Heart - Roberto Minervini
Weekend of a Champion – Roman Polanski

CERTAIN REGARD

Anonymous – Mohammad Rasoulof
As I Lay Dying – James Franco
Bends – Flora Lau
Death March – Adolfo Alix Jr.
Fruitvale Station – Ryan Coogler
Grand Central – Rebecca Zlotowski
La Jaula de Oro – Diego Quemada-Diez
Les Salauds – Claire Denis
L’Image Manquante – Rithy Panh
L’inconnu De Lac - Alain Guiraudie
Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan – Lav Diaz
Omar – Hany Abu-Assad
Sarah Prefere La Course – Chloe Robichaud
The Bling Ring (The Bling Ring review) – Sofia Coppola

CRITICS’ WEEK

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints - David Lowery
For Those in Peril – Paul Wright
Les Rencontres d’après minuit – Yann Gonzalez
Los Dueños – Agustin Toscano & Ezequiel Radusky
Nos héros sont morts ce soir – David Perrault
Salvo – Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza
Suzanne – Katell Quillévéré
The Dismantlement - Sébastien Pilote
The Lunchbox – Dabba Ritesh Batra
The Major – Yury Bykov

DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT

A Strange Course of Events - Raphaël Nadjari
El Verano de los Peces Voladores - Marcela Said
Ate Ver a Luz – Basil Da Cunha
Blue Ruin - Jeremy Saulnier
Henri - Yolande Moreau
Ilo Ilo - Anthony Chen
Jodorowsky’s Dune - Frank Pavich
Last Days on Mars - Ruairi Robinson
L’Escale - Kaveh Bakhtiari
La Danza de la Realidad - Alejandro Jodorowsky
La Fille du 14 Juillet - Antonin Peretjatko
Les Apaches - Thierry de Peretti
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à Table! - Guillaume Gallienne
Magic Magic - Sebastian Silva
On the Job - Erik Matti
The Congress - Ari Folman (opening film)
The Selfish Giant - Clio Barnard
Tip Top - Serge Bozon
Ugly - Anurag Kashyap
Un Voyageur - Marcel Ophuls
We Are What We Are - Jim Mickle

CINEFONDATION

After The Winter – Jow Zhi Wei
Asuncion – Camila Luna Toledo
Babaga – Gan De Lang
Danse Macabre – Małgorzata Rzanek
Duet - Navid Danesh
Exile – Vladilen Vierny
Fable Of A Blood-Drained Girl – Alejandro Iglesias Mendizabal
Going South – Jefferson Moneo
Ham Story – Eliška Chytkova
In The Fishbowl – Tudor Cristian Jurgiu
Needle – Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
Pandas – Matúš Vizar
Stepsister – Joey Izzo
The Line – Kim Soo-Jin
The Magnificent Lion Boy – Ana Caro
The Norm Of Life – Evgeny Byalo
Tomorrow All The Things – Sebastián Schjaer
Waiting For The Thaw – Sarah Hiritt

SHORT FILMS

37°4 S – Adriano Valerio
Condom Lead - Mohammed Abou Nasser, Ahmad Abou Nasser
Mont Blanc – Gilles Coulier
More Than Two Hours – Ali Asgari
Olena – Elzbieta Benkowska
Ophelia – Annarita Zambrano
Safe – Moon Byounggon
The Meteorite And Impotence – Sasaki Omoi
Whale Valley – Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson

Another highlight was the jury’s press conference, Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman (photo below) and the rest of the jury looking fresh and ready to tackle this year’s selection.

Presented in exhilarating 3D, the film seems to enjoy getting high on aerial shots, circling above the Long Island bourgeoisie, while oscillating between digital grandiloquence and aesthetic ugliness. In the first part of the film, Lurhmann offers a succession of flamboyant, colorful sequences aiming at portraying the 20’s, a  carefree era with strong social class inequalities: while the rich were indulging in various pleasures and excesses, filling their life with endless parties, the poor were working hard, somewhat supporting the lavish lifestyle of a few.

Leonardo DiCaprio is Gatsby, a mysterious billionaire who organizes extravagant parties. Welcoming a new neighbor (Nick Carraway – Tobey Maguire) to his world, we quickly realize that Gatsby has his own agenda, using him to get in touch with his former flame, Carraway’s cousin.

The film then turns into melodrama, presaging a dramatic ending reminiscent of Romeo + Juliet. The Jay-Z-curated soundtrack is omnipresent, used as a backbone for this anachronistic and modern portrait of the Roaring Twenties, giving The Great Gatsby the feel of a rap video. This stylistic approach isn’t however as successful as in Moulin Rouge, the film also failing when it abandons its lightness for pathos.

Lurhmann offers a gallery of rough portraits, from the young and frail confidant to the fragile lover, the wicked husband and the neurotic, pensive hero. Talking about Gatsby, DiCaprio doesn’t seem to be as convincing as when he is in front of Martin Scorcese’s camera. Forcing the character’s traits, he creates a pathetic figure that lacks the charisma such a legendary, mysterious man should have. His performance is bland, somewhat reflecting Gatsby’s imaginary world and this era’s vanity. Ultimately the film, as a medium, embraces its superficial content, making us feel cheated; like Gatsby and his entourage, we got lost in his lies.

Director: Baz Lurhmann – Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey McGuire – Running Time: 2:22 – Year: 2013 – Country: Australia, USA