My 2025 Cannes Film Festival Experience - DAY ONE

Following film festival seasons pretty religiously requires a level of dedication towards the sometimes-overwhelming output of new films. Though the quantity of releases may seem daunting, it is something that, for me, intoxicates my desire for new art.

I had sadly missed the application process the previous year for a Cannes Film Festival accreditation and so by the start of 2025 I decided to finally take the jump and apply. In the span of around a month after that, my application was accepted and before I knew it I was stepping off the plane and breathing in French air.

During the 3 days I attended, I managed to see seven films in total (less than I intended to in virtue of the sudden region wide blackout on the final day of the festival), including new titles from Julia Ducournau, Joachim Trier and Lynne Ramsay. While I vehemently enjoyed the vast majority of my screenings, I did leave the festival with a few disappointments.

DAY ONE

Love Me Tender - Anna Cazenave Cambet

★★★1/2

After coming out to her ex-husband, whose initial reaction to her self-revelation seems to be understanding, Clémence is hit with a court case to remove all custody she has over her son Paul. The film explores a woman's struggle with her identities, Clémence grappling with the desire to explore her love life while also fighting to protect the love she has for her son, despite seemingly every force in the universe attempting to sever their bond.

A standout in this film comes out of a radiant performance from Vicky Krieps who through the audiences anger and sympathy towards her character, demonstrates an authentic insight into the conflicting thoughts of Clémence. While I enjoyed Love me Tender and found the splintering relationship between Clémence and her son heart-breaking, I believe certain aspects of the story felt underexplored, and due to this, the convergence of plotlines from my perspective felt slightly unsatisfying. Overall, however, the film, directed and written by Anna Cazenave Cambet was a great way to begin my three days at Cannes.

Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier

★★★★★

With a stellar cast, soul-stirring script and carefully considered direction, Sentimental Value is my current film of the year. We meet Nora Borg, portrayed by the inspiring Renate Reinsve, who is currently focused and driven in her career as a stage actress. She is unexpectedly visited by her father Gustav, a career defining performance by Stellan Skarsgård, who offers her the lead role in his autobiographical screenplay, based around the suicide of his own mother. After she declines his offer, we follow Gustav as he seeks out a charismatic actress to fill the void left by his daughter.

All throughout the 133 minute runtime, the family's severed bond pulsates as though it threatens to implode, Nora and her sister Agnes looking at their father in disdain for abandoning them as children. The interactions they share with each other are shot observationally as audiences perceive Gustav's struggle to reconnect with his daughters. What I find so brilliant about Sentimental Value is how expertly the aspect of familial trauma is woven into the dynamics of the Borg family. The beat in which Nora and Agnes embrace, pictured on the poster for the film, is a significant moment, symbolic of both Nora's persistent isolation and also an understanding of their shared hurt. In films such as this there's a risk of writing and presenting 'grey' characters one dimensionally, however, each character within Sentimental Value is undercut by years and years of history between the family, letting viewers grasp a complex understanding of their intentions.

Sirāt - Óliver Laxe

★★★★1/2

I think of all the films I saw during my time in Cannes, Sirāt is the one that surprised me the most. I had not been aware of Oliver Laxe's previous work so I treated the film as an introduction, hearing positive word from earlier screenings for it. I was not disappointed. This film is so brilliantly shot and crafted with such a frightening depiction of isolation set within the mountains of Southern Morocco. The bond between Luis and his son Esteban directly contrasts the emptiness of the desert in a way that isolates them from the threat of war that occurs off-screen. What stands out in this disturbing drama is the hypnotic score by David Kangding Ray, one specific moment where broken road markings converge to a trippy techno crescendo create an almost exhilarating experience on screen while drawing a contextual line to the rave we see in the first act of the film.

What I did not expect while going into this film was to be genuinely disturbed and so when we experience a complete tonal 180 during the cliff scene I sat in my seat with my jaw dropped. This tone also doesn't falter, instead the vast expanse becomes suffocating for the father Luis and the group of ravers.