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Cold as the Cold War, but nonetheless impactful, Paweł Pawlikowski's classic style Fatherland was one of the most serious candidates for the 79th Palme d'Or, and here our David Caballero shares his opinions right after leaving the Debussy Theatre.
"Hi friends, I'm in Cannes for the 79th Film Festival. I just watched a movie called Fatherland. It's the fourth movie I watched at the festival and out of the four I saw, this one is also competing for the Palme d'Or tonight. It's a very it's a very Cannes classic type of flick. It's short, it's direct, it's very serious, it's black and white, it's very square in the format. I think it's 4-3 or something like that and it's very direct. It's more philosophical and it's all about Thomas Mann who was the highest authority in German letters in the post-war Germany. So I think this is 1949 and it's a little brief story about one of his trips, talking about his books and his reflections. It's called Fatherland because it's all about what you call home. It's a co-production between Poland, France, Italy and Germany of course and it's pretty much all of it in German and a little bit of English as well."
"And this is a very interesting character. It's very serious and I don't want to spoil it but it's also about not just what you call home but what matters to you after living in war or fleeing your country. He now lives in California and it's all about how he deals with the people who knew him in Germany and also in between the two fronts after the war, between the Soviets and the United States. I think it's a fantastic film. I think it's very Cannes Classic as I said. It's very well done. It's very static in the classic way. You get a lot of long shots, a lot of tripod shots, a little bit of movement but only when for example there is a car or there is some vehicle movement. But everything is like seen history through a little square window if you know what I mean. And of course you have to like that style. I think it's just perfectly done and the two protagonists which are this Thomas man and his daughter Erika, they did a fantastic job. So we'll see tonight whether they get the Palme d'Or. I think it's a contender. The other two I watched that could be there are La Bola Negra and Coward. And the other one I don't think it's going to be there but we'll find out in a couple of hours. And stay tuned to your local Game Reactor site for my full review of Fatherland."
