Following the COVID-19-driven cancelation last year, the Cannes’ the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar section returns in full force. Organizer Paolo Moretti and his selection committee have unveiled the official selection for the 53rd edition of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, and it’s full of great picks and several women filmmakers (Cannes only has four films by female filmmakers playing in competition). Notably, the biggest highlight is probably the world premiere of Joanna Hogg‘s “The Souvenir Part II,” the sequel to her British coming-of-age drama starring Tilda Swinton and her daughter Honor Swinton Byrne.

Continue reading Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2021 Lineup Includes ‘The Souvenir Part II,’ The Latest From Clio Barnard, Miguel Gomes & More at The Playlist.

“Once the world was deliberate. Now, it’s randomness, and no one seems to mind.” These words, spoken by one of Kyle MacLachlan’s three characters (he is, yes, all the men in the film — more on this later) seems to gesture at the ethos of “The Staggering Girl,” a short film directed by Luca Guadagnino in collaboration with Valentino’s creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli. In the “Call Me By Your Name” director’s own estimation, the short film’s stream of consciousness structure is meant to “capture the feel of memory on film” by layering stories “on top of each other.” The story of Francesca (Julianne Moore), a Italian-American memoirist who returns to Italy to care for her aging mother Sofia (Marthe Keller), intends to evoke this compressed, collapsed sense of memory through seeming randomness that is actually deliberate.

Continue reading Luca Guadagnino’s ‘The Staggering Girl’ Gestures At Consciousness Through Couture [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.