ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA COMEDY MUSIC TV CELEBRITY KIDS MOVIEFONE Michael Giltz Freelance writer GET UPDATES FROM MICHAEL GILTZ Follow Cannes Film Festival , Cannes , Film , Movies , Aki Kaurismaki , Entertainment News 8 48 0 0React Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyCannes 2011 Day Seven: Aki's Accomplishment, ClosetedAfrikaners, Bonsai and More! It was a downhill day at Cannes.</p><p> It began with the dependably engaging Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki.But each successive movie was less and less engaging.Oh well, not every day can boast The Tree Of Life.</p><p> Onthe other hand, if the international press were voting,Aki's Le Havre would be a contender for the top prize.</p><p> LE HAVRE ** 1/2 out of **** In this typically eccentric and charming comedy by AkiKaurismaki, the people of a small port town cometogether to help an adorable illegal immigrant get fromFrance to England.</p><p> That hardly captures the oddball goofiness of Aki (I'm having trouble spelling his last name, so I hope he'll forgive my informality).</p><p> Our hero is a shoeshine salesman with a loving wife who takes care of him completely.</p><p> He's always a dime short but full of good cheer.</p><p> In Aki's deadpan way, wesee our man interact with his friendly fellow neighbors, whether it's the woman with a bakery who letshim take bread on credit ("Your bill is as long as the Congo," she complains. "I'm your best customer, "he blithely responds) to the grocer who hurriedly tries to close shop when he sees our hero coming.</p><p> Theyall stand ready to help a teenage boy be reunited with his mother in London.</p><p> No one seems terriblywound up by race or politics (it simply never comes up), not even the policeman assigned to track the kid MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2 New Photos Emerge In Anthony Weiner Twitter Scandal Anthony Weiner Admits Sending Racy Pictures, Refuses To Resign FOLLOW US PHOTOS: Who Won Big At This Year's 'Fashion Oscars'?Nancy Pelosi Wears Vintage Thierry Mugler To 7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time On Right Now7 Celebrity Fad DietsBIG NEWS: Celebrities LeAnn Rimes Movies Celebrity Body Microsoft More Log in | Sign Up News Web Bad Guy? PHOTOS: Fat Joe's Shocking Weight Loss NSFW PHOTO: Rooney Mara Goes NUDE In 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Poster Like 39 Posted: 05/17/11 07:51 PM ET SHARE THIS STORY Submit this story Get Entertainment Alerts Sign UpPHOTO GALLERIES Like 6K Like 19KCONNECT FRONT PAGEPOLITICS BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA TECH COMEDY STYLE WORLD FOOD HEALTHY LIVINGIMPACT MORE LOCAL Like 316K down after the boy makes headline news.</p><p> The warmth of the people in the town is palpable the Aki's goofy style is fully on display.</p><p> Fans will be pleased.</p><p> I'm fond of his style but this movie ranks a tad lowerthan his best.</p><p> It was a little too slow at places; I certainly didn't need a complete song from the "trendybenefit concert" starring Little Bob.</p><p> More crucially, the entire film is about seeing immigrants -- evenillegal immigrants -- as people instead of criminals or just unwanted faces to be turned away.</p><p> That makesthe fact that the teenage boy has virtually no personality a major negative.</p><p> Instead he's just a doe-eyedkid, which stereotypes him in another way by not letting this kid come to life in the same eccentricmanner as everyone else.</p><p> However, the film was very warmly received by Aki's fans and the internationalpress.</p><p> One can never predict what the jury will vote for, but if the Europeans were voting, they'd have LeHavre in a dead-heat with The Artist.</p><p> SKOONHEID/BEAUTY ** out of **** This South African drama directed by Oliver Hermanus looks at the simmering racial resentment among white South Afrikaners through an unusual lens: the simmering frustration of a married and closetedmale pillar of the community.</p><p> The "beauty" in the film is Christian (ably performed by the handsome andmasculine Charlie Keegan, who nicely underplays his few but crucial scenes).</p><p> Christian is the nephew ofFrancois (Deon Lotz), a married man who works in lumber.</p><p> Francois is pinned to the ground with desirefor this young man who is in college studying for his law degree when he's not modeling on the side.Francois is not new to gay desire: he meets clandestinely with a group of middle-aged men who disdainfags and coloreds but then have group orgies.</p><p> But Francois's obsession with Christian is something new.He follows his nephew around town when relatives are there for the wedding of Francois's daughter.Then he travels to Cape Town on a flimsy excuse so he can spy on the kid some more.</p><p> What's truly enraging is that everyone keeps joking that Francois's other daughter and Christian would make a good couple and it might even be happening.</p><p> Lotz and Keegan are good, though the film and script ultimatelylet them down.</p><p> The movie suggests that Francois's behavior (he becomes a real bastard) is due to hisrepressed desire; if only he could have been open about his sexuality the way young people are today.While plenty of people have led repressed and sad lives, most of them don't become loathsome.</p><p> Societyforcing some people to live stunted lives is wrong.</p><p> But so is Francois.</p><p> It's unlikely anyone but LGBTfestgoers will stumble across this one, I'm afraid.</p><p> The Twitter Typo That Exposed Weiner Engadget: WWDC 2011 liveblog: Steve Jobs talks iOS 5, OS X Lion, iCloud and more! Engadget: Live from Microsoft's E3 2011 keynote! The Center for Public Integrity FACT WATCH: Sarah Palin's Twist on Paul Revere E.</p><p> Coli: Blame The Meat, Not The Sprouts Engadget: Live from Nintendo's E3 2011 keynote! Engadget: Engadget, broadcasting live from WWDC! DON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS 1 of 5 Steven Chu A Safe, Secure Nuclear Future Dan Rather Taking on TARP More Celebrity News at People.com Like 1K Like 13K Like 475 Like 1K Like 2K Like 478 Like 3K Scotty McKnight, Hayden Panettiere a Couple? READ MORE LeAnn Rimes: I'm in theHealthiest Place of My Life READ MORE Anne Hathaway GivesStuntman a Black Eye: Report READ MORE Zach Galifianakis Slams Sean Penn, Ke$ha, Little BONSAI ** out of **** This romantic drama starts out promisingly but grew weaker and weaker as the film progressed.</p><p> Writer- director Cristian Jimenez shows a light touch by opening his film with the line, "At the end of the movie, Emilia will die and Julio will remain alone." So, no spoiler alerts on this review because that's exactly what happens.</p><p> Getting to that point is fun for awhile.</p><p> Julio is a college student who had a romance with Emilia.</p><p> Now he's dating another girl who believes he's working as a typist for a famed novelist.</p><p> Juliojumped the gun on that job, so to keep the fiction going, he has to actually write a novel.</p><p> That meanstelling his new girlfriend the story of his first love.</p><p> It's a clever conceit and the movie is peppered withliterary touches.</p><p> Unfortunately, we are clearly supposed to believe that Emilia was Julio's great lost love.But the more we see of their relationship, the more believable it seems that their dating simply reachedits natural conclusion.</p><p> That makes it hard to feel poignant when the sad news reaches Julio that Elena isdead. (We, of course, knew it from the start.) The leads are able, especially Diego Noquera as the slightly hapless Julio.</p><p> This screening was bedeviled with technical difficulties (including bad audio that brought the film to a halt at the half hour mark), but funnily enough the portions marred with those problemswere the best of the film, so I don't think it kept me from getting a good sense of what Jimenez was goingfor.</p><p> HANEZU NO TSUKI * 1/2 out of **** This turgid drama from writer-director Naomi Kawase is a complete disappointment, one of those movies that puzzles you.</p><p> Why exactly was it accepted for Competition at Cannes? Some movies benefit not beingin the white hot spotlight that brings and would do better in a sidebar.</p><p> This movie would be receivedpoorly in any context.</p><p> We're told of a Japanese legend in which two mountains famously vied for the loveof a third.</p><p> This is compared to our main story in which two men compete for the love of a woman.</p><p> One man is married to her but a bit prosaic, going on and on about the local produce of their town and how they should market it better and maybe open a restaurant.</p><p> The other man is an artist, a sculptor whowanders about in the rain and takes his shoes off at an archeological dig because he's just that funky.</p><p> Shebounces back and forth between the men repeatedly.</p><p> Then we're told in voice-overs about that legendabout the mountains again.</p><p> To drive the point home, the woman's story is contrasted with hergrandmother, who apparently was in an arranged marriage but loved another man.</p><p> Then we're told aboutthe legend again, just in case we've forgotten about it.</p><p> This movie is rather like Terrence Malick in its use TOP VIDEO PICKS 1 of 11 Ice Loves Coco Stars Keep it Real Laurence FishburneLeaving CSI Jennifer Connelly GivesWater Birth MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW 1 of 2 HOT ON FACEBOOK 1 of 3 HOT ON TWITTER 1 of 2 More Celebrity News at Popeater.comKids Kim K.</p><p> Hopes to Be Pregnant 'by End of Year' Nicolas Cage's SonHospitalized After Fight Jennifer Love Hewitt: Worst Actress In Hollywood? Zach Galifianakis Reveals Major Details From Third 'Hangover' Film, Hates Fame NSFW PHOTO: Rooney Mara Goes NUDE In 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Poster Like 61 Want To See The JJ Abrams, Stephen Spielberg Epic 'Super 8' Early?! Here's How Like 131 stark un nuevo estudio determina que Monsanto sabÃa desde 1980 que su herbicida Roundup produce defectos de nacimiento: http://huff.to/llwsR3 rise_above @azizansari : Nick Offerman wants Oprah to play Ron's first ex-wifeTammy.</p><p> Spread the word! http://huff.to/iXh6ut #OprahSwanson of musing voice-over and "pretty" shots of nature.</p><p> It just demonstrates that a pretty image is meaningless and actually quite dull if it doesn't somehow move the story forward or capture someessential emotion.</p><p> It ain't as easy as it looks, in other words, something Hanezu proves in spades.</p><p> This trailer is subtitled in French, not English, but there's very little dialogue anyway.</p><p> MOVIES AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2011 Movies rated on a four star scale Arirang no stars out of four The Artist *** 1/2 Bonsai ** The Footnote/Hearat Shulayam *** 1/2 Habemus Papam/We Have A Pope *** Hanezu No Tsuki * 1/2Hors Satan/Outside Satan ** Jeane Captive/The Silence Of Joan ** 1/2 The Kid With A Bike/Le Gamin Au Velo *** 1/2 La Fee/The Fairy *** La Fin Du Silence/The End Of Silence ** L'Apollonide/House Of Tolerance * 1/2 Le Havre ** 1/2Martha Marcy May Marlene *** Michael *** Michel Petrucciani ** 1/2 Midnight In Paris ** Polisse ** 1/2 Restless * 1/2 17 Filles/17 Girls ** Skoonheid/Beauty **Sleeping Beauty * 1/2 The Slut ** Snowtown ** Take Shelter *** The Tree Of Life **** We Need To Talk About Kevin ** 1/2 Wu Xia aka Dragon aka Swordsmen ** 1/2 *****Thanks for reading.</p><p> Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinionmakers as guests.</p><p> It's available free on iTunes.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.</p><p> Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES California The Kardashians India Video Urlesque Unemployment Movies Healthy Living Health News Labor Buy a link here Sponsored Links Work At Home Jobs EXPOSED We investigated work at home jobs.</p><p> What we found may shock you...</p><p> HomeJobManual.com Mom Is 55, Looks 30...</p><p> Clever Mom Reveals $5 Wrinkle Trick That Has BotoxDoctors Furious! ConsumerHealthAlerts.com New Policy In NEW YORK Drivers with no DUIs in NEW YORK may be eligible for $9 per week car insurance.Only Zip Code...</p><p> LifestyleHeadlines.com/CarInsurance MORE BIG NEWS PAGES »Reese Witherspoon In 'Who Invited Her? ': Actress... 'The Hangover 3': Zach Galifianakis Reveals Mental... 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Rooney... 'Harry Potter' First Screen Test: Daniel Radcliffe,...available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews .</p><p> Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz Buy a link here Sponsored Links Work At Home Jobs EXPOSED We investigated work at home jobs.</p><p> What we found may shock you...</p><p> HomeJobManual.com Mom Is 55, Looks 30...</p><p> Clever Mom Reveals $5 Wrinkle Trick That Has Botox Doctors Furious! ConsumerHealthAlerts.com New Policy In NEW YORK Drivers with no DUIs in NEW YORK may be eligible for $9 per week car insurance.Only Zip...</p><p> LifestyleHeadlines.com/CarInsurance "I Look 30 Years Younger" TODAY ONLY: Try the #1 Doctor Recommended Wrinkle Therapy! FDXNews8.com Related News On Huffington Post: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt & Uma Thurman Take Cannes This Week(PHOTOS, POLL) Time to play Cannes catch-up! Since we last checked in with the French filmfestival, a bevy of celebs have made their sartorial presences known...</p><p> More in Entertainment...</p><p> ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA COMEDY MUSIC TV CELEBRITY KIDS MOVIEFONE Advertise | Log In | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Careers | FAQ User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Contact Us Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | "The Huffington Post" is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.</p><p> All rights reserved.</p><p> Part of HuffPost News ReeVewz new review blog ReeVewz! ReeVew of 'The Tree of Life'.</p><p> Profound or pretentious? http://reevewz.blogspot.... 34 minutes ago from web jasonopus Part 1 of @Jeff_Overs treet's review of "The Tree of Life" http://t.co/YIGpZCP 35 minutes ago from web FRONT PAGEPOLITICS BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA TECH COMEDY STYLE WORLD FOOD HEALTHY LIVINGIMPACT MORE LOCAL
