‘Ismael’s Ghosts’ Cannes Review: Festival Opens With an Agreeable Valentine to Film
Arnaud Desplechin’s story of a director in a midlife rut was never going to be a great film, but it’s a tasteful way to kick off the 70th Cannes Film Festival
Ben Croll | May 17, 2017 @ 4:16 AM
Last Updated: May 17, 2017 @ 4:18 AM
Cannes Film Festival
Take one part Fellini’s “8 ½,” one part Almodovar’s “Volver”, stir them together with a strong, steady dose of nervy French idiosyncrasy, and what do you get? Well, it wouldn’t be something terribly different from “Ishmael’s Ghosts,” which opens the 70th Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. In his 10th feature film, Gallic auteur Arnaud Desplechin once again mines some of his enduring obsessions, offering a tale of a beleaguered film director haunted by his past, present, and future.
Mixing story elements from other touchstone films and funneling them through his unique style, Desplechin has delivered a familiar if agreeable valentine to the medium itself; when picking an opening film, Cannes couldn’t have made a more fitting choice.
You can call Mathieu Amalric Ishmael. He plays a middle-age filmmaker putting together his latest espionage thriller while living in contented coupledom with girlfriend Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsbourg). But both his personal and professional lives get thrown for a loop when his wife, missing for over 20 years and declared dead for the last eight of them, suddenly returns. That would be Carlotta (Marion Cotillard) — and as the title makes clear, she’s but one of the many ghosts haunting the director.
Those ghosts are more figurative than literal. Carlotta isn’t actually from the spectral plane and Desplechin isn’t looking to make “The Sixth Sense.” He is, however, eager to cut across different genres, giving considerable screen time to the film within a film, the spy thriller that Ishmael should otherwise be making.
That narrative strand, which casts heartthrob Louis Garrel as an improbable globetrotter, never quite fits with the larger A-story, if only because the Cotillard-Amalric-Gainsbourg love triangle is supposed to prevent the main character from working, but his movie just keeps on apace. And then even the larger A-story peters out, as the register shifts from emotional melodrama to story of a director in creative crisis.
Of course, no one looks to Arnaud Desplechin for rigorous narrative strictures. His work has always been defined by its looseness, by its ramshackle assembly of old-time film techniques, clipped pace, and intellectual digressions. His best films have marshaled that singular style — which can best be described as “over-caffeinated intellectual” — to serve their larger themes. In “A Christmas Tale,” that buzzy energy underscored family dysfunction, whereas in “My Golden Days” it gave voice to the restless hunger of youth.
In that sense, “Ishmael’s Ghosts” was never going to be one of the director’s most satisfying works, as it’s fundamentally about midlife rut. Without the thrill of the beginning or the catharsis of the end, the film spends a lot of energy on just grinding it out, spinning its wheels, and trying a number of genres on for size without any larger theme.
And yet, what keeps it from greatness makes it a great opening film. Though it ultimately feels more like an exercise than a statement, it’s an exercise made with impeccable taste, and its genre dalliances only whet the appetite for more.
As anyone who’s ever settled in for a long meal knows, you never want the amuse-bouche to overwhelm main course. Cannes 2017 is officially opened. Dinner is served. Let’s eat.
Cannes Film Festival 2017: 20 Most Intriguing Movies, From 'The Beguiled' to 'Okja' (Photos)
Cannes entries are divided between the main competition, the out-of-competition screenings, the Un Certain Regard section and the Directors' Fortnight and International Critics' Week sidebars. Here are some of the most promising titles to seek out.
"The Beguiled" (Main Competition)
Sofia Coppola is expected to take a feminist angle on a story that yielded a lurid Clint Eastwood potboiler in 1971.
Focus Features
"Promised Land" (Special Screenings)
Documentary director Eugene Jarecki takes a road trip to tell the story of Elvis Presley and the story of America -- because aren't they really one and the same?
"Okja" (Main Competition)
Tilda Swinton is bad, An Seo Hyun is good, and wait until director Bong Joon Ho shows you the little girl's pet.
Netflix
"Based on a True Story" ("D'Apres une Historie Vraie") - (Out of Competition)
A new Roman Polanski film, starring Eva Green and Emmanuelle Seigner, may close the festival in steamy fashion.
Sony Pictures Classics
"Wonderstruck" (Main Competition)
Todd Haynes dazzled Cannes with the quiet "Carol" two years ago, and now adapts a time-hopping novel by Brian Selznick, the author of the book that spawned Martin Scorsese's "Hugo."
Amazon Studios
"The Workshop" ("L'Atelier") (Un Certain Regard)
Director Laurent Cantet won the Palme d'Or (and landed an Oscar nomination) for his 2008 film "The Class." This one is in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, but Cantet is rarely second-tier.
Diaphana Films
"Happy End" (Main Competition)
The rigorous and unsparing director Michael Haneke is gunning for his third Palme d'Or with this story of immigration starring the inescapable Isabelle Huppert.
Sony Pictures Classics
"The Florida Project" (Directors Fortnight)
Sean Baker's last film, "Tangerine," was shot on an iPhone and won a Spirit Award. This one stars Willem Dafoe and a cast of non-pros.
Mark Schmidt
"Visages, Villages" (Out of Competition)
At the age of 88, the legendary French director Agnes Varda is still active, teaming up with muralist and co-director J.R. on a road trip through rural France.
"Jeannette, The Childhood of Joan of Arc" ("Jeannette, J'Enfance de Jeanne d'Arc") (Directors Fortnight)
Director Bruno Dumont was at Cannes last year with the positively unhinged "Slack Bay," and now he's back with a musical look at the Maid of Orleans. Yep, musical.
Memento Films
"Loveless" (Main Competition)
Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev won acclaim and an Oscar nomination for "Leviathan," but some officials his home country weren't thrilled with that unsparing film about corruption. So he made this one without government money.
Pyramide Distribution
"The Meyerowitz Stories" (Main Competition)
Does Adam Sandler belong at Cannes? Sure, if he's in a Noah Baumbach movie with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson and Candice Bergen.
Netflix/Atsushi Nishijima
"Sea Sorrow" (Special Screenings)
Vanessa Redgrave waited until she was 80 to make her directorial debut with this film inspired by footage of Syrian refugees. It takes its title from a line from Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
"A Ciambra" (Directors Fortnight)
Born in New York but based in Italy, Jonas Carpignano made a splash with his 2015 drama "Mediterranea," which dealt with refugees coming to Italy. This film follows some of the same characters.
"Redoubtable" (Main Competition)
Can "The Artist" director Michel Hazanavius pull off a film about the romance between revered auteur Jean-Luc Godard and a teenage actress in 1968? It sounds risky but could be fascinating.
Les Compagnons du Cinéma - Photo Philippe Aubry
"Let the Sunshine In" (Directors Fortnight)
The Directors Fortnight section will open with the new film from 71-year-old French legend Claire Denis, whose cast includes Juliette Binoche and Gerard Depardieu.
"24 Frames" (Special Screenings)
The late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami made this collection of shorts on the heels of his quietly brilliant features "Certified Copy" and "Like Someone in Love." This is his final film, which makes it a must-see.
"Good Time" (Main Competition)
Brothers Josh and Benny Safdie have become indie stars with films like "Daddy Longlegs" and "Heaven Knows What," and this crime drama with Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Jason Leigh is their biggest production to date.
A24
"The Killing Of a Sacred Deer" (Main Competition)
One of the four Nicole Kidman productions at Cannes, this film was directed by "Dogtooth" and "The Lobster" auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, which means it'll likely be wonderfully bizarre.
A24
"Carne Y Arena" (Out of Competition)
It's only six minutes long and you have to take a shuttle to get to where it's showing -- but this VR installation that puts viewers in the shoes of Mexican refugees was directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu and shot by Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, which should be all you need to know.
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More than 100 new feature films will be screening at the 70th Cannes Film Festival — here’s a small sampling of Cannes premieres that merit attention.
Cannes entries are divided between the main competition, the out-of-competition screenings, the Un Certain Regard section and the Directors' Fortnight and International Critics' Week sidebars. Here are some of the most promising titles to seek out.