Espoo Cine 2024 is still in full swing until September 1st, and there’s a wealth of great films to choose from. For those with a limited schedule, here are five great films you can still catch on the last week of the festival.
The Girl with the Needle
A haunting and devastating folktale that is equal parts reality and mythic tragedy. This painfully realistic depiction of women’s rights (or lack thereof) stunned me at Cannes, and it has lost none of its power in the months since. It follows the spiral of Karoline, a woman impregnated by a wealthy man, left alone in the streets of a society that does not care for her. As she discovers the underworld of others like her, things go from bad to worse in a way that is far too realistic even in our modern era.
Superbly acted with beautiful cinematography capturing the inhumane conditions, The Girl with the Needle isn’t a fun film by any measure. But it is vital viewing.
Screenings still on Sunday, August 25. Link to the catalog.
La Bête
There is no actor working at the present like Léa Seydoux. She can be anything, and often, as it in La Bête, she is. This is a sci-fi film, but it’s also a romantic drama, a fable, and satiric look at our reality. At its center is Seydoux, a woman who travels through time through the act of “purification”. As her soul travels from the early 1900s to the far future, she finds herself drawn to a man called Louis, who seems to appear at important times in her life.
Like Cloud Atlas, one of my favorite films of all time, La Bête works best on an emotional level. It doesn’t necessarily make sense intellectually, and it doesn’t need to. This is a soaring work of art that captivates the soul. It makes us feel that love, like time itself, is vast beyond measure. It works on a scale we cannot comprehend, and possibly never will.
It’s based on the book by Henry James, and while it doesn’t follow the work slavishly, the two share an emotional reality. Seydoux and George MacKay are mesmerizing in the leads, and director Bertrand Bonello understands when to give us what we really want – but not a moment too soon.
La Bête plays on Monday, August 26., and on Saturday, August 31. Link to the catalog here.
Meeting with Pol Pot
Another Cannes triumph, Meeting with Pol Pot is a staggering work of historical fiction from Rithy Panh that still haunts me to this day.
Set in the depths of Cambodia, during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in 1978, Meeting with Pol Pot takes its origins from history. A group of journalists is invited to meet with the illusive dictator, and interview him about his mission to build a new world order. Iréne Jacob is the cynic, who wants to believe in an alternative to capitalism, but does not see this as the answer. Cyril Guëi is the photographer, who sees the violent regime for what it is through his camera. Grégoire Colin is the true believer, who once traded letters with Pol Pot while in university. Each has their own agenda, yet none have any idea what they’re about to face in a land completely alien to what they’re expecting.
Pahn’s direction is subtle and deceptive. He lulls us into complacency, and then pulls the rug from under our feet. Reality is what we make of it, and in the hands of the Khmer Rouge, it is a constantly shifting world of lies and violence. By the time we realize our place in it, it is too late to escape.
This is a masterful work of condemnation, played beautifully by its cast. Watch, for example, how Colin plays his realization that his dreams amount to nothing. There’s a childlike pain in his features, like someone told him Santa isn’t real, or that our pets do not go live on a farm somewhere when they die.
You can read my full review from Cannes here.
Lee
The one film on the list I haven’t seen, and the one I bought tickets to the first chance I could.
Kate Winslet is a towering presence. Her portraits of complicated figures always ring true. Especially when they’re contradictory people, who strive for something better than their nature allows.
Lee is based on the story of Lee Miller, a fashion model turned photographer, who became one of the first to document the atrocities of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. In lesser hands, this could become a hagiography – a portrait singing nothing but praises. But in the hands of Ellen Kuras, an expert cinematographer and documentarian, it turns into a textured exploration of what drives a person to change.
Packed with a cast of brilliant character actors, including Andrea Riseborough, Alexander Skarsgård, Marion Cotillard, and Josh O’Connor, Lee promises to be a worthwhile biopic that breaks the norms of traditional milquetoast films that refuse to challenge their subjects.
Lee plays on Sunday, September 1st., as the closing film of the festival. Link to the catalog here.
