Postcard from Cannes #7: Baby you can drive my car
Sunday in Cannes calls for some R&R, even during the international film festival. To recover from the parties at the beach bars, there’s nothing better than a swim, some sport and a breath of fresh air. By coincidence, the two films of the day happened to deal with road trips, writers writing and visiting rugged islands by ferry.
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Sunny side up
The Cannes film festival is normally held in May but, due to the Covid pandemic, this year's edition was pushed back to July.
So, for once, the event is taking place during summer school holidays. That means there's a slightly different crowd. Wannabe stars, celeb spotters, young kids out of school, grandparents babysitting their grandkids … holiday makers from elsewhere in Europe or so-called Covid “safe” countries.
Every man, woman, child and dog is out to enjoy the weekend sunshine and fantastically hot temperatures. The beach umbrellas are up, the deck chairs are unfolded and it’s time for frolicking in the aqua blue green water and playing in the sand. And sunburn, from personal experience. Oops!
Nearby, sports cars cruise down the boulevards, luxury yachts bob up and down in the Port Canto, and crisp white tablecloths flutter in the breeze in the hotel gardens, just like in the films.
Writers writing
There’s nothing like a long drive to clear one’s head, and maybe deal with grief too. And rehearse your lines for a play.
All of these elements can be found in Drive my Car by Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, a film in competition at Cannes which premiered on Sunday afternoon. Based on a short story by internationally renowned author Haruki Murakami, it is a very long, and slow road movie crossed with a psychology session.
Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Yusuke Kafuku, a theatre director and actor. He is married to Oto, played by Reika Kirishima who is a screenwriter for television. They have a beautiful home, they have great careers and still have a sex life. He drives a vintage cherry red Volvo lovingly cared for.
Everyday he listens to a cassette (yes they still exist apparently) with his wife reading lines for him to practice his play. He is rehearsing the part of Uncle Vania written by Anton Chekov in 1897.
All seems well, except it’s not. Oto dies suddenly and she leaves behind secrets which Kafuku tries to comes to terms with. We learn he is also still grieving the death of their young daughter some years before.
Throughout the film, we keep coming back to the overlap between the main character’s life, his thoughts, and the dialogue from the Chekov play.
Eventually, he goes on an artist’s residency to produce the same play in Hiroshima and is told that for safety reasons, he must accept to be driven in his own car by a young woman chauffeur Misaki, played by Toko Miura. He doesn’t like this at all, but the pair begin to bond very slowly, over their respective tragedies.
At the end of the film, she takes him on an even longer drive to where she grew up, on the island of Hokkaido, in the north of Japan. It is here where they must learn to let go of their burdens (that's where the ferry trip comes in).
Silence is golden
At three hours, Drive my Car is the longest film in competition at Cannes this year. It is Hamaguchi’s fifth feature and second offering at the festival, the first having been Asako I & II (Netemo Samatemo) in 2018.
Despite the sensitive story and intriguing actors, the director’s insistence on filming scenes in real time is exhausting in the long run.
One particular scene, a dialogue between the two lead male characters, lasts around 20 minutes with no break, shot in semi-darkness, in the back seat of a moving car …
What? Sorry I fell asleep …no just kidding!
In an unusual twist, Kafuku (perhaps a Japanese variation of Kafka?) requires each actor to speak their native language in the play be it Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and even sign language!
This is a very bizarre concept but somehow it works, and we pay more attention to the emotions. In the end, it appears that silence is golden. And indeed it is.
Islands in the Sea
In Bergman Island, screened on Sunday night, French director Mia Hansen-Love takes us on a different kind of road trip (in English) and yet another car ferry to get to an island, where Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman spent much of his time and shot many films.
It was interesting to note that Bergman Island shared several themes with Drive my Car. They both deal with couples who are writers, and there's the influence of a grand artistic master (Chekov, Bergman) hovering over them.
In both films, there is the need for the artists to get away from daily life in order to create and the interaction with a lonely and wild landscape is key to the evolution of their stories.
Chris, played by Vicky Krieps accompanies her filmmaker husband Tony, played by Tim Roth to Faro Island, off the coast of Sweden, where he’s showing his latest work and giving talks and workshops.
As he receives attention from fans, Chris wanders off and lets the powerful, haunting atmosphere of the island overtake her, and ultimately inspire her writing.
Ghosts of the past
It’s a film about making films, but it is also an exploration of love, married life, regrets and missed opportunities. Mia Hansen-Love is clearly taking us on a personal journey, one which is reflected in several of her earlier films.
She is no stranger to Cannes, having been selected in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2007 with Tout est Pardonné (All is forgiven) and Le Père de Mes Enfants (The father of my children) in Un Certain Regard in 2009.
There is not a lot of action on Berman Island, apart from driving, riding bikes and catching ferries, and some love scenes but we get a feel for the place, thanks to beautifully shot scenes in which at any moment we think we might see Bergman’s ghost sitting in one of the easy chairs in the library.
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