We’re two for two. After nailing both Sundance’s top winner and the Golden Bear with our YouBETcha! predictions, we now turn to the Palme d’Or horse race kicking off today. Out of the 22 Competition titles, two former winners—Cristian Mungiu and Hirokazu Kore-eda—return in pursuit of a rare double Palme, a feat only achieved by greats such as Francis Ford Coppola, Bille August, Emir Kusturica, Shohei Imamura, the Dardenne brothers, Michael Haneke, Ken Loach and Ruben Östlund (he’ll attempt his 3-peat next year). Meanwhile, exactly half the lineup are first-timers stepping into competition for the very first time, many of whom will now forever associate their Croisette debut with Saint-Saëns’ Aquarium from Le Carnaval des animaux, the festival’s lingering, almost hypnotic sonic signature.… Read the rest
To some, love might indeed mean never having to say you’re sorry, but the universe (or at least the audience) demands evidence of how complicated formulas lead to the simplest outcomes. Insufficient romantic energy is one of the major issues apparent in the latest lark from Pierre Salvadori, The Electric Kiss (aka La Vénus électrique), a period romcom sent against a carnivalesque backdrop in 1928 Paris. Time and place suggest potential homage to Pagnol or Chaplin, but a strained production design makes this suspension of disbelief iffy, and so we’re left to depend on the strength of a script by Benoit Graffin (who penned Salvadori’s previous rom com con gem Priceless, 2006) and Rebecca Zlotowski (who has a penchant for the supernatural milieu of mediums, evidenced in her underrated Planetarium, 2016).… 
