Koji Fukada emerged as one of the major voices of contemporary Japanese cinema through intimate dramas examining social alienation, fractured families and emotional repression but he has not always been a sure bet for Cannes with items finding themselves on the Lido instead. His breakthrough came with Harmonium (2016), which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and pandemic year 2020 saw The Real Thing. land in Cannes 2020 Official Selection label. He was last in Cannes for a Cannes Premiere labeled premiere for Love on Trial. So not only is this his first time in comp, but this year is a special year with three Japanese auteurs in the race joining compatriots Hirokazu Kore-eda and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.… 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).… 
