One Less Film to Contemplate...

Still from Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Inhabit"

In light of the Lars Von Trier "Nazi" commentary and the Cannes Film Festival's determination to declare him "persona non grata" you can almost certainly scratch "Melancholia" off the list for TFF #38 consideration.  Von Trier, perhaps trying too hard to be glib or entertaining or controversial or all three (which would be right down his alley) seems to have taken it a step too far and the film world has responded.  And although the Festival board has said that it isn't removing the film from the competition, I think its chances of winning any major award have taken a giant nuking.

"Melancholia" was a serious possibility for Telluride film inclusion considering that Von Trier has had a relationship with the festival in the past and also considering that this film was being viewed as a step back from the relentless controversy that surrounded his "Antichrist" a couple of years ago.  Now...well, I don't plan to see him in Telluride in September.

Read MSNBC's coverage here:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43090358/ns/today-entertainment/

Meanwhile, the Ioncinema.com folks continue to collate critical reaction to the films in competition.  As of this morning the top 5 films in terms of their board of critics are:
1) The Kid with a Bike-Dardennes Brothers
2) La Harve-Aki Kaurismaki
3) The Tree of Life-Terrence Malick
4) (tie) We Need to Talk About Kevin-Lynne Ramsey and The Artist-Michel Hazanavicius

Still to come from Cannes...reaction to (among others) Almodovar's "The Skin I Inhabit," Rfen's "Drive," and Sorrentino's "This Must Be The Place."

You can find the most recent Ioncinema cumulative critical reaction here:
http://www.ioncinema.com/images/cannes2011/day8part1.pdf