Clara the Badass

Day 8

Surprise! 8:30 premiere! Why I choose to wake myself up at 6:00 every morning when we don’t get back until 2-3 the night before is slightly befuddling, but sleep when you're dead, right?

We waited in line for The Unknown Girl, which didn’t turn me on like I expected it to. The film moved at a glacial pace in which the main character, a doctor named Jenny Davin, searching for a girl killed by her practice. It was literally 45 minutes of her just living life, asking people if they knew her name. I think the film could have been stronger if it had stuck to this feeling of plain, simple life. After putting the audience through a score-less, very unedited version of life, I believe leaving the ending untied would evoke this realness of the human condition. Sometimes, you CAN’T solve it. Life is usually really unfair. However, there is resolution at the end.

I ran out of the theatre as quickly as possible, being sure to not disturb my 8 friends SLEEPING (told you, glacial pace plus 6:00 a.m. wake up call). I ran to get in the last minute line for The Wailing. This too was a weird, weird movie. In short, the plot centers around a South Korean town that undergoes a strange, zombie-like killing phenomenon. About an hour too long, the film redeems its flaws during the final act. Three people are the possible killers/demons/cause of all the pain, and the movie keeps you guessing throughout the entire end. When the truth is revealed, it not only shocks the audience, but also echoes human flaw and struggles within religion.

I went home after this movie, which is harder than usually since the train workers are on strike. I had planned on beginning a review, but slept for four hours instead. God bless you, couch bed.

I came back into Cannes to wait with a group for Aquarius. This film was my number one must see coming into the festival. I absolutely adored it, which is a differing view from many of my friends. To their benefit, the movie was over two and half hours long and showed at 9:45. The beginning was one of the strongest openings for a film I had seen yet. While there definitely was too much detail regarding Clara, the main character, and her relationship to the building she lives in, I was still so impressed with the movie. I saw myself in Clara, and she is undoubtedly one of the best female leads I have seen at this festival. With some editing, this could be my favorite film.

Another highlight of the film was when Clara started to blast "Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen and Hamilton jumped out of his sleep, then proceeded to fall back into a slumber. Hilarious.