Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'The Truth' opens Venice Film Festival
Jochen Kürten sb
August 29, 2019
Following his Palme d'Dor triumph in 2018 for "Shoplifters," the Japanese director's anticipated new film starring Juliet Binoche and Catherine Deneuve has made a splash on Venice's opening night.
For the first time, Hirokazu Kore-eda has made a film outside his Japanese homeland, and for the first time with non-Japanese actors — and in English. But as the film opened the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday night, there was broad consensus that the experiment continued his impressive body of work.
A contested past
"From first shot to last, it's a film of high wit and confidence and verve, an astonishingly fluid and accomplished act of boundary-leaping," wrote the film publication Variety in its effusive review of The Truth.
The Japanese director drew comparisons with contemporary French dramatists such as Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) for the story of an ageing screen goddess, Fabienne (the suitably cast Catherine Deneuve), who is visited in Paris by her screenwriter daughter (Juliette Binoche) and mediocre actor husband (Ethan Hawke) and young child from New York. The occasion is the publication of Fabienne's memoir, The Truth.
But the reunion is quickly racked by unresolved tensions between daughter Lumir and narcissist Fabienne, who always put her career above her family.
"Who are you kidding," Lumir asks Fabienne upon reading the memoir for the first time. "I can't find any truth in here." Deneuve cooly chides Binoche for recalling some home truths about her childhood. "My memories, my book," says Fabienne. "I can pick and choose."
Family ties
The Japanese director is a master at portraying the emotional and psychological nuances that define familial relationships. "The cast is prestigious but the film itself recounts a small family story that takes place primarily inside a house," Kore-eda said when it was announced that the film would open the Venice festival. "I have tried to make my characters live within this small universe, with their lies, pride, regrets, sadness, joy, and reconciliation."
After the film's much-anticipated screening, the critics mostly agreed that the director's efforts to transpose his very Japanese family melodramas onto contemporary Paris was a success. Culture publication Indiwire called the film a "wise and diaphanous little drama" that offers "yet another insightful look at the underlying fabric of a modern family."
The response will have pleased festival director, Alberto Barbera. He praised "the encounter between the universe of Japan's most important filmmaker today and two beloved actresses like Catherine and Juliette Binoche" in a film that "brought to life a poetic reflection on the relationship between a mother and her daughter, and the complex profession of acting."
On opening night, Barbera had to respond to further criticisms of another male-dominated competition at Venice — but though only two of 21 selected films are directed by women, he rejected a call for gender-based quotas, saying it "would mean that the only criteria that needs to apply in the selection process, which is the quality of each film, would matter less."
A new debut
Though this is Hirokazu Kore-eda's 14th film, he only cemented his status as Japan's preeminent contemporary filmmaker when his family drama, Shoplifters, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018. The story of a struggling family living cramped in a small apartment in Tokyo who supplement their living with shoplifting, the patchwork family is also hiding a secret that will devastate them.
Previous Hirokazu Kore-eda works similarly revolve around the fate of parents and children, sibling conflicts and broken families. These include the Cannes Jury prize-winning Like Father, Like Son from 2013 that told of two families who one day learn that their children were exchanged at birth — and are forced to make a choice between their biological son and the child they raised.
Twenty-five years ago, Kore-eda made his international, award-winning debut in competition at Venice back with Maboroshi, the story a widow who is left with her child after her husband's death and struggles to find happiness in a new relationship.
But with his first film set outside Japan, and performed in English and French, The Truth might be seen as another debut of sorts for the director who has often been compared to Japanese cinematic master, Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story).
12 'grandes dames' of French cinema
Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau: Hardly any other country has so many grandes dames of cinema as France. Here are some of the country's most unforgettable artists — and those who might still become one.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
Catherine Deneuve — the 'grande dame'
She is one of the most important French film actresses of our time. Born in Paris in 1943, it was the film "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" that made her famous at the tender age of 21. The woman with the flawless appearance and cool expression played in films by renowned directors such as Roman Polanski, Francois Truffaut or Luis Bunuel.
Image: imago/United Archives
Isabelle Huppert — the unapproachable
She seems unapproachable and distant. Just a facade? One who should know is director Michael Haneke (pictured left). Huppert is his favorite actress; their latest collaboration was on the drama "Happy End." The exceptional actress became famous with films like "The Lacemaker," "Madame Bovary" and "The Piano Teacher."
Image: Getty Images
Jeanne Moreau — star of the Nouvelle Vague
She shot films with almost every famous director. Moreau starred in very influential films such as "Elevator to the Gallows," "Jules et Jim" or "The Lovers." In 1965 her striptease with Brigitte Bardot in the revolutionary comedy "Viva Maria!" caused a real scandal. The legendary actress died in July 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/Keystone
Brigitte Bardot — the erotic icon
Speaking of Brigitte Bardot... She should not be missing from this list, of course. In the 1960s she became an erotic icon as an actress, singer and model. She made film history through her role in "Contempt" by Jean-Luc Godard from 1963. Here she's lounging with Maurice Ronet in "Les Femmes."
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
Sophie Marceau — the Bond girl
In the 1980s she became a star and was the crush of many teenage boys after playing in "La Boum." After part two, the then 16-year-old got out of the contract so she wouldn't have to shoot a third part. Through the erotic drama "Descent Into Hell" she proved she was not an innocent teenager anymore. Here she is seen as a Bond girl in "The World Is Not Enough."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/UIP
Fanny Ardant — the muse
Fanny Ardant, Francois Truffaut's last muse and companion, is one of the most popular actresses on the screen and on stage in her home country. Director Truffaut discovered Ardant in a TV series and wanted to get to know her. A lunch with him and Gerard Depardieu followed. In 1981 she had her breakthrough in the "The Woman Next Door."
Image: picture-alliance/RIA Novosti/R. Sitdikov
Isabelle Adjani — femme fatale with humor
She celebrated her first major success at the Comedie Francaise, but it was Truffaut's "The Story of Adele H." that made her famous as a film actress. By working with many renowned directors she soon became one of the sought after cinema names in Europe — and her image changed from comedy actress to femme fatale.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Villard/Lydie
Juliette Binoche — the picky one
From a very young age, the daughter of a theater director and an actress was present on stages and celebrated her film debut at 18. It did not take long for Hollywood to take note. In 1996, she won an Oscar for best supporting actress in "The English Patient." Binoche is considered to be very headstrong: She refused a role in the blockbuster "Jurassic Park."
Image: picture-alliance/AP/Joel Ryan
Audrey Tautou — the fabulous
She is one of the divas of the new generation: Audrey Tautou. She couldn't completely rid herself of the image of the strange but lovable Amelie Poulain. The movie "Amelie" helped her with her breakthrough as an actress and she later starred in several other successful films. Tautou created a buzz internationally by playing alongside Tom Hanks in "The Da Vinci Code."
Image: Getty Images
Charlotte Gainsbourg — the daredevil
The daughter of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg created a stir in Lars von Trier's "Nymphomanic." The film shows a woman who experiments with her sexuality in all kinds of ways. It is not Gainsbourg's first appearance in a daring role. The film "Antichrist" (pictured), also directed by von Trier, gained a reputation as a scandalous film.
Long before her highly debated death scene in "Batman — The Dark Knight Rises" the beautiful Marion Cotillard was talked about. In 2011 she was named the best-paid French actress. Cotillard has shown that she can be very versatile — particularly in her role as Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose," for which she won an Oscar in 2008.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Hahn-Nebinger
Lea Seydoux — the indie star
Seydoux is another French actress who became a Bond girl (here with Christoph Waltz in "Spectre"). She first became famous with "Blue Is the Warmest Color" — a film that both fascinated and shocked critics and audiences, particularly with its seven-minute lesbian sex scene. Together with co-star Adele Exarchopoulos and director Abdellatif Kechiche, Seydoux received the Golden Palm in 2013.
