Neil Young's Film Lounge

favourites: THE PAST (Palme d’Or); Isaac (Best Actor); Exarchopoulos (Best Actress).
Updated with final predictions.

Does puritanical filmmaking that seeks to nullify genre necessarily exclude a sense of joy at the very fact of cinema? Or was it just that this particular program lacked humour? We saw many films that were good and clever and engaged with the medium, but few that made us want to hug it.

just about every other high-profile international film festival claims to offer as wide a compass as possible, and more is not necessarily better. Now in its tenth year, though, IndieLisboa’s continuing expansion might indeed be a simple “no” in the face of rapidly diminishing arts funding – and to my eye, attendances seemed defiantly and encouragingly high.

you meet directors whose films are screening the following day, say, and whose personable manner promotes the work better than any programme description ever could

Just as we think the film and its protagonist may be drowning in numbers, Pereda introduces Gabino’s father, who hilariously enters the domestic space and stops in his tracks to look at or beyond the camera for as long as he can keep a straight face.