Japanese director Naomi Kawase gets mixed reception at Cannes

Cannes, where all weird movies go to receive praise from the pretentious art crowd.

Magnet: Cannes, where all weird movies go to receive praise from the pretentious art crowd.

Yeah, "weird" movies like The Third Man, The Conversation, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, The Mission, Pulp Fiction, The Piano, Secrets and Lies and so on - all past Palme d'Or winners, by the way. Heaven forbid someone try to make movies that don't involve super heros, CG so expensive it could lift an entire country out of poverty or jokes revolving around bodily fluids. I'm all for the occasional blockbuster and silly comedy but how dull would going to the movies be if that were all that were offered? You may not like or understand all cinema but calling people pretentious just because they have different tastes is very narrow-minded. I'm grateful for and admire people with a vision different than anything I could possibly imagine, regardless of whether or not I like or understand all that they create. Variety is great and making people think is great.

Sounds awful from the above description.

I always thought she was kind of a hack

@ambrosia, I agree, variety is great and making people think is great. Personally though, I find the movies in your list all quite disturbing, or at the very least, depressing. Cannes seems to reward violent, provocateur style movies with disturbing or depressing storylines. (I'm not alone in thinking this. There have been numerous articles written on the subject.) A lot of which most people would feel put at an unease by. Perhaps "pretentious" was a wrong word of choice. Disturbing would have been more appropriate. Sorry if I offended you.

Sorry I fell asleep trying to read and make sense of the plot.

If the director of a movie labels the movie a 'masterpiece,' it's probably anything but.

magnet: I find the movies in your list all quite disturbing, or at the very least, depressing. Cannes seems to reward violent, provocateur style movies with disturbing or depressing storylines

I understand that those movies aren't to everyone's taste but then again I never understood the appeal of movies such as Dumb and Dumber or Animal House, much to many of my friend's dismay. I certainly don't like everything that comes out of Cannes however, most all of the movies I listed were quite successful at the box office so even if they were disturbing people that wasn't stopping them from going to see them. Personally, I find a lot of thrasher/horror films to be quite disturbing for the amount of gratuitous violence, usually devoid of any realistic or thought-provoking context and often at the expense of some "helpless" woman. Don't even get me started on action films where the bullets fly non-stop with seemingly very few repercussions to those they're aimed at or innocent bystanders. Those too seem to be "rewarded" at the box office so I have to question how "disturbing" movies from Cannes really are regardless of how many articles have been written on the subject. If movies such as Saw, which had at least 7 in its series, Hell Raiser, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Last Boy Scout, Point Break and the oft-quoted Scarface can make multiple millions each the movie-going public is far less sensitive to violence than they ought to be.

Just on a side note, ever notice how NSFW almost always refers to nudity and or sex but rarely to violence?

You didn't offend me but thank you for the consideration. You can't be that thin-skinned if you're going to post on sites like this.

It sounds really interesting to me, will definitely go to see it.

She is not very modest, if you ask me...saying this film is her "masterpiece"....it should be the critics and moviegoers who qualify the work...

Sounds like she's got her head half way up her rear-end. Like many Japanese 'masters'.

Sounds like she's got her head half way up her rear-end. Like many Japanese 'masters'.

This is a harsh comment which I think Kawase does not deserve. Her documents and films are not the usual Hollywood fare, but that does not diminish the cultural value. I also think her remark about Still the Water was spoken with tongue in cheek and not with her head in a location you must have first hand knowledge of.

Please note that she said the movie is "her" masterpiece, not "a" masterpiece. This wasn't a statement of egotism or self-promotion, it was a simple self-assesment. She believes it's the best work she has done.

She is not modest? why should she? this is not Ogyogi demonstration festival. She concentrated to talk on her product that enable to let world know Japan is not just Kurosawa world or samurai world. She is very creative.

.it should be the critics and moviegoers who qualify the work...

They can and they will. But she is entitled to an opinion about her movie. I've often talked with artists that said "this one was a huge success but I am not happy about my work... and that other one is perfect for me but the audience doesn't like it". I understand the feeling as I have had the same many times even if I don't work in anything artistic.

Cannes, where all weird movies go to receive praise from the pretentious art crowd.

It's not perfect, It's surely not enough considering certain cultures but they are at least trying. You prefer Tokyo film festival where all Japanese big major company get together to dispatch rewards to only their own products, no matter the quality ? Or you mean Academy awards that do roughly the same ? No idea who will get the golden leaf, but at least they won't have it just because their agency is Johnny's or because their commercial partner is Weinstein's.

Magnet , to me movies like transformers and the rest of blockbusters are extremely depressing too ,makes me feel that as a society we reduced ourselves to level where watching a pointless computer graphic for 3 hours is considered mental entertainment …