What was the best film at the 2009 Cannes film festival that we saw? The vampires of “Thirst”? The chattiness and occasional gun bursts of “Inglourious Basterds”? The hammering of male genitalia in “Antichrist,” perhaps? Hmm, how about the wafting airs of doobage from “Taking Woodstock” or the balletic violence of Johnny To’s “Vengeance”?
Nope, the best film we saw at Cannes was Jane Campion’s 18th-century love story, “Bright Star” starring a truly outstanding Abbie Cornish and strong performances from Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider and Kerry Fox (Campion’s “An Angel At My Table”).
The film chronicles the secret love affair between poet John Keats (Whishaw) and brassy fashion student Fanny Brawne (Cornish) and was carefully observed, wonderfully realized and full of flush emotion and honest tenors. Don’t be surprised if this film comes up at Oscar time, including Best Picture. As they year stands, Cornish is still probably our number one choice for Best Actress, but obviously that could change (here’s our review).
As previously reported, “Bright Star” hits September 18 and will make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Don’t just take our word for it, Quentin Tarantino loved it too and called Harvey Weinstein afterwards to tell him so (we were actually in the same screening that he was at). [Vulture]