Cecile de France and Thomas Doret in a scene from The Kid with a Bike. Photographs: Eric Gaillard/ Reuters
Cardinal on the loose: Polish actor Jerzy Stuhr, Italian director Nanni Moretti and French actor Michel Piccoli in Cannes for their film Habemus Papam. Photographs: Eric Gaillard/ Reuters
CANNES 2011:A review of the Cannes film festival
Habemus Papam ***
Director: Nanni Moretti
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa, Cardinal Gregori, Margherita Buy, Franco Graziosi
TEN YEARS AGO, Nanni Moretti won the Palme d'Or at Cannes with a film, The Son's Room, that found favour with virtually every critic and punter. Since then the Italian director has been treading water somewhat. Surely, a satire about the Catholic Church must be just the thing to get the leftist director's creative juices flowing again.
Not quite. Playing in the main competition, Habemus Papam(you won't need to be told that the title means "we have a pope") certainly has its fair share of laugh-out-loud moments. The great Michel Piccoli is both poignant and ridiculous as a cardinal who runs screaming from the top job. But, ultimately, the film feels a bit toothless and underpowered. Even the most fanatically faithful viewer will struggle to take serious offence.
Beginning with footage of the real Pope John Paul II’s funeral, the film then brings us among the college of fictional cardinals as they attempt to select the next pontiff. Eventually they settle upon Cardinal Melville (Piccoli). The officials get so far as to announce “habemus papam”, but before the name can be read, Melville, suddenly aware of the responsibility he is taking on, runs shrieking from the room. Various farcical developments follow. The film tends towards Analyse This, as a psychiatrist (Moretti) is brought in. We think of Roman Holiday as Cardinal Melville escapes the clutches of officials and wanders the capital. Too often we are reminded of Norman Wisdom as the jokes become ever cuter.
To be fair, if you approach Habemus Papamas a light-hearted farce – "One of our Popes has Gone Missing" – then it will work nicely for you. Certainly, nobody could fault Piccoli's flawless performance. But, knowing Moretti to be a man of some depth (and anger), the viewer has the right to expect a little more bile from such a project. Do not expect placard-wielders when the picture arrives on these shores.
The Kid With a Bike ****
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. Starring Cécile de France, Thomas Doret, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, Egon Di Mateo, Olivier Gourmet
TO CALL THE The Dardenne brothers reliable is not to damn with faint praise. The Belgian siblings, twice winners of the Palme d'Or, can be relied on to deliver humanist tales of the very highest order. One can also count on them to trouble the audience by putting their unfortunate characters through the most ghastly trials. Their latest film is somewhat less harrowing than Rosettaor L'Enfant(though it's harrowing enough), but this remains humanist film-making at its very finest.
On screen in virtually every scene, the agitated, hard-faced Thomas Doret plays a troubled boy, resident in a care home, whose every move is directed at engineering reconciliation with his estranged father. This uncaring layabout has fled the family home without leaving a forwarding address. He’s changed his phone number. Worst of all, he’s even sold the poor lad’s treasured bicycle.
While making yet one more attempt to track down dad – much to the annoyance of his largely sympathetic carers – he encounters a young hairdresser (a hugely likable Cécile de France) who takes pity on him. She buys back his bike and, when he asks if he can stay with her at weekends, she readily agrees.
With their customary stubbornness, the directors leave a great many questions unanswered. Where is Mum? Why on Earth is de France’s character being so helpful?
Filling in the blanks adds to the pleasure of a film that focuses all its energies on detailing the psychological evolution of a troubled young mind. Allowing occasional surges of classical music to reveal his inner torment, using a mobile camera to enhance the naturalistic fug, the brothers end up telling a story that – though never sentimental – develops character via an uncharacteristically conventional arc. You wouldn’t exactly call The Kid With a Bike a feel-good movie, but it certainly invites the viewer to be hopeful about human nature. Another gem from the boys.
