As the world’s most famed film festival, it seems safe to assume that if a film plays at Cannes, it’s got something to say. SBS On Demand’s Cannes Collection gathers some of the most notable films to feature at Cannes over its seven decades: some racked up awards, while others scandalised audiences. But all of them will grab your attention, taking you from the flashy stages of Bollywood to the rough suburbs of Paris and beyond.
Crash
You might think there’s no such thing as a Cannes film going too far, but this adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel about people who get aroused by car accidents scandalised audiences, prompting boos and walk outs at the 1996 festival. An award – the Special Jury Prize – had to be effectively made up for this movie, with jury president Francis Ford Coppolo refusing to hand the award to director David Cronenberg.
Crash centres on James Ballard (played by a sinister yet smooth James Spader) and wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger). Living a ho-hum urban life in Toronto, Ballard’s libido suddenly shifts after a car accident, leading him to explore his erotic limits, and seek out an underground world of like-minded yet broken people with a similar interest in treacherous sexual encounters. The film’s setting in desolate, car-centric parts of Toronto only adds to the eerie ambiance: it might disturb some viewers, but it’s also a film that’ll get you thinking about the way technology and sex come together in modern Western society.
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Crash
drama • 1996
drama • 1996
La Haine
For a look at Paris that’s about as far removed as possible from the cute streets and markets of films like Amélie, watch La Haine. Writer and director Mathieu Kassovitz picked up the Best Director award in 1995 with this thrilling story of three young men from immigrant families in the rough-edged Parisian suburbs. When police beat one of their friends, their usually futile everyday life is transformed by feelings of resentment and a desire to lash out in revenge – at the cops, or privileged French society as they visit the bourgeois city centre. While the film is at times jarring and violent, Kassowitz’s script is also poetic: far from a movie stacked with pointless violence, La Haine wields violence as a paintbrush, making an astute commentary on why these three men (one Jewish, one Muslim and one central African) are so aggressive and filled with rage.
It’s not just the plot that's arresting here. Filmed entirely in black and white, La Haine’s stark visuals of Paris’ neglected banlieues (suburbs) and the battlers who inhabit their bleak high-rises, and the rap and reggae-laden soundtrack, are truly transportive.
Joyland
The first Pakistani film to make the Cannes cut, this heart-rending story about coming to terms with one’s identity and work scooped up both the Jury Prize and the Queer Palm (for LGBTQ films) in 2022. After years of unemployment, the family of young protagonist Haider (Ali Junejo) is ecstatic that he’s found a job as a Bollywood theatre manager — but his real job is backup dancing in a burlesque studio. Family life only becomes more strained when Haider develops feelings for a transgender dancer at work, while at home, his wife (in an arranged marriage) starts to spiral from family pressures for her to give birth to a son.
Joyland is a stunning work of contrasts: its bright visuals and bustling backdrop of Lahore are set off by a melancholy tone dotted with moments of humour – no matter what your background, there’s something relatable in its depiction of individuals struggling to find happiness while working within the roles that Pakistani society places on them.
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Joyland
drama • 2022
drama • 2022
Parasite
Perhaps the biggest title to emerge from Cannes in recent years was this darkly hilarious South Korean film, awarded Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, in 2019. The downtrodden Kim family lead a dismal life in their cramped Seoul apartment – but with a little luck and a lot of grifting, all four family members manage to land themselves jobs with the obnoxiously rich Park family, headed by a self-important businessman and his preening socialite wife. But as the Kims try to avail themselves of the Park family’s luxurious home while the Parks are on holiday, their trickery reaches its limits, destroying the Kim family’s house of cards.
Parasite was praised for its devilishly sharp take on class relations and wealth — sure, the Park family may be laughably insufferable in their privilege (and it’s fun to peek inside the lives of this kind of ultra-rich family), but you may end up asking whether the Kims' covetous attitude is any better.
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Parasite
Dark comedy • drama • 2019
Dark comedy • drama • 2019
Cannes Uncut
One for true film festival obsessives, this documentary pulls back the curtain on the Cannes Film Festival, offering an eye-opening look at what goes on beyond the star-studded red carpets and award ceremonies that draw the most eyes. That insight is provided through an impressive range of high-profile interviews, from actor Tilda Swinton to director Wim Wenders to name just a couple. Cannes may seem like one big party but watch Cannes Uncut and you’ll come away knowing the full picture — especially on the business side, where cashed up studios stage publicity stunts with inflatable sharks or the infamous Borat mankini, while behind the scenes, their executives try to haggle prices with big-name filmmakers.
Cannes Uncut airs 8.25pm Saturday 25 May on SBS, and will be streaming at after it airs.
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Cannes Uncut
documentary • 2023
documentary • 2023
It Must Be Heaven
This zippy comedy from Palestinian writer and director Elia Suleiman drew accolades at the 2019 festival, when it competed for the Palme d’Or. Suleiman depicts a fictionalised version of himself, yearning to get out of Palestine to raise funds for his next big film project — but when he finally escapes to New York and Paris, he can’t help but keep encountering traces of the land he left behind, be it when he spots Americans shopping for guns, or bumbling Parisian cops chasing a Palestinian activist. It Must Be Heaven is packed with charming visual gags, shot with nifty choreography, but more than that, it’s an achingly sincere rumination on the nature of belonging in a world where we can end up anywhere.
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It Must Be Heaven
Comedy drama • 2019
Comedy drama • 2019
Samson & Delilah
Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton nabbed the Camera d’Or (for new directors) at the 2009 Cannes festival for this drama about two Indigenous teens in love. Samson (Rowan McNamara) spends his days trying to escape the monotony of life in his remote community, while Delilah (Marissa Gibson) suffers under the demeaning attitude of her family. The pair steal a car and flee to Alice Springs, where their romantic bond grows, but a series of traumatic experiences set off a downward spiral, making it clear that the grass is not necessarily greener there. The tender relationship between the two is portrayed with poetic camerawork – add in the stunning visuals of the outback and a sparse script that doesn’t lean on dialogue to show off the relationship at the heart of this film, and you have a masterpiece worthy of its biblical namesake.
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Samson & Delilah
