Big Laughs at Cannes for Almodovar-Produced 'Wild Tales'
"Wild Tales", a pitch-black comedy from Argentina produced by art-house superstar Pedro Almodovar, delighted critics at Cannes on Saturday with an uproarious take on the thin line between civilization and savagery.
One of 18 contenders in competition at the world's biggest film festival, the movie by 38-year-old Damian Szifron plays out in six absurdly violent episodes.
It starts off with a striking brunette making her way onto a plane, where she takes her seat next to a distinguished music critic who soon chats her up.
In conversation they realize they know the same man, her ex Gabriel Pasternak, whom the critic gave a career-killing review for a composition years before.
It is soon revealed that all the passengers on the flight had wronged Pasternak at some stage in their lives, and received their plane tickets under mysterious circumstances.
And just guess who has locked himself in the cockpit, aiming the jet at his parents' home.
The scene ahead of the opening credits sparked spontaneous applause from the crowd during a press preview, settling the tone for a rollicking two hours of similar, unconnected vignettes.
A cheating lover, a corrupt towing company, a brute overcome by road rage and a parasitic loan shark get their comeuppance in a bitingly funny satire that marked a welcome break from the rigorous dramas that make up much of the Cannes program.
But the film also serves up powerful portrayals of mad-as-hell people pushed to the breaking point by a drip, drip, drip of corruption, injustices and inequality, leading them to abandon social niceties and finally explode.
Szifron, a descendant of Poles who escaped the Nazis during World War II, wrote and directed the award-winning television series "Los Simuladores" and is currently working on an English-language Western.
He said he thought the themes of frustrated people trying to keep it together carried far beyond Argentines' particular problems.
"I think the Western capitalist world in particular distorts people's true nature a great deal. A dog that is poorly fed and stuck in a cage is a bit like us, it gets overwhelmed," he told reporters.
"You can see all these people who work in offices, who put on a suit every morning and suffer from tremendous pressure: mobile phones, they are constantly subjected to these ads, encouraged to buy this or that which they may or may not need. I think that people live very stressful lives."
Almodovar, the Oscar-winning Spanish director behind "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", "Volver" and "Talk to Her", was in town for the red-carpet premiere.
His brother Agustin told reporters that the comic timing and self-assured style of Szifron's previous work had led them to back the film.
Critics gave high marks to what had been a "wild card" in the festival's competition.
Chris Knight of Canada's National Post tweeted that he had "never laughed more at Cannes than" during "Wild Tales": "If it wins, the Palme d'Or has a sense of humor."
BuzzFeed critic Alison Willmore called it "a terrific surprise -- kinetic, darkly funny, much fun".
And British film magazine Screen Daily hailed it as an "innovative and increasingly scathing social comedy" that was "brilliantly conceived and confidently delivered".
The Cannes jury president, New Zealand director Jane Campion, will present the Palme d'Or on May 24.