My Trip to Cannes Film Festival 2022 

What are you most looking forward to seeing from the festival?

I think we should not necessarily try to defend movies by saying that they can save the world or change this or that. Recall that on the Titanic, at least in the movie, there were guys playing music even if they knew that they are going to die. Art is just that. It is not supposed to solve your life issues, but make life, with all of its issues, just more enjoyable or bearable. So.... I would not feel guilty of enjoying art when the world is collapsing :) Btw. great clip. It would be nice to see more videos from you about various film festivals, e.g., some in USA.

Words cannot express how badly I want to see Aftersun, Broker, Decision to Leave, and Triangle of Sadness.

I watched only 8 films and not all of them were even good, but still I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere itself and people around give such a great vibe, loved it! Totally agree with you about this contrast between the films’ content and the Festival’s atmosphere, but I only realized it while watching your video (guess the atmosphere overrules this thoughts). Great video and nice Mubi recommendation, thanks!

I'll love to see more vlogs like this. I'm also glad you got to go to Cannes, you deserve it for all the good work you have put out over the years

I never really believed that Standing Ovations at Cannes lasted as long as claimed, but as the one you were at for Closer was 16 minutes, is it not weird and awkward, people continuously clapping for a quarter of a hour? 3-4 mins I could just about understand, but with it as long as that it goes beyond natural appreciation to just being automated behavior.

I live in Australia, and something really struck me while I was watching this. I made sure I saw The Northman on opening weekend and the theatre was dead. Thomas mentioned that you get so excited to see a film, only to see it in a half empty cinema. A viewing like that upsets me, and it upsets me that other people are experiencing that in the cinema. Covid has made cinema a much more difficult community pursuit, but it both saddens, and brightens me, that there are people that are still excited to see a film; would be nice if they were near me.

I am so hyped for Triangle of Sadness! My buddy worked on the production as a runner and he told me about so much weird stuff he witnessed!

Genuinely interesting and insightful video; the combination of behind-the-scenes and snapshot reviews is excellent. Your attempt at pronouncing French words left a smirk on my lips too :p

Really interesting to hear your observations in Cannes. By the way, "d'or' is not like Dior but rather like door.

appreciate hearing your reflections on the experience and looking forward to watching some of these movies, they sound so intriguing.

So cool. Thanks for sharing the trip.

Wow! Congrats on your trip! Love your vids, as always.

Its always a pleasure to watch a video from you.

I dont know why but after listening to your thoughts on the festival it moved me. I'm an inspiring filmmaker and hearing you explaining how much people that go to Cannes are excited about cinema, it gave me hope and it really moved me. Cinema is truly special, it speaks to everybody and so many people are passionate about it, it's fascinating. Thank you for this video.

"Woody Harrelson plays a Marxist ship caption" is the only pitch ever

Thank you for this -- I try and watch many of the films from Cannes once they come to the US but it can be so overwhelming choosing which ones to try and focus on finding in theaters. You've created a very helpful guide as a jumping off point!

I'm so happy I've discovered your channel! Other than YMS' "quickie" videos on cinema I was having a hard time finding engaging movie-related channels that go beyond the classic easy "my analysis on X film " which usually stops at mere plot/narrative related essays. Can't wait to see more on your channel!!

What an amazing experience 🤩 Cannes is definitely on my bucket list, hope to go one day !

I loved this video! Chalk me up as another person who'd be interested in more vlogs. Also: I feel so validated that film scholar Thomas Flight was at Cannes! Congratulations and I hope you had a great time

I‘m very happy you made this video even though it may not have gotten too many views but this are the movies I like seeing videos about the most!

Cannes is an odd bubble: the extreme luxury vs the misery!pron/award!bait films but also extreme cinephiles thirsty for something new and authentic, the movies that won't get many eyeballs unless someone powerful champions it, the apolitic stance and entrenched powers of the french cinema-establishment but the messages that get through the cracks or get shown because "it's not about france, france is better than that" that end up being incredibly powerful vehicles for compassion and even change. It's all that at once in a nasty concrete beachfront built on an old town. The culture shock is intense even if you're french. btw it's palme dawhr ;) Sounds like wherever you are you need to tap into the local group of film fans, they're not always who you'd expect or viewing *when* you'd expect.

That conclusion was really sweet!

Great video, Thomas!

VERY interesting!!! Loved your comments and so happy for you to have this extraordinary experience so thanks so much for sharing it with us a little. I'm most looking forward to checking out Decision to Leave, Aftersun and Triangle of Sadness!! Oh and Broker!!

love hearing your thoughts!!

I saw Close, Triangle of sadness, and Decision to leave. All 3 are great, but Close was beautifully devastating...

Hunt was by far and away my favorite; I was not expecting to see an intellectually stimulating, action-packed spy film at Cannes. I find the screening time & what we’ve done immediately before the screenings tends to heavily influence the atmosphere at Cannes. Fumer fait tousser was beyond absurd and hilarious but I was exhausted from two long days of meetings & screenings, which led me to having an unwanted nap during a film I was genuinely loving. If you’re heading back next year, feel free to reach out. I love meeting up with other cinephiles/filmmakers, and we seem to have similar mindsets about the festival in general.

Before covid, I'd take the whole week off work for the film fest and bar/restaurant hop while watching movies at all different venues all week. That's a great vacation!

I can't WAIT to see Close, just got accepted in the same filmschool as the director of that movie! (Somewhere in Belgium)

Personally I am very excited about Decision to Leave, can't wait to watch it. WIth that said, I need to mention that I think you have become my favourite RU-vidr. Thank you for the amazing content Thomas!

Great video, thanks!

this is an interesting video I'd love to go to Cannes thanks for sharing your experience I felt like I had a little taste . I haven't heard of any of the movies you mentioned I think that's good thing about festivals you get to watch things from all around the world you wouldn't usually watch or aren't as formulaic as many films are these days . seems like a great experience nicely captured

This content was worth the 3 week wait! When is the Q&A dropping?!

For people that don't got a chance to participate, this is a very great video, I love it, thanks for bringing us in with you

comparing any film to Paterson is a guarrantee that I'll watch it! I'll keep an eye out for Showing Up

You should go to Fantastic Fest in Austin. Less jetlag, and a more relaxed vibe.

Incredible video, I really appreciate your thoughts on the films you watched this year! Kind of random but I think I sat next to you on the flight from Nice to Newark on the way back from the festival this year. Didn't realize at the time that I had actually already seen a few of your videos already while I was on the flight, but it was really nice to meet you!!

hooo i didn’t know you were there! i went there from hawaii, woulda been sick to have run into you🤙🏻

A new Kelly Reichardt film that is similar to Paterson? I need to see this now! 👍🏽

Thanks for sharing the experiencie, great way to describe the oposites, flashy glamour and the sober, and sometimes raw manifestations. And that phrase/analogy, from Vincent Lindon, it´s not far from reality. Regards mate (Excuse grammar, not my natural language)

Awesome experience. So cool to have met you there ! Ps : just realized I'm in the video at 7:33 on the left of the pink lady ahaha funny coincidence.

Ruben Östlund is a brilliant filmmaker and I can't wait for Sadness!

oh man if kelly reichardt's new film is like Jarmusch's Paterson I am VERY excited!! Thomas you should do a video on Jarmusch!! Ive been working my way through his stuff and It is all really cool and asynchronous

lmfao i love the "why is cannes like that" nod after that post came out lmfao, great stuff

Cannes is a place of different cultures and not just movies. A lot of different movies, from different directors, from different countries, with different backgrounds and different perspectives arrive at cannes to celebrate the artistic medium of storytelling. Many of these movies are loved(cue audience giving standing ovations to movies at cannes), some loathed(audience memebers heckling at the screen, booing at a movie(Only god forgives to be exact)), but why do we want to gather every year? To celebrate artists and this art known as film. Now I know Thomas made a video reflecting the concern Scorsese has over the idea of cinema diminishing due to the changing factors of the environment and the viewing experience of the common moviegoer. We have abundance of streaming services rising up, theatres being taken up by disney, monpolising movies and the talk of the death of cinema being out of hand in many places, basically social media. Although i do feel the same concern, Cinema does come back. Every generation, Every decade sees a resurgence of the experience in moviegoing. It keeps dying, it keeps coming back. Cinema is like Phoenix. From the ashes it burned, it rises and returns powerful. There will always be a new generation arriving at the forefront and taking the legacy of cinema to newer heights. Cinema never dies, it keeps coming back no matter what. And i have hope, the people are gonna go back to the theatres, to experience that magic, that feeling, OF CINEMA. Either way, Mark Kermode's The good, the bad and the multiplex is a really good book that gives insight into the problem with modern movies. You can read it if you want to.

I really want to see Broker, Decision to Leave, & Crimes of the Future!

I mostly watch this channel because of the ASMR factor, but...great reviews as well! 🥂

Palme d'Or (pronounced pal-mador) not "Palm Dior" 😂😂

wait I think I was sitting near you in the theater for the Close projection

great vid

You should go to Venice next.

Respect for loving film and questioning it’s morals simultaneously

I want to go to Cannes one day. Do you have to pay for each film? Or is there like a pass that allows you to see multiple films in a day? I understand it is still an industry-exclusive event.

Close is one of the most beautiful films ever made

Do you know if the new Todd Solondz movie was shown there? Really curious about it.

When is your short film coming out!!??

I love that you don't attach an arbitrary number ranking to your in depth opinion. Thank you

I've always felt that the inherent contradictions of Cannes you discussed are interesting and I'm glad you talked about it. I felt the same way about Ostlund's "The Square" winning a few years ago; also a scathing satire on the exact type of people who voted it the Palme d'Or. Interesting to say the least :)

Hey Thomas, great video! makes me want to go there so badly! how did you managed to get a ticket to it? :)) best wishes, L

it's prononced Palmeuh Dorh , not Palm Dee Or

i fell in love with you wearing a suit. looked gorgeous

Loved your video, added some films to my watch list that I missed 🙂 What did you think of the TikTok Short Film Competition part of the festival? Did you see any of the films? I'm a DOP of the "Love In Plane Sight" that won the Grand Prix award and if you want to talk about the untapped potential of vertical films we would love to do a collaboration with me and/or the director of the movie Matej Rimanic 😊

gotta ask, what microphone do you use?

If you like good movies, You Cannes not dislike a film festival.

oh man were u interested in seeing kore-eda's new movie, Broker? I think that is the movie i am most excited for from cannes this yr

It would have been great if you'd seen Armageddon Time to hear your thoughts on it, basically the only US movie in competition (edit: also Showing Up). Its reception was very much a reserving of judgment -- some reviews were straight-up negative, but more common was a deferral of final word until closer to its general release date. This is par for the course with James Gray. The critics still don't know what to think of him. This is why I think your brand of analysis could be really enlightening in his case. How good are his Joaquin Phoenix collaborations, those strange-for-our-time Brando or Monty Clift-style melodramas -- or are they tragedies? Did his reach exceed his grasp post-Two Lovers, when he became more adventurous with his subject matter? But more fundamentally, what is a James Gray film anyway? Because there is most certainly such a thing, he is definitely an auteur, and a very distinctive original voice in US cinema, just nobody can agree whether he's any good or not, or if we truly want that distinctive voice.

Thank you Thomas, your content is great. But watch out: it's "Palme d'Or", not "Palme Dior" :)

Just FYI it's Palme d'Or (palm-uh dohr) not Palme Dior, it means Golden Palm. Feel free not to give a crap, though, I just had to get it off my chest.

When you said the Qualley film was "sporadic and all over the place" I asked aloud and to nobody "like in a Safdie brothers way or a bad way?" Cut to Bennie Sadfie starring alongside Qualley... Kismet? Or is the director of this film paying homage to an asthetic that they admit they are working within? Real question if you have the opportunity... P.S. Is there any way I can get a few trees in 4xl? I swear I have never bought "merch" from a RU-vidr before but I think of all the content creators I frequent you deserve support the most. You are so much more than some kid with a camera and a laptop.

he back

Note to self 12:02 great line

Let's just say Broker will safely secure an Oscar nom next year!

How does one get invited/attend cannes?

I absolutely love your videos! This is slightly off-topic, but can you please (PLEASE) review Alex Garland's "Men"? Or at least explain it to me? I was just... at a loss.

The idea of a Cannes audience watching a truly disgusting B-horror (that's not a negative btw, loved it!) Cronenburg film is hilarious to me. Not as hilarious as when they somehow had Jupiter Ascending in the line-up, but still pretty funny.

Loved the video! for the future not Palme Di Or, but Palme D'Or, (pronounced Duhhrr)

11:23 guess you could say it's a cannes-tradicton

Too bad your experience with Pacifiction was deceiving because I truly believe it was one of the masterpiece of this year's festival. Have you seen the scene with the waves at least ?

5:48 heh, Dior. Edit: 11:48, heh redux. What is it about 48? Edit 2: 14:52, heh, almost 48.

Anyone got a link to download these films

welcome

Did you see joyland?

I think Canne's rep carpet & celebrities who walk on it is more talked about in media than the movies themselves

Great video. Thanks! That being said, isn't "dancing on the Titanic" not positive at all? We know how that ended, right?

Off-topic. What is the chair you are sitting in? Serious question.

Cannes in my opinion is better and has a lot more diversity than the Oscars. the festival shows many films from different countries, thus having more diversity and many new movies get the chance to shine. Oscars on the other hand only promote American cinema and the international films have only one category and less than 10 are nominated. Also as a greek, I like that many greek movies like DODO won awards and were recognized.

Well, if we are on the titanic, not dancing certainly isn't going to change anything.

Where can I get your hat?

What film won ?

Margaret Qualley will never get more arthouse cinema than Death Stranding

Cool

Lucky asfff

No way they made a movie about the extinct endemic bird of my country and botched it.

Lobby Cannes

Most people dont appriciate and understand cannes films festival because its not for mass consumption type of movie. Its not mainstream movies but independent and artisticly made. Winners normaly maybe ugly to u until u repeat and u derstand the message

wasn't india the theme this year?

I fucking hate The square but I still wanna watch Triangle of sadness.

Really jealous. Would have loved to hear your opinion on Koreeda's Broker

I hate to be that guy, but I keep hearing English speakers make this mistake, so here goes: It's pronounced "Palm Dor", not "Palm Di Or". Great video though, hope I get to experience Cannes some day!