Beyond the Multiplex: Cannes

Forget the air kisses, the yacht parties and the Hollywood buzz. Here are 20 great films to look for at an art house near you.

By Andrew O'Hehir

Read more: Andrew O'Hehir, Cannes, Movies, Movie Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Reviews, Beyond the Multiplex

Ivana Baquero as Ofelia in "Pan's Labyrinth"

May 27, 2006 | CANNES, France -- Film festivals, and this one above all others, encourage you to inhabit an alternate universe. This universe is one in which Hollywood films, the studios that make them, and the bazillion-dollar deals that process demands, all exist -- but somehow aren't really important. Yes, the American studios throw parties on their yachts and in their gingerbread hotels, and everybody pines for an invitation. Yes, major movie stars and big-name directors are treated the way royalty once was on the Riviera, in glorious days gone by. But we all tell ourselves we really care more about that new movie, the one from Kazakhstan or Ireland or Arkansas that will clear our heads and put all this excess in some perspective and leave us weeping in the merciless sunshine of the Croisette.

Let's pretend for a few minutes that those illusions are real, and that the alternate universe of art film still matters. Because if Cannes can tell us anything (an endlessly debated question), it can show us a roster of relatively small-scale, relatively adventurous movies that educated, upscale audiences all over the world are likely to absorb over the course of the next year or two. Here are my 20 picks for the art-house discoveries at this year's Festival de Cannes, ranked according to a strictly informal and incoherent combination of my personal taste, the last two weeks of buzz and drunken gossip, and some guesswork about the market.

I'm not covering the major competition titles, most of which I've already hacked up in earlier dispatches. There's not much doubt about the status of Pedro Almodóvar's "Volver" or John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus" (hits, hits, hits!) or for that matter about Bruno Dumont's "Flanders" (solely for art-film nutjobs like me) or Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" (unmitigated and unsalvageable disaster). But you will discover herein my personal favorite among the competition films, and my Palme d'Or vote.

And, of course, when I use the word "market" here, it is to laugh. Ha! The gross proceeds of all 20 of these films, bundled together, might hit 20 percent of what "The Da Vinci Code" made in its worldwide opening weekend. (Or might not.) But some of the films on this list might surprise us and reach unexpectedly large audiences in our great and illiterate land, just as Michael Haneke's "Caché," a Cannes smash last year, has done. Anyway, I love the alternate universe. I live there whenever I can. So pass the champagne, don't step on my Hugo Boss shoes, and prepare to shed tears of profound sincerity.

Hits! Hits! Hits!
"Pan's Labyrinth" -- Hands down the most exciting and original film I've seen here, and the one that had me in tears during its final scenes. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro is best known as the director of such fanboy classics as "Hellboy," "Mimic" and "Blade 2," which are cool enough in their way. "Pan's Labyrinth" is something else again, and something far more powerful and original. Combining a fully convincing fantasy universe (drawn from a lifelong obsession with classic fairy tales) with a completely realistic story about the endgame of the Spanish Civil War, this film features a heart-rending performance from young Ivana Baquero as Ofelia, the teenage stepdaughter of a vicious Fascist officer (Sergi López), who's fighting a ragtag band of Republican guerrillas in a remote mountainous area. Ofelia's ailing mother tells her that she's too old for fairy tales, but the array of friendly and terrifying creatures she meets in the woods don't seem to agree. If she can face a series of trials against the various monsters and demons of the region, she can prove herself as the King of the Underworld's long-lost daughter. But neither the giant evil toad nor the eyeless child-eating gargoyle is as frightening as her stepdad, with his spit-shined shoes, his cracked watch and his revolver.

"The Host" -- In a particularly strong year for the Directors' Fortnight (one of the two autonomous sidebar competitions staged right next to the Cannes festival), Bong Joon-ho's crackpot horror film, which plays something like a combination of the original "Godzilla" and Italian neorealism, may have been the standout. A mini-bidding war for U.S. rights ensued, with Magnolia Pictures emerging the winner and Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles asserting that "The Host" could become a horror classic.

Next page: Richard Linklater's other film at Cannes...