Roundup: Mon Roi, Carol screened at Cannes for Palme d'Or

The 68th Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) entered its fifth day. French movie Mon Roi, directed by Maiwenn, and British-american movie Carol, directed by Todd Haynes, were screened Sunday to compete for the top prize Palme d'Or.

Mon Roi is about the passionate and destructive love between a couple in their forties during a 10-year period.

Tony, played by Emmanuelle Bercot, is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident. Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship she experienced with Georgio. Why did they love each other? Who is this man that she loved so deeply? How did she allow herself to submit to this suffocating and destructive passion? For Tony, a difficult process of healing is in front of her.

Maiwenne said this film can be interpreted in many different ways depending on people's points of view.

"From Tony's point of view, she is re-constructing herself rather than telling a story that a couple breaking up," explained Maiwenn.

"I don't think this kind of addiction (to love) concerns only women, I think men have a very different way of managing it, and they are equally addicted," said Maiwenn, adding that she was just trying to develop a film over the differences between a couple.

Bercot, whose movie La Tete Haute (Standing Tall) was screened on May 13 as the opening film of the festival, said she was afraid at the beginning that she could not portray well this heavy role as Tony.

Asked about how she prepared for the role in the movie, Bercot said: "I like Maiwenn to give me guidelines and suggest answers."

French actor Vincent Cassel, who plays the role of Georgio, husband of Tony in the movie, said he could never thank Maiwenne enough for giving him so much freedom to his acting.

"I worked on the film with Maiwenne and Emmanuelle, and we ended up going into a new territory with a total liberty," said Cassel, who also stars in another movie up for competition Il Racconto Dei Racconti (Tale of Tales).

Maiwenn is a well-known French actress, screenwriter and director. Her movie Polisse won the Jury Prize of Festival de Cannes in 2011.

The second movie screened Sunday was Carol, directed by Todd Haynes.

The screenplay of the movie is based on the semi-autobiographical novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith in 1952.

The movie is about the love story of a clerk in the department store for a married woman.

Carol, played by Cate Blanchett, is a sophisticated, middle-class woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. She meets with Therese, played by Rooney Mara, who works in a department store. They are attracted to each other at first sight, and this attraction quickly gives way to feelings. Not long after, Carol and Therese run away together, on a road trip across America.

"Sometimes, the most affecting experiences in film, when you are talking about stories of love, are rooted in a character's point of view," said Haynes.

"What's so interesting about Carol is that the beginning rooted in Therese' point of view, but there is a movement that happens throughout the course of the story, and ended up in the point of view of Carol," explained the director.

He stressed that the two women at the end of the movie are totally different from the two at the beginning.

"The challenge of playing a character, originated from a Patricia Highsmith' story, is that they are so illusive, magnetic and mysterious. And I think Carol is quintessentially all of those things," said Cate Blanchett.

For the Oscar winner, what makes the character Carol special is that Carol was not a card-carrying member of any sexual persuasion and she got a foot in both camps, a devoted mother and a secret lesbian.

This is the second time Todd Haynes' movie enters Festival de Cannes. In 1998, he won a special jury award for Best Artistic Contribution for his movie Velvet Goldmine at the 51st Festival de Cannes.

As for Un Certain Regard section of the festival, two movies were screened Sunday.

Croatian director Dalibor Matanic presented Zvizdan (The High Sun). The movie explores the complexity of love stories in the Balkans, it's a feature film about the fragility and strength of forbidden love.

Another film screened in Un Certain Regard was Kishibe No Tabi (Journey to the Shore) directed by Japnese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi, who won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard in 2008.

The 68th Festival de Cannes runs from May 13 to 24. All winners of the prizes, including the top prize Palme d'Or, will be announced at the closing ceremony on May 24. Endit