• by June 21, 2012

It's a much-awaited Cannes tradition: every year, Saatchi & Saatchi puts together the New Directors' Showcase reel, featuring the most provocative, innovative, and/or beautiful little films made during the year. Shown to a sold-out audience, it's usually a crowd-pleaser, and production companies vie to get their directors' work on it.  This year's crop seemed to  include the usual beautiful animation, and 3-D illustration,(there was a gorgeous Hugo-like film from Moonbot Studios in Louisiana) and funny work involving anthropomorphizing animals(pigeons with tiny human hands, playing in a band, and, strutting the stage like Mick Jagger for a promo film for British MTV.)

What I never expected, however, was a live-action film involving a scenario of man and a wife having a fight; he kills her, hangs around with the body for a while, and then cuts her up in parts and eats her, like a feast. Yup, I knew cannibalism was much in the news lately, (and what's ahead is very graphic, so bear with me ) what with an American crackpot guy who reportedly was  high on bath salts eating some other dude's face, and the Japanese guy who cut up his gentials and cooked and served them. But really, this small film, from a company called Filmfaktisk from Norway, (Lars Andheim and Christoffer Losius) have presented this outrageous piece of misogyny and creepiness as a serious and artistic offering. To me the weirdest thing is that it wasn't even booed. Cannes audiences are vicious, and merciiess, and have been known to boo ads from Doctors without Borders if they think they're not creative enough. No boos in sight for cannibalism? Welcome, Cannes-ibal Nation!