From left: chef Pierre Gagnaire, director Tran Anh Hung, actress Juliette Binoche and actor Benoît Magimel at the Cannes Film Festival – Photo: Festival de Cannes
Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell of Pham Thien An – the only Vietnamese film competing at Cannes this year – has just had its first screening on May 24 and other screenings on May 25 and 26.
Pham Thien An: from “sacred calling”
Before the screening, director Pham Thien An said he made the film because of the idea of the “divine call” inside of him. He believes that everyone has that calling and he chooses to follow it. Indiewire said that Pham Thien An really found that sacred calling in the filmmaking career.
Lam Dao Dao – director and co-founder of ZORBA The Imaginary Friend, a unit that co-creates the film – expressed on his personal page while watching the film:
Having seen it with my own eyes at Cannes, I understood why a Vietnamese film shot by Vietnamese people, 100% Vietnamese, up to 3 hours long was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and entered the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight program, three screenings in three days are full.
Pure cinema is four words that couldn’t be more true for film. I hope the film will be screened in Vietnam soon so that everyone can enjoy it together.”
Inside the golden cocoon takes the audience through Vietnam to return to the countryside of Thien – a 30-year-old man who is looking for his lost brother. He went with the boy Dao, whose biological nephew had just lost his mother and now has no one to take care of him.
Throughout the journey, Thien’s soul was heavy with doubts about faith. He has many meaningful encounters, reconnecting with his own painful past.
Tran Anh Hung received applause more than 6 minutes after the screening of La Passion de Dodin Bouffant, the applause only stopped when Hung took the microphone to say thank you.
A peaceful Tran Anh Hung
Meanwhile, La passion de Dodin Bouffant (also known as The Pot au Feu) continues to affirm the position of director Tran Anh Hung in world cinema. Receiving a rain of praise at Cannes for its class and aesthetics, the film tells the story of two people who love each other, but perhaps they love food even more.
The cooking scenes in the film were unanimously praised by critics. According to Variety, when two characters Dodin (Benoit Magimel) and Eugenie (French film icon Juliette Binoche) treat friends to a hearty multi-course dinner in a large, slightly dimly lit and poetic country kitchen. their camera, the camera gliding between the boiling cradle-sized copper pans.
The menu includes super-rare veal tenderloin, crayfish, giant strips of halibut drenched in white wine, giant vol-au-vents glistening with egg-brushed eggs and toasted Alaskan croissants.
The special thing is that the dishes, although skillfully and delicately presented, do not bring the sophisticated feeling of magazine photos. The sound in the film is praised for not using music to cover it, but keeping the authenticity of the sounds emitted when people cook or the happy whispering when eating delicious food.
Of course, food is only part of the story. Screen Daily realized that instead of caring about the splendor of the dishes, the director focused more on the love language of the two main characters.
They discussed the culinary arts deeply, attracting each other both intellectually and physically. They are both strong and independent, love each other and never intended to get married. But when they entered the autumn of life, they felt they should think again.
With this film, critics commented that Tran Anh Hung is much more comfortable than when he did Eternal (Eternity) – a love story spanning a century. La passion de Dodin Bouffant is both rich and powerful, yet serene.
