While all of the attention at the Cannes Film Festival goes to the films in main selection I often find that many of the real gems - the true unheralded finds - are to be had in the Marche Du Film, the market component of the festival where films are bought and sold for international distribution. And so it was this year, where the absolute highlight of my days in Cannes was a title viewed not in the festival but in a market screening.
The film is Carre Blanc, the feature debut of writer-director Jean Baptiste Leonetti. A near future arthouse science fiction picture that fuses the dark absurdism of Franz Kafka with the icily precise visuals of a Tarkovsky, the picture is a slyly hilarious commentary on capitalism gone badly wrong. It's a grim commentary, to be sure, but one that laughs as it twists the knife.
Twitch is proud to premiere a trio of clips from the film today. The first introduces us to main character Philippe as a young man. Played by Majid Hives at this stage we meet Philippe shortly after a suicide attempt as he begins the process of re-education to become a productive member of society. In the second clip we meet Philippe as an adult, now played by Sami Bouajila, as he subjects some co-workers - whom he has had some earlier conflicts with - to an unusual workplace evaluation. And in the third we see adult Philippe again as he reflects on his place in life and how he arrived where he is. Check them all below.