CANNES 2021: A Corsican Summer ‘I Comete’
CANNES 2021A Corsican Summer, directed by Pascal Tagnati, is undeniably the most ambiguous and love/hate feature released at this year's Cannes Film Festival. An artistic and somewhat experimental feature, not too dissimilar to the work of Roy Anderson – fantasy thematics and aesthetic aside.
Tagnati's feature follows a group of intertwined townsfolk. It accompanies them in singular, static camera shots that differ from one to six minutes in length. They’re often random and intimate moments of reflection and emotion. Rinse and repeat for a whopping one hundred and twenty-four minutes.
To suggest that Tagnati's feature is self-indulgent would be an understatement. The moments involved wildly intertwine and often leave nothing to say about its subjects or the circumstance they find themselves in. Granted, there is a fine linear line that incorporates all, but it is loose – incredibly loose, in fact. Moments of families let loose to argue and interact are undoubtedly the highlight. These moments, while fleeting, feel organic and authentic. The glue that sticks these fractured moments together.
Where A Corsican Summer becomes untenable to view is in the self-indulgence of the mundane. Having to watch a character play piano for almost eight minutes grates for only so long, adding little to the overall proceedings and certainly little thematic weight. Moments of full-frontal nudity echoes a desire for its director and not necessarily the story. Made stranger is the fact that such a sequence is incorporated twice. Moments that, for some, will not be a problem, but on questioning its existence, an answer feels far off and fictitious.
Performances are equally as flat and uninspiring. A multiple-character arc, A Corsican Summer pits itself as an ensemble rather than having a leading performance, and in that, it is quite difficult to emotionally and immersively access the side in which to be taken in by the film and entertained.
Granted, the cinematography from Javier Ruiz Gómez does a superb job of crafting a fabulous eye-watering composition of setting. It looks utterly mouth watering to see the sunshine over such beautiful iconography. Gómez equally captures the characters with wide shots to open the scope and consistently subconsciously intertwine and connect said setting with the characters present. To that credit, the viewer grows to have a sliver of care for proceeding, but unfortunately, it is just not enough for total immersion and emotional connection.
Within Pascal Tagnati's A Corsican Summer, there simply is not enough depth and character to enrapture the viewer to connect and ultimately care for proceedings emotionally. While it is shot splendidly by Javier Ruiz Gómez – who gives the film purpose and visceral depth – the director and editor Pascal Tagnati, unfortunately, crafts a self-indulgent, emotionally flat disaster that runs on far too long and drowns in pompous oeuvre.
