>>6444
I think that the hands down biggest surprise for me this year was Son of Saul. I realize that it's a bit cliche to start talking about a movie by listing just how much it subverted one's expectations, but I honestly didn't think that it was going to be anything other than some generic, run of the mill cannescore that usually fills the holes in my schedule during festivals. And instead I got Nemes pretty much joining people like Lanzmann, Godard or Farocki as one of the few filmmakers actually doing the subject of concentration camps justice, which is even more impressive, since the other three made documentaries or video essays and not actual, narrative films.
There's that famous quote from Adorno saying that it's barbaric to make poetry after Auschwitz, and I think that the film somewhat goes by that idea. Probably the best way of approaching its formal side is just to say that it was generally 'well-done'. It was shot in a fairly aesthetically pleasing way, but never purposefully trying to look pretty, and at the same time never stopping to gloat and attempt to emotionally manipulate the viewer during the numerous incredibly shocking scenes. Ultimately only making them more disturbing because of the hellishly naturalistic and impersonal way in which they were handled, really underlying this theme of how any faintest manifestation of humanity is actually a gigantic liability when you are a part of a death factory.
I'll post some other film impressions later ( ° ʖ °)