Cannes Dispatch – Armand / The Apprentice

Schools are fertile ground for drama because they’re like a microcosm where vastly different personalities big and small clash on a daily basis. Premiering in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, Norwegian director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s feature debut Armand aptly uses the school setting to consider if sometimes it’s the grown-up’s that are the problem rather than the kids they should be educating. In the wake of recent Oscar nominee The Teachers’ Lounge, some of its themes and plot devices feel déjà vu, but that doesn’t make this intense, strikingly stylistic first film any less impressive.

Actress Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) is asked to come to her son Armand’s school after a complaint is made against him by the parents of classmate Jon, Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and Anders. The complaint involves verbal and physical assault, so both the teacher and the school director wish to resolve the matter as quickly and quietly as possible in order not to alarm the other parents or the authorities. When all the adults meet up to discuss how to move forward, they discover that a lot of their own baggage is being dragged into what turns out to be anything but a simple schoolyard incident.

I think it’s an inspired touch that we never meet the kids in the film. On the one hand, this creates some plausibility issues as the parties seem too unquestioningly ready to accept the facts of the case based on the account of one child. On the other hand, the screenplay gets to focus unmistakably on the adults and their troubles, secrets and lies. We learn, for example, that Armand’s father is Sarah’s brother and he had a tumultuous relationship with Elisabeth before his death. We also notice in Elisabeth’s interaction with the others that there might be some truth to Sarah’s claim that she habitually paints herself as the victim in order to hide her failures. With each new discovery, it becomes more difficult to determine which of the adults is trustworthy and more unclear if it’s the kids who are in need of help.

Tøndel directs with great visual flair, never settling for the drab, neutral look of your standard procedural. Striking shots like those of the deserted corridors, a mother soundlessly mouthing her fury, the silhouetted profiles of a couple putting all their cards on the table are meticulously designed and lit to strong atmospheric effect. And what about that expressionistic dance that came out of nowhere?  Can’t tell you what it’s supposed to mean but the sense of tenderness-turned-panic-turned-horror it injects into the frames is electrifying.

After The Worst Person in the World, Reinsve has been in so many projects I can’t keep up. But of the ones I’ve seen, this ranks as her best work since that Cannes-winning performance. Playing a mother who must defend her son against accusations and fend off attacks from her own guilt and trauma, she keeps revealing new layers to her character in unexpected ways. In one particularly memorable scene, Elisabeth is triggered by something the teacher said and starts laughing uncontrollably for minutes until she breaks down in tears. It’s a very showy moment and the reason for such dramatic reaction is never explained, but Reinsve succeeds in evoking a depth to her character that makes you view her in a new light. Her scene partner Petersen is also captivating to watch, informing us with a carefully calibrated physical performance where Sarah is coming from and why she’s taking everything so personally as well. Scenes where the two mothers/sisters-in-law directly confront each other sent sparks flying.

Over at competition, Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi is back in the running for the Palme d’Or with his Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice. It’s obviously a very political project. Whether or not one thinks Abbasi did the subject justice, found the right tone, whether or not the film is fair, will likely depend on the viewer’s opinion of Trump, so I won’t say too much about it. Just know that the film follows Trump’s rise in the real estate business through the 70’s and 80’s, and focuses especially on his relationship with attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova).

I loved both of Abbasi’s last two films Border and Holy Spider. He shows a fine grasp of the craft of genre filmmaking and knows how to build the most delicious tension in any given scene. The Apprentice marks a huge departure for him as tonally and thematically, the film has little in common with his previous work. It’s a sometimes funny, sometimes sobering character study that never veers into comedy/thriller territory. The idea is probably to paint a portrait of Donald Trump that doesn’t “humanize” or “vilify” him. The 2-hour film mostly just cruises by, accompanied by a funky period soundtrack.

I will say that Sebastian Stan delivered a great lead performance, one that could potentially see him winning Cannes Best Actor after winning the Best Lead Performance Prize in Berlin just three months ago. The thing about Stan is that he looks nothing like Trump. And with the exception of some minor wig work and an enhanced waistline, they don’t really try to make him look like Trump either. Through the film’s first hour, he could be playing any young blonde businessman in New York. However, as the timeline progresses and Trump gradually comes into his own under Cohn’s mentorship, you start to notice facial expressions, vocal inflections and general mannerisms that remind you of the former US President. It’s a performance that subtly evolves alongside the character to mirror his development as a person. I was impressed.