At Cannes, Sneaky Period Pieces and Film Lovers’ Delights Rule the Screen

On Thursday, a few minutes after 10 p.m. on the 10th day of the Cannes Film Festival, a multitude of exhausted attendees — critics, programmers, industry types — abruptly woke up. The Chinese movie “Resurrection” had started, sending an immediate jolt through the theater. It was electric, dramatic, fantastic. People shifted in their seats to lean closer to the screen in the 1,068-seat auditorium. Experiencing awe can transform brains and bodies, and we were lit.

A deliriously inventive, elegiac, self-reflexive fantasy written and directed by Bi Gan, “Resurrection” tracks a tragic mystery being, an entity known as a Fantasmer (Jackson Yee), across cinema history. A dreamer who clings to illusions, the Fantasmer’s journey effectively mirrors that of film itself, from its beginnings to its uneasy present. What makes the film especially delectable is that Bi Gan changes visual styles and narrative techniques throughout this movie odyssey. The opening section seems to take place around the time that the 19th century gives way to the 20th, but more precisely looks like — and heavily references — films from the art’s first few decades. Sometime later, a guy out of a Hollywood noir or a Jean-Pierre Melville thriller shows up.

Chockablock with nods to other films and filmmakers, “Resurrection” is a cinephile’s delight. It was especially pleasurable to watch Bi Gan’s references to the pioneering Lumière brothers in a festival that showcases its award ceremony in a theater that bears their name. “Resurrection” may be wreathed in melancholy, but Bi Gan’s own journey through cinema is enlivening and encouraging. It was another reminder that great movies continue to be made despite the industry’s continuing agonies, which only deepened when, the week before the festival opened, President Trump threatened to impose a crushing 100 percent tariff on movies that were produced in “foreign lands,” though the White House has said no final decision had been made.

The threat cast a lingering pall. The world’s largest film marketplace — where an estimated 15,000 industry professionals meet, great and make deals — takes place simultaneously with the festival. And the news out of the market was less than happy. “Did Trump’s tariffs hijack the world’s busiest film market?” read a headline on the France 24 news site. “Strong Festival, Soft Market” is how The Hollywood Reporter characterized the event’s final stretch.

Whatever that means for our moviegoing future, this year’s festival was gratifyingly strong, the finest in a long time. The selections in the main competition — which vie for the Palme d’Or — can be a mixed bag, the product of programming taste, yes, but also favoritism, backroom politicking and other considerations. The festival functions as a vital showcase for European cinema, but it also relies on celebrity-driven movies to attract the news media that promotes it. That’s one reason the event is so protective of its red carpet and helps explains some of its much-derided rules, like no selfies on the steps leading to the Lumière.