Don’t cry for me, Cannes judges.
Che, Steven Soderbergh’s epic biopic of Che Guevara, the revolutionary who spawned a million t-shirts, often worn by those who have no idea who he was (as well as those who think he was Eva Peron’s boyfriend, thanks to Evita) premiered to a mixed reception this week at Cannes.
A quick round up: Cinematical‘s Kim Vonyar loved it, James Rocchi at the same site also was impressed but felt there was a lot to argue about; Hollywood-elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells was awed by it ( (thanks to Slashfilm for directing me to these first two sites’ reviews). Todd McCarthy at Variety thought it was lacking character and drama and needed to be recut. A. O. Scott at the New York Times felt it left out a lot about Guevara’s life and actions, resulting in a simplistic portrait of the man, although the film still had it’s interesting points.
One thing felt by many of the film’s viewers, though, was that it was just too long shown as one picture. Soderbergh had originally announced the project as two separate films, The Argentine and Guerilla, but brought it to Cannes as one 258 minute film, shown with an intermission. Potential buyers weren’t thrilled at the prospect of trying to make money off of it in that form.
Soderbergh weighed in on the topic in The Hollywood Reporter, saying that he would consider a compromise where the film was split after an initial showing as one big picture:
“What I’d like to do is that if it opens in a town, you can see it for a week as one movie, and then you split it up. To me that would be an event.”
The idea’s not unheard of–Grindhouse was eventually shown as two films after an initial run as one. It was definitely split up internationally, and on video, but I think it also did a second run in the US as two films.
Soderbergh explained that the movie needed length because it’s history, and history needs context (though Che didn’t have for Mr. Scott, thank you!). Good point, but you know what? A movie better be pretty damn incredible to get me to sit through four plus hours. Otherwise it’s “I’ll wait for the DVD time for me,” and I would guess many others, unfortunately.
