AUGUSTIN European Union Films From Cannes

Augustin was not the sensation of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, it was something better: most charming, most surprising, wackiest movie of the entire 12-day event. A low-key, totally deadpan comedy, this feature follows its Keatonesque protagonist, beautifully played by Jean-Chretien Silbvertin-Blanc, through a life that alternates between mind-numbing work for an insurance company and wildly unlikely attempts at movie stardom. No one, not even astonished costar Thierry Lhermitte, playing himself, can quite believe it when they encounter this dignified, self-absorbed soul. If there were more unheralded discoveries like this to be found there, Cannes would be a much happier place to visit. -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times. Shown with The Beast (USA, 1994, 12 min.), Rhoderyc Charles Montgomery’s futuristic chiller. Shown at Cannes 1995. Augustin has been selected as Kenneth Turan’s Critic’s Choice.