It is normal that every festival will most probably not spin its best film for the opening ceremony. That was the first point of curiosity when My Blueberry Nights by Wong Kar Wai was listed as the opening film of the 60th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which opened on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 in the Southern France.

The almost two hours feature film turned out to be a big disappointment as it is very long on musicals and voice over than feature film. It is not surprising therefore that the film got a mere feeble applause at the end of the press screening held at Salle Debussy.

My Blueberry Nights, co-scripted by crime novelist, Lawrence Block, is Wong's first feature film in English after the ultimately disappointing 2046. It tells the story of a lady Elizabeth who tried to get over the agony of a broken heart which arose over the antics of a cheating boy friend. Elizabeth's daily night visit to the café to meet the staff who supplied her left-offer blueberry did not actually ease her pains. Her recourse to smoking did not either.
Elizabeth suddenly migrated to America to work as waitress in bars, cafes and casinos. She met an alcoholic cop (David Strathairn), and a lying female gambler estranged who ran away from her sick father after stealing his car. Each personality had a bitter-sweet or emotional story to tell. In truth, no story or predicament could be ssaid to be above another. Even, Elizabeth concluded her story by saying "I am not sure this is the way it happened, but this is how I love to remember it".
The film displays some voice-over inputs that were clearly above the tempo and mood, while some shorts were akin to animation. It is doubtful if the film would have been selected by the festival without the label Wong Kar Wai on it.
Wong Kar Wai won the Best Director prize in 1997 for Happy Together and chaired the Jury last year.

Tunde Oladunjoye
Reporting from Cannes, France