British director Ken Loach said during a Cannes press conference this morning that he’s not necessarily retiring, which is good to hear. I don’t know what to say about Jimmy’s Hall, his latest film which screened early this morning. It’s a Loach thing through and through, of course — mid-tempo, working-class, earnest, low-key, authentic, political. But it’s a bit of a shrugger. It’s just a no-frills, true-life drama about Irish rabble-rouser Jimmy Gralton upon returning to his native home after more than 20 years spent in the U.S., his conflicts with conservative forces who feared the possible igniting of a leftist movement, and Gralton’s subsequent deportation back to the U.S. There are vague echoes, of course, of today’s 1% vs. 99% equation, and a refrain of the old rule about dissidents always dealing with struggle and adversity. The painterly textures and atmosphere are what moved me the most. I miss the visual splendors of rural, old-time Ireland (the small-village architecture, the browns and greens, the candle-glow lighting) that Loach has often captured in his films, and which are exquisitely presented here. He shot it on that dying technological format known as celluloid.
