It's possible and even likely that "The Pleasure of Being Robbed," the debut feature from 24-year-old director Josh Safdie and his pals in the New York-based film collective called Red Bucket, has already had its big moment in the public eye. You've never even heard of it, you say? Welcome to the 21st century movie business, people.
You see, after premiering last spring at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas -- where I and a lot of other people missed it -- Safdie's ultra-low-budget yarn about the adventures of a 20-something female sociopath leapt to sudden prominence as the closing-night film, and only American selection, in the Directors' Fortnight festival at Cannes. This is the festival formed by the French directors' society in 1969 in open rebellion against the Cannes main event; the festival that has helped launch the international careers of Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, Sofia Coppola, the Dardenne brothers and many more.
It's a huge honor for any film to get that slot, not least a 71-minute overgrown short from an unknown American director who describes his budget as "way under $100,000," a picture shot on 16 mm film, guerrilla-style, in New York public spaces, without any of the required permits or clearances. (Perhaps Safdie paid for this karmically, since he says $30,000 worth of fancy Russian-made lenses, not covered by insurance, were stolen out of his car during filming.) It's notoriously difficult and expensive to shoot at the Central Park Zoo, for example, and I'm still not sure how Safdie managed an illegal scene there that featured two actors in cop uniforms and his star and co-writer, Eléonore Hendricks, in handcuffs. (Wait till you see the "special effect" in that scene. I'm saying nothing more.)