“The Sea of Trees”, Gus van Sant’s metaphysical tale set in Japan’s ‘suicide forest’, got a harsh reception from the critics at the Cannes Film Festival, but the Palme d’Or winner seemed unperturbed by the few boos that greeted his latest oeuvre after Friday’s press screening. In “The Sea of Trees”, an American, played by Matthew McConaughey, travels to Japan to enter the Aokigahara forest and kill himself after his wife’s death. Van Sant, who won the Palme d’Or with “Elephant” in 2003, did not appear too concerned with the negative reviews. Van Sant said: “I read one review this morning and it was very definitive. I was imagining everyone was the same person as the one who wrote it and I was like now I know where we stand – it was kind of nice but then I got nervous later.”
