Cannes. Making it on the roster is a sign of achievement and with the down-warding trend of quality coming out of Sundance, Cannes is now the first “major” event for cinemaholics. The biggest names, a massive line-up and a look ahead at to what the rest of us can expect to see playing festivals in the coming months.
It had previously been announced that Pixar’s Up would open the festival while Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (the other film about the fashionista which boasts Mads Mikkelsen as Stravinsky) will close the event the announcement of the rest of this year’s line-up doesn’t show any immediate stand outs but closer inspection unveils some great material.
The reason for the immediate lack of “stand out” might be the absence of American filmmakers with the exception of Quentin Tarantino and his Inglourious Basterds and the US produced Taking Woodstock from Oscar winner Ang Lee but there are other gems here. Let’s take a peek:
In Competition
Broken Embraces
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Almodóvar re-teams with recent muse Penélope Cruz for this thriller which sees the starlet as a killer plastic surgeon. I didn’t really much convincing beyond Almodóvar and Cruz together again.
Fish Tank
Director: Andrea Arnold
I have yet to see Arnold’s Red Road which caused quite the commotion when it was released a few years ago but the Oscar winner is returning with this tale of a 15 year girl (new comer Katie Jarvis) whose life changes when her mother brings home a new man played by the excellent Michael Fassbender. It’s very vague but Fassbender is on my watch list.
Un prophète
Director: Jacques Audiard
The French director also wrote this story of a young Arab man who is sent to a French prison where he becomes a mafia kingpin. Audiard is not a newcomer to Cannes (he won Best Screenplay at Cannes 1996 with A Self-Made Hero) and I expect that this one, thought it sounds straight forward, has standout potential.
Vincere
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Last year I was impressed by Il Divo (our review), and I’m hopeful that perhaps Bellocchio’s film about Mussolini’s secret lover, Ida Dalser, and their son Albino will be equally entertaining. I have my doubts (we’re not exactly talking about a young, up and coming director here) but I am curious.
Bright Star
Director: Jane Campion
The Oscar winning writer/director returns with a romance based on the three year relationship between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. As if Campion isn’t enough of an attraction, the film also stars talented young up and comers Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw.
A L’Origine
Director: Xavier Giannoli
Not too much information on Giannoli’s film aside that it stars François Cluzet, Emmanuelle Devos, Stéphanie Sokolinski, Vincent Rottiers, Gérard Depardieu and tells the story of a con-man who is involved with a road-building scam until he falls in love with a woman who happens to be the mayor of a town through which the road is being built (or so I can make out from the film’s French description and the aid of an online translator).
Map of the Sounds of Tokyo
Director: Isabel Coixet
I’ve come to love Coixet’s films. My Life Without Me, The Secret Life of Words and recently Elegy (our review) have placed her squarely in the group of directors who I’ll watch direct anything but it helps when the material sounds this good.
Rinko Kikuchi stars in this dual-identity thriller in which she plays a fish market employee who is also a contract killer. Coixet is definitely treading new ground with this one and I can’t wait to see the result.
The White Ribbon
Director: Michael Haneke
The master of the mind-fuck returns with a story set in 1913 about a strange series of events that occur at a rural school in the North of Germany. I expect things aren’t as simple as the story implies but we’ll have to wait to see what he has in store for us this time.
Taking Woodstock
Director: Ang Lee
The story of how Woodstock came to be should be an interesting one but I’ve already shared my thoughts on the film, the trailer for which seemed really bland, but who knows, maybe this has more going for it than I’m giving it credit for. We don’t have to wait much longer to find out.
Looking for Eric
Director: Ken Loach
The master returns with this charming looking comedy about a football fanatic postman who receives life coaching from the famously philosophical footballer Eric Cantona.
Spring Fever
Director: Lou Ye
Little is known about Lou Ye’s new film aside from the fact that the Chinese director has once again defied the Chinese government by screening a film at Cannes without their permission. In 2006 the director screened Summer Palace without government approval, a move that got him banned. If nothing else, it should be interesting to see what he has to say this time around.
Kinatay
Director: Brillante Mendoza
I can’t find any information on Mendoza’s film but the Phillipino director has garnered praise and awards (including Lokarno).
Enter The Void
Director: Gaspar Noé
I’m not familiar with Noé’s work but if the stills are any indication, this is one of the film’s I’m most interested to see. The film stars Nathaniel Brown as a young man who, after his parents’ brutal death, promises to keep his sister safe at all costs. It may sound ordinary but the images are far from it.
Thirst
Director: Park Chan-Wook
TPark Chan-Wook. A vampire tale. Nothing more to say other than it also stars the fabulous Kang-ho Song of The Good, the Bad, the Weird (our review) and The Host fame.
Les Herbes Folles
Director: Alain Resnais
A drama which retraces the encounter between a dentist and amateur pilot whose bag is snatched and its contents thrown across a car park, and a solitary man with a troubled past who retrieves her wallet.
Oddly, the NY Times has this marked as a thriller while the studio has it listed as a comedy (the trailer suggests the latter).
To be honest, I could care less either way because it stars Mathieu Amalric and again, he’s one of these guys who I’ll watch in anything.
The Time That Remains
Director: Elia Suleiman
Suleiman’s film takes a look at the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day. Perhaps not the most appealing of topics but one that is sure to be interesting.
Inglorious Basterds
Director: Quentin Tarantino
I’ve liked quite a few of Tarantino’s films but sometimes, the director is way off the mark for me thankfully, this doesn’t seem to be one of those times. Something about this film, about a group of Jewish-American soldiers whose mandate is to scare the pants out of the Third Reich by brutally killing them, looks awesome.
This one will, no doubt, open later this year but I’m interested to see what the critics make of it.
Vengeance
Director: Johnnie To
The prolific Johnnie To returns to stories of killers and assassins. His new tale tells the story of a French assassin-turned-chef who travels to Hong Kong to avenge a murder.
All I have to say is that it looks mighty nice and I’m not worried about missing it; I would put good money on the hunch that Tony Rayns’ will bring it to VIFF.
Face
Director: Tsai Ming-liang
The director makes another trip to Cannes, this time around with a story of a Taiwanese film director who travels to the Louvre to shoot a film that explores the myth of Salomé. The film stars, in his second film in competition, Mathieu Amalric and French beauty Laetitia Casta as Salomé.
Antichrist
Director: Lars Von Trier
A couple, in the woods, trying to rebuild their relationship when nature takes a turn for the worst; basically everything that The Happening should have been. Add Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg into the mix and all I can say is “hell yes!”.
Also announced was the Un Certain Regard line-up which also features some fantastic looking films including Bong Joon Ho’s Mother, a collection of stories by a number of Romanian directors including Cristian Mungiu and Constantin Propescu titled Tales From The Golden Age, Denis Dercourt’s (of The Page Turner fame) return and Lee Daniel’s Precious which garnered much love earlier this year at Sundance when it premiered under the title Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire.
Un Certain Regard
Le père de mes enfants – Mia Hansen-Løve
Police, Adjective – Corneliu Porumboiu
Air Doll – Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Adrift – Heitor Dhalia
Nymph – Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Independence – Raya Martin (Watch the trailer)
Demaine Dès L’Aube – Denis Dercourt
Eyes Wide Open – Haim Tabakman
The Silent Army – Jean van de Velde
Precious – Lee Daniels
Samson & Delilah – Warwick Thornton (Watch the Trailer)
Tale In The Darkness – Nikolay Khomeriki
The Wind Journeys – Ciro Guerra (Watch the Trailer)
Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats – Bahman Ghobadi
Tzar – Pavel Lounguine
Dogtooth – Giorgos Lanthimos
To Die Like A Man – João Pedro Rodrigues
Mother – Bong Joon-ho (Watch the Trailer)
Irene – Alain Cavalier
Tales From The Golden Age – Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Propescu, Ioanna Uricaru (Additional Details)
More, you say? How about the titles selected for the Director’s Fortnight? We’ve got those too.
Director’s Fortnight
Go Get Some Rosemary – Benny and Josh Safdie
La Pivellina – Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
Yuki & Nina – Nobuhiro Suwa and Hyppolyte Girardot
I Love You Philip Morris – Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Watch the Trailer)
Ajami – Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
Polytechnique – Denis Villeneueve (Watch the Trailer)
La Terre De La Folie – Luc Moullet
Ne Change Rien – Pedro Costa
Like You Know It All – Hong San-Soo
Camera d’Or
Les Beaux Gosses – Riad Sattouf
Eastern Plays – Kamen Kalev
Daniel Y Ana – Michel Franco
Here – Tzu-Nyen Ho
La Famille Wolberg – Axelle Ropert
Karoake – Chain Fui (Chris) Chong
Ajami – Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
And of course, the mandatory mention of this year’s Cannes Jury which was quite the talk of the Row Three emails going back and forth yesterday, namely because of the inclusion of one Asia Argento. Not sure what the hubbub was all about (I don’t have any problems with her inclusion) but I think Kurt’s response was “Oi!”. Leading the jury is French actress Isabelle Huppert, only the fourth woman to have led a jury, Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, American director James Gray, Korean writer/director Lee Chang-Dong, English writer Hanif Kureishi, actress Robin Wright Penn and Taiwanese actress Shu Qi.
Not my “Oi!” I think Ms. Argento is a swell choice. with a couple films under her belt to boot. A fine Jury, and an eye-popping line up. Man I wish I was there. So many great films on display there, this is one of the edgiest Cannes line-ups in a while. Curiously America seems underrepresented this year.
I think they should pick jury members who do not have obvious ties to filmmakers in contention. Maybe Isabelle Huppert can be unbiased but she is inevitably going to read into Haneke’s film just by their close working relationship.
Highlights for me would be
Von Trier’s AntiChrist
Haneke’s the White Ribbon
Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst
I am going to assume they make it to TIFF
Wow, epic rundown, Marina. Looks like a lot of interest this year. I’m particularly excited for Broken Embraces, the Coixet film, and Inglourious Basterds (my jury’s still out on whether it looks good, but it’s Tarantino, so I’ll watch it). The Haneke and Arnold films sound good, too. Red Road is really good, you should check it out.
Nice job Marina on the effort put forth on this post!
Obviously I’m in a permanent state of arousal in anticipation of he Almodovar joint. The Jane Campion film looks nice based on the picture and I’m anxious to see more from Ben Whishaw.
Obviously Thirst and Antichrist are must-sees here as well.
For the first time ever however, I’m not overly excited for Tarantino film. Not sure why. Based solely on the trailer, it doesn’t strike any chords with me whatsoever like his previous films have. Of course I’m sure I’ll eat my words here and be totally blown away. I sure hope that’s the case anyway.
pfft. Tarantino can bite me…
Fantastic post Marina, truly epic!
I’m on the Thirst train for sure, can’t wait to see what Park Chan-Wook has come up with there!
Really surprized to see Polytechnique, as it’s already been released domestically. Do they normally do that?
Also excited for Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Air Doll and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s Nymph. Very excited.
And, of course the new Almodovar!
I’m so glad Philip Morris is getting another crack at a distribution deal. I was so mad when nobody picked it up at Sundance. That was a great book, and the festival footage from January has gotten me very excited for the film.