Wow, the list just keeps getting better. Now Ben Wheatley’s latest has been announced as part of the Director’s Fortnight. See below for an updated list of films.
The full lineup has been announced for the 2012 Festival de Cannes and by God it look like a good ‘un. As well as Wes Anderson’s latest which was confirmed a while ago, they’re premiering work from Cronenberg, Andrew Dominik, Michael Haneke, John Hillcoat, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, Walter Salles, Carlos Reygadas and Alain Resnais, to name but a few of the art-house heavy hitters they’ve got running in the main competition. Outside of the competition there aren’t quite as many big names, but there’s still work from Argento and Takashi Miike as well as a film by David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon. An anthology film featuring shorts from directors Laurent Cantet, Benicio Del Toro, Julio Medem, Gaspar Noe, Elia Suleiman, Juan Carlos Tabio and Pablo Trapero sounds interesting too.
Cannes is also famous for adding late entries, so I wouldn’t put it past PT Anderson or any other big names slipping another film into the mix just before the festival starts on May 16th.
I got my accreditation confirmed yesterday so I’m getting very excited about heading down to the festival. I’m only around for the first 4 days unfortunately so I’ll be limited as to what I’ll be able to see, but I’m hoping the list below is in order of performance (as it doesn’t seem to be alphabetical and starts with opener Moonrise Kingdom) so I should catch a few of the first half of the in-competition titles. I’ve got friends who are staying for the whole fest so I might twist a few arms to get some more coverage for you guys.
The full list is under the seats…
(4/5)
Co-written by Scott and Martin Petit, this plot is one that will have you shaking your head. 
Frank is a slave to the everyday corporate grind (in a cube). His family life is gone, everyone surrounding him is an over-the-top caricature of a pop media drone and society as a whole seems hell bent on almost purposefully dumbing itself down into an “Idiocracy.” Rather than offing himself, Frank decides that maybe in the interest of preserving or “fixing” society as he knows it, it would be better to get his hands dirty and start taking care of business. Which would entail exterminating those responsible for such abhorrent behavior and their mentalities. Along the way he picks up an admiring high school girls who sees the world as just as “dead” as Frank does. Together they’re on the run, eliminating all those that “deserve to die.”
This was the one film that used the anaglyph glasses, and it was basically a tech demo for 3D, albeit directed by George Sidney. Part of the Pete Smith series of shorts, this one has Smith (first-person camera pspective) heading into a creepy house and being attacked by all sorts of things – a mummy with a spear, a witch’s hand, and Frankenstein’s monster throwing or dropping everything in sight directly toward the camera. All the stereotypes of 3D being about hurling or thrusting things at the camera, yeah…they’re all here. With the glasses on, the red and green tints combined to make a black and white image – to do color, they had to go to a different technique, much closer to what is done today. This short was ridiculous, but fun, until it wore out its welcome about halfway through. The anaglyph process is not that great, either, and was easily the most eye-straining part of the program, with the colors flashing annoyingly on the screen and a lot of ghosting effects.
Nobody takes the war more seriously than P.K. Sullivan (Gage Munroe with his afore-mentioned Beiber do) facies himself General George S. Patton; albeit he is young enough that loyalty is not valued as much as a collection of soldiers to throw under the bus for whatever plan he has to win-at-all-costs. Nevertheless, as the alpha-male of his team, he remains in charge. The other team, headed up by equally blonde, Quinn, has some leadership issues, and the only girl in the game which adds some pre-teen sexual tension to the equation. Mackenzie Munroe, who looks like a very young Emma Stone is really quite magnificent and has real screen presence (some of the other supporting kid actors are a bit more dodgey in their acting) sporting a brain and a crossbow and A-cups (and is not afraid to use either or all of them.) Let us be clear, while this film wears the clothing of war and adventure in the woods, it is equally interested in being a crucible for all of the kids to work out their issues and anxieties while waiting for the next battle. But war is 10% violence and 90% waiting, so there are plenty of opportunities to talk about religion, philosophy (albeit at a youth level) and what species of dog would you allow to give you a blow-job if you were rewarded with riches and fame. Yes, these 12 year olds drop F-bombs often, and when provoked can be total assholes to each other. War is war. 
