MrN

As Cannes is the most celebrated film festival every year, I'm eager to find out about the films selected this time around. I'm still waiting for films for last year's festival to play here in the U.S., so this is a great way to hear the really early buzz.

This is from the official site:


I have misgivings about the jury - I don't know why they pick some of these people, but hopefully the stronger voices win out.

bothanspy

Hey Aishwarya Rai! India ---> REPRESENT!!!

Grimmyhk

Well, supposedly most of these will show up at this year's Cannes...maybe:

Saraband (Ingmar Bergman)
Dogville (Lars von Trier)
Father and Son (Alexander Sokurov)
Pornographie (Catherine Breillat)
The Time of Wolves (Michael Haneke)
A Talking Film (Manoel de Oliveira)
Alila (Amos Gitai)
Life is a Miracle (Emir Kusturica)
The Weeping Field (Theo Angelopoulos)
Marie & Julien (Jacques Rivette)
Strayed (Andre Techine)
Swimming Pool (Francois Ozon)
Bright Future (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
The Tulse Luper Suitcases (Peter Greenaway)
At Five in the Afternoon (Samira Makhmalbaf)
Casa de los Babys (John Salyes)

Geez...enough world-class directors in one place?

Tyler_Durden

How about Kitano's "Dolls"?

Grimmyhk

Arrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please do *not* mention the name of that film again!

You want to know about "Dolls"? Here it is:

Dolls (Takeshi Kitano) * out of 5 - Incredible cinematography, incomprehensibly bad film. Incredibly predictable and oversentimental with a script worse than a bad Korean soap. Compounded with this is an interminable ending that just goes on pointlessly just to end at a fake CGI scene that looks worse than most PS2 games. It would have been better if we watched those dolls at the beginning for 2 hours.

Matt925

Isn't 2046 supposed to be premiering at Cannes?

Giles

What's the plot of 'Pornographie'? Why hasn't her last film "À ma soeur!" get released on video here in the US?

MrN

I was wondering that myself.

BTW, Briellat made 2 films since Fat Girl - Brief Crossing which played U.S. film festivals last year (wasn't all that good) and Sex is Comedy which is playing the festivals this year. The latter was picked up by IFC films for distribution - we'll see what happens.

Phyre

wtf, a Bergman movie??

Pants

Tell me about it. A couple years ago there was a french rap star on the jury

And what's up w/ the Bergman film?

CitizenKaneRBud

I believe the Bergman film is that made for TV movie from Sweden, which is going to get a theatrical release world-wide (probably very limited in the US, unless of course it gets a lot of recognition).

I also hear the Matrix part 2 is going to open the festival, although I'm not sure if it's in competition. I wonder what American movies are going to get shown at Cannes.

Grimmyhk

Not anymore. Apparently the production is on hold - AGAIN. Wong Kar-Wai is now working on "Eros", a project started my Michaelangelo Antonioni. He will do a 30-minute segment with Gong Li.

There's also a rumor that Wong has changed his plans for "2046", and a new title has emerged - "3030". No idea what it is.

Grimmyhk

"Saraband" is indded the made-for-TV sequel to Bergman's "Scenes from a MAariage". The rights has supposedly already been purchased by Sony Classics.

Matrix Reloaded is NOT opening Cannes - it is being shown out-of-competition. The opening film is "Fanfan La Tulipe". Ending film is Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" - remastered.

MrN

'Fanfan' is also out of competition right? And obviously, 'Modern Times' is out as well.

Grimmyhk

Yup!

MurraySiskind

"Patrice Chéreau, the Jury President will be joined by the actresses Aishwarya Rai (India), Meg Ryan (USA) and Karin Viard (France). The Italian writer Erri De Luca, the French actor Jean Rochefort and the directors Steven Soderbergh (American), Danis Tanovic (Bosnian) et Jiang Wen (Chinese) will complete the group."


One of these jurors is not like the other ones, one of these jurors does not belong. . .

Grimmyhk

THE CAT'S OUT OF THE BAG!!!!!!!!!!



In Competition


Dogville (Pictured)- Lars Von Trier
Les Invasions Barbares - Denys Arcand
Il Cuore Altrove - Pupi Avati
Carandiru - Hector Babenco
Uzak - Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Mystic River - Clint Eastwood
The Brown Bunny - Vincent Gallo
The Moab Story - The Tulse Luper Suitcases Pt 1 - Peter Greenaway
Tiresia - Bertrand Bonello
Shara - Kawase Naomi
Bright Future (Akarui Mirai) - Kiyoski Kurosawa
A Cinq Heures De L'Apres Midi - Samira Makhmalbaf
Ce Jour La - Raoul Ruiz
Father And Son - Alexander Sokurov
Elephant - Gus Van Sant
Swimming Pool - Francois Ozon
Les Cotelettes - Bertrand Blier
La Petite Lili - Claude Miller
Strayed (Les Egares) - Andre Techine
Purple Butterfly (Pictured) - Liu Ye



Out of competition

Fanfan La Tulipe - Gerard Krawczyk - Opening film
Modern Times - Charlie Chaplin - Closing film
Mansion By The Lake - Lester James Peries
Les Triplettes De Belleville - Sylvain Chomet
Qui A Tue Bambi - Gilles Marchand
Le Temps Du Loup - Michael Haneke
Va Et Vient - Joao Monteiro
The Matrix Reloaded - Wachowski Brothers

Special Screenings

Charlie: The Life & Death Of Charlie Chaplin- Richard Schickel
Il Grido D'Angoscia Dell' Uccello Predatore 20 Tagli D'Aprile - Nanni Moretti
S-21, La Machine De Mort Khmer Rouge - Rithy Panh
The Fog Of War - Errol Morris
The Last Customer - Nanni Moretti
The Soul Of A Man - Wim Wenders

Short Films in competition

A Janela Aberta - Philippe Barcinski
Cracker Bag - Glendyn Ivin
Fast Film - Virgil Widrich
Ik Ontspruit - Esther Rots
L'homme Sans Tete - Juan Solanas
My Blind Brother - Sophie Goodhart
Novembersno - Karolina Jonsson
The Most Beautiful Man In The World - Alicia Duffy
To Tameno - Marsa Makris

Un Certain Regard

En Jouant 'Dans La Compagnie Des Hommes' - Arnaud Desplechin - Opening
A Story That Begins At The End - Murali Nair
A Thousand Months - Faouzi Bensaidi
All Tomorrow's Parties - Yu Lik Wai
American Splendor - Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Crimson Gold - Jaffar Panahi
Drifters - Wang Xiaoshuai
Hoy Y Manana - Alejandro Chomski
Japanese Story - Sue Brooks
Kiss Of Life - Emily Young
Giordana La Meglio Gioventu - Marco Tullio
Les Mains Vides - Marc Recha
Robinson's Crusoe - Lin Cheng-Sheng
September - Max Faerberbock
Stormy Weather - Solveig Anspach
Struggle - Ruth Mader
Young Adam - David Mackenzie

MrN

A lineup to watch for - over the next year or two...

I'm surprised the Haneke film is out of competition. And the Ozon film is.

I guess the Bergman film isn't finished?

Grimmyhk

My initial comments:

Watch out Liu Ye - he's been in my "to watch" column on my website for a while (especially after the dazzling "Suzhou River"). His new film shot straight to the competition slot, which is very impressive. The new film, starring Zhang Ziyi, is to be a World War II drama.

Also very happy to see Kiyoshi Kurosawa in competition. This year will prove fierce, what with such top names like Lars von Trier, Andre Techine, Peter Greenaway, Alexander Sokurov, Samira Makhmalbaf, Raoul Ruiz, Hector Barbenco, and many others.

Surprising to see Michael Haneke opt out of the competition. Definitely looking forward to this star-studded film, with no less than two of his faves, ISabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche, going tete-a-tete!

Other interesting names include Jafar Panahi, Wim Wenders, Nanni Moretti, and Wang Xiaoshuai (director of "Frozen" and "Beijing Bicycle").

The list I posted in not all, though. The sidebars have not been announced yet! Films like Bergman's "Saraband" and Breillat's "Pornographie" will probably show up there.

Notably missing:

Emir Kusturica, Theo Angelopoulos, Wong Kar-Wai - none of these finished their films in time.
John Sayles - brining his film to Venice instead.
Manoel de Oliveira - because his last film was beyond sub-par? Okay, that was low of me.

MrN

Its one thing to think alike, but to do so in the same minute?

Grimmyhk

Great minds think alike? Plus, we like Haneke, don't we? Hey, some guy in that list stole your name!

MrN

And a famous last name too?


"Viva il Cinema!"

Grimmyhk

When did you have a child with her!?!??!!

And he's now old enough to direct too? *faints*

MrN

After having Cannes on my mind today, what with the selection announcement, it was some weird synchronicity that I happened to go see 'His Brother' today at SFIFF (review to be posted shortly in that thread.) And imagine my surprise when they announced Patrice Chereau (president of the Cannes jury) at the screening for a Q&A.

I managed to pose a couple of questions to Chereau during the Q&A - one of them being 'What films are you looking forward to seeing at Cannes?' and (understandably) he refused to offer any opinions until May 25.

He did mention that he's been working on a 'Napoleon' project for the last two years with Al Pacino attached but it hasn't been green lit. And his other maybe project has been a film about the last days of Vichy France.

Grimmyhk

Cool - he's going back to doing period films. After doing two uncomfortably "close" and extremely frank films in a row (Intimacy, His Brother), it's good to see him going back to his earlier roots (The Queen Margot, for example, which I am catching next month at the French classic festival).