NOTE: The trailer for David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” was released this morning in correlation with its inclusion into the Cannes Film Festival lineup.
It took Claire Denis 34 years to finally return to Cannes competiton. The French filmmaker will be vying for the Palme d’Or as the very-late-submitted “The Stars at Noon” was included in the lineup of 18 competition titles.
In fact, Denis’ film shook up the competition process, that meant that a French title had to be bumped to meet the quota of French filmmakers.
Fremaux hinted this morning that a few more titles could be added in the last minute and that could very well include the wet print of Ira Sachs’ “Passages,” which was submitted just last week to the festival. There are currently three French filmmakers in competition, another one or two will be added as well in the coming weeks.
As mentioned yesterday, the Venice Film Festival snatched up a few titles at the very last minute. Rumour has it that’s it’s either Emmanuel Crialese’s “L’Immensita” and Pietro Marcello’s “Scarlet,” or both, that were supposed to be in Cannes competition this year, but the Italian films were nowhere to be found, igniting rumours that Alberto Barbera snatched them up in the last-second. This led to Thierry Fremaux taking what was supposed to be Mario Martone’s Venice-bound “Nostalgia” for his own Cannes competiton. The rivalry between both festivals is quite entertaining.
The big names in competition right now seem to be David Cronenberg, Kelly Reichardt, Ruben Ostlund, Claire Denis, James Gray, Park Chan-Wook, The Dardennes, and Cristian Mungiu. Underwhelming? You’ll have plenty of people saying that this morning, but it’s a stellar lineup for what is considered to be the greatest film festival for world cinema.
The shockers, with the exception of revenge-pick Martone, are Said Roustaee’s “Leila’s Brothers,” Tarik Saleh’s “Boy From Heaven,” and veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s “Hi-Han” (a very loose remake of Bresson’s “Au Hazard Balthazar”).
The opening night film will be Michael Hazanavicious’ “Z,” which was supposed to have its world premiere at Sundance this past January before exiting the festival due to the digital component. Having already seen it in advance this past January, I can safely say that I can now delay my Cannes flight by a day.
As for Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter,” what originally looked like a competition lock now seems like a cinch to premiere in the Director’s Fortnight sidebar. Other names that we could now potentially anticipate in that sidebar include Diop, Winocour, Mysius, Hansen-Løve, Mouret, Zlotowski, Bozon, Diaz, and Civeyrac.
MAIN COMPETITION
HOLY SPIDER by Ali ABBASI
LES AMANDIERS by Valeria BRUNI TEDESCHI
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (Les crimes du futur) by David CRONENBERG
TORI ET LOKITA (Tori and Lokita) by Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE
STARS AT NOON by Claire Denis
CLOSE by Lukas DHONT
FRÈRE ET SŒUR by Arnaud DESPLECHIN
ARMAGEDDON TIME by James Gray
BROKER by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
NOSTALGIA by Mario MARTONE
RMN by Cristian MUNGIU
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS by Ruben ÖSTLUND
HAEOJIL GYEOLSIM (Decision to leave) by PARK Chan-Wook
SHOWING UP by Kelly REICHARDT
LEILA’S BROTHERS by Saeed ROUSTAEE
BOY FROM HEAVEN by Tarik SALEH
ZHENA CHAIKOVSKOGO (Tchaïkovski’s wife) by Kirill SEREBRENNIKOV
HI-HAN (Eo) by Jerzy SKOLIMOWSKI
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.