Before the Cannes lineup was announced on April 11, there had been murmurs that Andrea Arnold’s “Bird” might not be ready in time. Suffice to say, a few days later, it was officially announced as being part of the competition lineup, but it turns out, the film is technically “still not ready”.
I’m told “Bird” has, at least, two weeks left of sound editing and that a “rough cut” will be screened at Cannes. I’m betting they don’t play this one fest until the last few days, either on Thursday 05.23 or Friday 05.24.
A similar thing happened at Cannes 2017 when Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here” was screened as a “work in progress” — the score, and the editing were not finished, and it also had no end credits. The film still managed to garner great reviews and won Cannes’ Best Actor (Joaquin Phoenix) and Best Screenplay (Ramsay) awards.
Not much is known, plot-wise, about Arnold’s “Bird,” but I can confirm, exclusively, that her sixth feature, starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, is about a 12-year-old living in a north Kent apartment with her brother. That’s all I know.
It’s set to be Arnold’s fourth time in Cannes Competition following her debut “Red Road” (2006), “Fish Tank” (2009) and “American Honey” (2016) — impressively, all three films won the jury prize in their respective years.