A Deeper Look at the Films in Competition at Cannes

The Cannes lineup was released this morning, once again shaming the fake list that always comes out a day or two before.  Last year there were a lot of complaints that there weren’t enough female directors in competition.  This year there is one in the main competition, and a few more in Un Certain Regard.   Nonetheless, this year’s lineup is nothing to complain about.  Every one of the films that will compete in a jury led by Steve Spielberg looks like a winner.

Before we dive into the Un Certain Regard selection, let’s take a look at the films in competition:

The Great Gatsby: Directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, opens the fest.  We’ll know soon enough whether the film will inspire applause or boos from the fest attendees.  It is a bold movie, no doubt about it.   But we’ve covered this film in every possible way, so for now, we’ll skip it.

Un Chateau En Italie – Co-written, Directed by and Starring Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi. The plot: A family is forced to sell their Italian home.  French storytelling of late, the kind I’ve seen at Cannes in competition anyway, tends to be anything but lean. They, like the Bollywood set, tend to like their stories to go on and on, telling them surprisingly, completely.  This is one of the fascinating things about modern, popular French cinema.  For Francophiles, it is like taking a bath in their culture.

Inside Llewyn Davis – Joel and Ethan Coen. It’s worth a trip to Cannes just to watch the Coens squirm on the Croisette. No, they will be charming, especially Ethan, I figure. This will also bring Carey Mulligan once again to the photo call frenzy and gala red carpet.  This is another one we’ve heard a lot about but it will have to suck major balls to not be good; even the worst Coen brothers film is better than almost every other film.  It is about folk singers in Greenwich Village in the 1960s on the brink of Dylan. I sort of think of it like a Life of Brian for folk singers but we’ll have to see if I’m even close to being right.

Michael Kohlhaas – Arnaud des Pallieres – The plot Michael Kohlhaas is a prosperous horse dealer living in France during the XVIth century. He is devout, honest and lives a happy family life. One day, while crossing through the property of a petty Lord, he is stopped by a guard who asks for a tax. Kohlhaas pleads for justice but the case is quickly covered up. He revolts and decides to take the law into his own hands.” Stars Mads  Mads Mikkelsen, Bruno Ganz, Paul Bartel.  Always on the hunt for what might be France’s official entry for Foreign Language film.

Jimmy P (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) – Arnaud Desplechin. The plot, “Based on a true story, JIMMY P narrates the birth and development of an extraordinary friendship. At the end of World War II, Jimmy Picard, an American Blackfoot who fought in France, arrives at the renowned Winter Veterans Hospital in Topeka, Kansas. Jimmy suffers from excruciating migraines and sudden losses of sight and hearing, and despite a barrage of tests, his condition mystifies the doctors. Unable to help him and unhappy with their diagnosis of schizophrenia, they decide to seek the help of Georges Devereux, a maverick French anthropologist and analyst.  From their first meeting, the two men begin to establish a relationship of trust and mutual respect, as Jimmy realizes the depth of the Frenchman’s immersion in Native American culture. During the course of their daily sessions, Jimmy reveals more and more, describing his dreams and recalling forgotten childhood memories. Damaged, reserved and unfamiliar with the analytic process, he nonetheless opens himself up, allowing Devereux to guide him on the road to healing.”  Stars Benicio Del Toro, Mathieu Amalric, Gina McKee, Larry Pine, Elya Baskin.

Heli – Amat Escalante – pic that takes place in Mexico – filmmaker is from Spain. There isn’t a lot of info out there but again, this would be a strong contender for foreign language film if selected as Mexico’s official entry (or Spain’s?).

Le Passe – Asghar Farhadi’s – easily one of the most eagerly anticipated of the festival, this is the follow-up feature to Farhadi’s A Separation, the Oscar-winning, brilliantly written and directed drama about Iran, past and present. There isn’t a lot of info out there about Le Passe, except what the trailer says.  It stars Berenice Bejo (The Artist), and Tahar Rahim (A Prophet). The website Wikinotica writes, “As you could see through the perspectivism of Nader and Simin, here we get the vision of the relationship from both poles: a story will not monolithic, but a combination of two points of view. And apparently in the trailer for Le passé (The past), Farhadi returns with social realism, through a camera always close to their characters, in medium shots that do not intrude on your privacy at all, and with multiple walls and obstacles to film, as gratings or crystals, or closed and claustrophobic compositions, as their characters are always enclosed in a framework convention.”

The Immigrant – James Gray.  The plot “An innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.” Starring Marion Cotillard (one of the queens of La Croisette — as one of France’s biggest stars to also connect in Hollywood, at Cannes last year with Rust & Bone), Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner.  This is Gray’s fourth consecutive collaboration with Joaquin Phoenix. The last film they made together was Two Lovers, which seemed to divide critics but overall was well received.

Grigris – Mahamat-Saleh Haroun  –Chadian filmmaker Haroun won the Special Jury prize at Venice for A Dry Season and the Jury Prize in 2010 at Cannes for A Screaming Man.  From Cineuropa, “Written by the director, the screenplay is centred on Grigris, 25, who dreams of becoming a dancer although his paralysed leg should exclude him from everything. It’s quite a challenge. But his dreams are shattered when his uncle falls seriously ill. To save him, he decides to work for petrol smugglers…”  Sounds like another great one.

Zhu Ding  (A Touch of Sin), Jia Zhangke Tian– The only thing I know about this is that the director is Chinese.  Sadly, I couldn’t find any information about the film online anywhere.

Soshite Chichi Ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son), Kor-reda Hirokazu –the plot, “Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.” More from JapanLovesMe, “Fukuyama plays the role of an elite salaryman Nonomiya Ryota who is an egoistic man and believes strongly in his abilities. However, he encounters the biggest crisis of his life to date when he finds out that he had unwittingly raised someone elses son for the past 6 years because his own son was accidentally switched with someone elses at birth. His wife is played by Ono Machiko while the other couple whose child got swapped will be played by Lily Frankie and Maki Youko.” Another total wow.

La Vie D’Adele — Abdellatif Kechiche — apologies as I could not find anything on this film either.

Wara No Tate  (Shield of Straw) Takashi Miike  – this will be one of the big deals at Cannes and one of the hardest to get a good seat for. From The Playlist, “The filmography of Takashi Miike is so massive it can make your head spin. The Japanese filmmaker’s most notable recent works include “13 Assassins” and “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai,” the latter premiering in Cannes just two years ago. He’s already made four feature films since then and has yet another one, “Wara no Tate,” coming out this year. A Japanese trailer for “Wara no Tate” — aka “Straw Shield” in English — has now landed online (sorry, no subtitles), and it looks like we could be in for yet another thrill ride from the prolific director.

Based on a novel by Kazuhiro Kiuchi, “Wara no Tate” follows Kunihide Kiyomaru, a man suspected of killing the granddaughter of a powerful man in Japanese politics, who begins to fear for his life after an ad is placed in three big Japanese newspapers offering one billion yen to the person who can capture and kill him. Kiyomaru decides to turn himself in to the police and soon word catches on that he’s being transferred to the Tokyo Police Department. Five detectives must protect the man from the thousands of people who are trying to kill him for the reward. Kiyomaru is played by Tatsuya Fujiwara, who you may recognize from the acclaimed Japanese film “Battle Royale.”

Jeune et Jolie, François Ozon — The plot, “The portrait of a 17 years-old girl, in 4 seasons and 4 songs.” Again, how nice that the French, and the Cannes selection committee, find stories like this worth telling. Truly, there are very few comparable festivals of this size in the US.   America has been falling behind of late with its generic, stereotypical stories.   On the other hand, a sexual awakening movie starring Marine Vacth is sort of a no-brainer.  A paralyzing beauty naked?

Here she stars in a Cartier short:

Marine Vacth/ Cartier, Rue du Faubourg St Honoré from Marilyn Agency on Vimeo.

Nebraska, Alexander Payne –one of the potential Best Picture contenders to hit Cannes, along with The Great Gatsby.  The plot, “An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.”  Payne is one of the greatest American auteurs never to win Best Director/Best Picture, though he’s collected two writing Oscars, once for Sideways and again for The Descendants.  All of his films age well. All are worth returning to again and again to find deeper truths. This is the case with my own experience of his work.  I don’t know how many agree but to me there is no one better at digging into our tender spots than Payne.  Of course, he doesn’t make warm/fuzzy/everything is going to be all right movies, which is why thus far, no big win at the Oscars. Remember, Oscars these days are there to soothe us, not make us uncomfortable. And so it goes. Either way, I look more forward to Nebraska as yet another beloved Payne treasure than I do watching the voting Academy nominate it then ignore it when it comes time for Best Picture. But it’s not a tragic tale. Many filmmakers would give anything to get that close, and many would be grateful to work as often and as successfully as Alexander Payne. In other words, it’s all good.

Back in October, Payne and crew visited Hooper, Nebraska for a shoot, which delighted the town to no end.

One thing that makes Nebraska unique to Payne’s body of work is that the screenplay is an original, not adapted, by Bob Nelson.  Payne almost always co-adapts great books into scripts, as he did with The Descendants, About Schmidt, Sideways, etc.   You have to go back to Citizen Ruth to find an original script he directed (and co-wrote along with Jim Taylor).

Venus in Fur, Roman Polanski – Polanski’s take on the Broadway hit starring Emmanuelle Seigner. The plot, “An actress attempts to convince a director how she’s perfect for a role in his upcoming production.”  Polanski will hopefully be there, as he’s not been barred from attending events in France right? Beautiful Seigner first began acting with Polanski with Frantic. The two married, have had kids together and remain a couple.

Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh — pic stars Matt Damon and Michael Douglas (Liberace). The pic hits HBO on May 26 moments after Cannes, and won’t get a US release date theatrically.  The plot, “Based on the autobiographical novel, the tempestuous 6-year relationship between Liberace and his (much younger) lover, Scott Thorson, is recounted.”

I think it looks fantastic. At any rate, it’s supposedly Soderbergh’s last film.

Paolo Sorrentino, La Grande Bellezza (the Great Beauty). The plot, “The story of an aging writer who bitterly recollects his passionate, lost youth. A portrait of today’s Rome.”

Alex Van Warmerdam, Borgman – Filmmaker from the Netherlands.  The plot, “the film tells the story of an arrogant middle-class family whose comfortable existence is disturbed when the devil, in the form of Camiel Borgman (played by Jan Bijvoet), comes to visit.”

And another “BORGMAN is the central character in Alex van Warmerdam’s dark, malevolent fable. Is he a dream or a demon, a twisted allegory or an all-too-real embodiment of our fears?”

His last film was The Last Days of Emma Blank.  

Nicolas Winding Refn, Only God Forgives – we’ve heard much about it already, and it’s the follow-up collaboration between Ryan Gosling and Refn after Drive. Funny, two films this year came out with Ryan Gosling working with a director whom might call the actor his muse. That would be Refn, and Derek Cianfrance, who worked with Gosling on Blue Valentine and then on this year’s Place Beyond the Pines. I have a feeling people are confusing these two films.

The plot:

“Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian [played by Ryan Gosling] killed a cop and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty.

When Julian’s brother murders a prostitute the police call on retired cop Chang – the Angel of Vengeance. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter’s murderer, then ‘restores order’ by chopping off the man’s right hand. Julian’s mother Jenna [played by Oscar-nominee Kristin Scott Thomas] – the head of a powerful criminal organization – arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and ‘raise hell’.

Increasingly obsessed with the Angel of Vengeance, Julian challenges him to a boxing match, hoping that by defeating him he might find spiritual release… but Chang triumphs. A furious Jenna plots revenge and the stage is set for a bloody journey through betrayal and vengeance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption.