Cannes '14 line-up announced
Thursday, April 17, 2014 at 11:15PM 
Tim here. It's Christmas morning, everybody: the Cannes Film Festival announced its line-up today for this year's edition, running from May 14-25.
Opening Night
Grace of Monaco (dir. Olivier Dahan; starring Nicole Kidman)
Official Selection
Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonelo)
Winter's Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg) Yes No Maybe So
Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
The Captive (Atom Egoyan)
Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
The Search (Michel Hazanavicius)
The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones) Yes No Maybe So
Still the Water (Naomi Kawase)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
Jimmy's Hall (Ken Loach)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller) We Can't Wait
Le Meraviglie (Alice Rohrwacher)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Wild Tales (Damian Szifron)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Channing Tatum & Mark Ruffalo as brothers in "Foxcatcher"
Un Certain Regard
Opener - Party Girl (Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis)
Jauja (Lisando Alonso)
The Blue Room (Mathieu Amalric)
Misunderstood (Asia Argento)
Titli (Kanu Behl)
Eleanor Rigby (Ned Benson)
Bird People (Pascale Ferran)
Lost River (Ryan Gosling, directorial debut) formerly How to Catch a Monster, We Can't Wait
Amour fou (Jessica Hausner)
Charlies Country (Rolf de Heer)
Snow in Paradise (Andrew Hulme)
A Girl at My Door (July Jung)
Xenia (Panos Koutras)
Run (Philppe Lacôte)
Turist (Ruben Östlund)
Beautiful Youth (Jaime Rosales)
Fantasia (Wang Chao)
The Salt of the Earth (Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado)
Away from His Absence (Keren Yedaya)
Above: the first still from Ryan Gosling's LOST RIVER
All told, a nice mix of established auteurs, up-and-comers, and just enough new names that the Festival can't be accused of too much imagination (though the representation of women directors is still pretty grim). For myself, Winter's Sleep (over three hours long!), Leviathan, and Timbuktu leap out as being the films I'm most interested, by directors whose careers I'm excited to keep following; but what films are you all most excited to see?
Reader Comments (34)
Xavier Dolan has to be pretty happy that he's finally made it into competition! I saw him interviewed on TV about it, and he was trying really hard to be cool about it...but he was obviously pleased. Maybe taking Tom à la ferme to Venice made Cannes sit up and think.
@Bill_The_Bear--Cannes totally claimed him first though. His first film won a billion prizes there in 2009.
Of these names I'm most happy for Bertrand Bonello, whose last film House Of Tolerance is one of my favorite of the decade. An underrated master (who still works on 35mm!), and I was really worried he would get bumped down to Un Certain Regard.
I've seen some people complaining about the lack of big name American auteurs - no PTA, no Malick - but getting new films from Ceylan, Dolan, Cronenberg, Leigh, etc seems like pretty unambiguously great news.
I'm also very happy to see a new film from Ruben Ostlund in the Un Certain Regard section. His last film, PLAY, was one of my favorite movies of 2011 - I really think it's pretty close to a masterpiece - and never made it out of the festival circuit here in the US. May he have better success this time...
House Of Tolerance btw is on Netflix (as House Of Pleasures). I always feel the need to make a public service announcement for that movie because it really is so gorgeous.
Apparently, 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby' has not only been retitled, but cut significantly as well (not necessarily a bad move if the cuts were done to 'Him').
I just hope that Jessica Chastain's performance is left intact. She's brilliant in it.
P.S. Anyone else struck by a deep unshakable fear that Hilary Swank could win Best Actress for The Homesman? At least we'd almost be guaranteed that Marion Cotillard would murder her by the end of the awards presentations...
TB -- bite your tongue!
I think Moore has a better chance that Swank and so many other great actresses to consider.
One of the things I've always liked about Cannes, is that it doesn't necessarily have to be a lead performance to be honored as best so it really is a wide open field.
Is anyone else as in love with the Marcelo poster for Cannes as I am?
LOL. Just saying, it would be like her to strike just as we've all assumed the threat was passed...
TB - so does that make Swank a Bond villain or the killer in the slasher film? just when they thought they were safe... LOL!
Slasher villain for sure. She's way too self-serious to make it as a Bond baddie. I know Annette Bening has a role in the Hazanavicius film--it would be fun if she took home the prize to make up for the two Oscar losses.
Had Swank lost her first nomination she would have become quite popular around these parts. Everyone would say her performance is worthier. But would accept Bening's inevitable win as acceptable because of the difficulty older actresses face in Best Actress. Of course the facts are that Swank stole two dreams from Annette Bening and for that she's permanently scorned.
cotillard starting her road to another oscar ('snub')!
I'm very curious about "sils maria".
Of the Un Certain Regard titles I'm most excited for XENIA and CHARLIE'S COUNTRY (Rolf de Heer!).
Dolan, Zvyagintsev, Leigh (a hunch that it'll be a big Oscar play) and Cronenberg are what's leaping out to me from the competition.
Mike: That would suck. I actually liked Him a great deal and think it needed to be fleshed out, not shorter.
Swank: I had her ranked ahead of Bening both times.
Cool line-up. Disappointed in no Aken though. Happy for Dolan, hopeful for Egoyan.
TB-
I'm not understanding the Swank--Cotillard reference. Can you explain to a
Dummy like me. Thanks
Ceylan, Dardennes, Leigh, Miller and Sissako from the competition lineup are the ones I'm most excited to see. Hausner from UCR.
Overall looks so starry (meaning, auteur-y). I'm really excited for the Cronenberg too, which actually rarely happens with me and his films.
I just don't get how Hilary Swank functions. Does she have any creative imagination and power or does she just view acting as a sport with a goal on the prize?
Anyways I thought she was good in Boys Don't Cry, bad in Million Dollar Baby and intolerable in almost everything else.
I'm most excited about Cronenberg. I have a great feeling about this movie and I love everything he makes anyways.
Also nervous about Nicole in Grace of Monaco. Will that movie do her talent justice? Trailer suggests it won't.
@Amir
You rarely get excited for Cronenberg films? Unstable if you're referring to his Viggo Mortensen trilogy--confusing if you're talking in general.
@Amir
You rarely get excited for Cronenberg films? Understandable if you're referring to his Viggo Mortensen trilogy--confusing if you're talking in general.
Mark--It's not that they're connected (though they were seated together when Marion won her Oscar), it's that Marion Cotillard has been amazing AND the top pundit pick for Best Actress at Cannes for two years running (for Rust & Bone and The Immigrant). If anyone else collects that trophy, and they probably will, they should watch out because girl is not the type to withhold her wrath.
I thought Serena would finally see light here. Oh well. Intrigued by Sils Maria.
I'm just excited for the reunion of Zhang Yimou of Gong Li. I still am remembering the glory days of their great 90s films extremely well. Hopefully the chance to see Coming Home here in the states can become a reality this year.
Really hoping this is Marion's year! Watch it go to Berenice Bejo, again.
Swanks been fine in most things maybe ps i love you showed she couldn't do romance,maybe like matthew,jake and reese she is reassessing her career,of course she was gr8 in her 2 oscar winning roles neither of which i would have her winning for so i'm not biased,personal preferences i think,the hate for her here is really silly.
3rtful - I'm talking in general. I'm not as big a fan as everybody else seems to be, though The Fly is one of my favorite films of all time. I like Dead Ringers, A History of Violence and A Dangerous Method and I have some gaps to fill from his filmography, but overall, nothing to warrant huge excitement.
As I said above though, Maps to the Stars looks delicious in the trailer.
@Amir
You wrote about his exhibit. Why would you bother for someone you're mainly indifferent to?
A lot lot lot to get excited for, but for me anytime there's a Dardenne picture, that's the top one to countdown to seeing.
I'm with BrianZ. Love the Dardennes. Can't wait for the new one.
The new ones by Ceylan, Cronenberg, Jones and Leigh are the others that I'm most excited about at this stage.
3rtful - Well, The Fly was one of the films I wrote about, and Naked Lunch because I wanted to discover it. Also, Cronenberg was there in person so it was worth it.
I'm never not willing to rediscover filmmakers whose works I haven't totally loved in the past by the way, and in some cases, I've finally come around to understanding why other cinephiles like them so much.
@Amir
I love how seeing a movie for the first time is considered a discovery. I bought Naked Lunch because no video store--when they still had them carried it in my area. And I spent nearly fifty dollars on the Criterion DVD. I watched it with my parents in the room. Uncomfortable does not quite describe it. It remains the most fucked up movie I own. David has a way of subverting all notions of good taste and what we're willing to put up with. Especially because he's actually telling pretty straight forward stories that have all these unusual elements in service to something significant and not sensational for its own sake.
Were you able to interview Cronenberg? I don't remember you posting a chat.
I'm late to the party, but I really want to say that I'm dying to see the new Mike Leigh. Hopefully the marvelous Lesley Manville and the incredible Timothy Spall will be up for every single award next season.
3rtful - I wasn't. I don't think he sat for individual interviews with anyone actually, though I could be mistaken. He lectured before the screening of Naked Lunch.
Cool story, re: the awkward experience of watching it; I wouldn't wanna watch it (or any of his films really) with parents. As a side note though, why is watching a film for the first time not a discovery? Even if you're watching a canon title for the first time, surely it's a discovery to you?
@Amir
The word seems odd in the context of watching a movie. I recently saw The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. It was less a discovery and more a revelation that movies can be works of art that are essential to seeing because they're genuine art. Most movies are mere distractions and cheap entertainment. It's rare to come upon an actual essential movie that isn't deemed essential from a consensus class. But from your own interaction with it. Most people knew of Helen Mirren from that film and others. Yet outside of her first two Oscar nominations I never considered her. And now everything from her past filmography prior to The Queen excites me about the actress she is and is capable of still being if she had inspired material to work with.
Have you seen Spider (2002) or eXistenZ (1999)? I love the latter but the former needs further investigation since it's a literary adaptation written from the author and not Cronenberg. It left me with questions I couldn't immediately find answers to online.