The Cannes Competition Lineup (and more) was announced in the wee wee hours of the morning -- not so wee for France mind you -- and here's what we're looking at. A lot of French and Asian films, a few foreign giants doing their first English language films and at least three directors we haven't had a film from in 7 or 8 years.
International beauties we can safely expect to see walking that Cannes red carpet include but are not limited to: Cate Blanchett, Qi Shu, Marion Cotillard, Diane Kruger, Emily Blunt, Natalie Portman, Sienna Miller, Isabella Rossellini, Sophie Marceau, Catherine Deneuve, and Maîwenn. ANNOUCEMENT: Friend of TFE Diana Drumm will be reporting for us a bit from the festival like last year. If we've written about any of these films before, the links will take you there. Included after the jump are descriptive bits of each film that we know anything about.
Competition Films
The Coen Bros are Jury Presidents
Dheepan (France) dir: Jacques Audiard
A Sri Lankan flees to France, works as caretaker. Dheepan is a working title so it could change before the festival. Marc Zinga from May Allah Bless France stars
A Simple Man (France) dir: Stéphane Brizé
Starring familiar French actor Vincent Lindon.
Marguerite and Julien (France) dir: Valérie Donzelli
Donzelli, you may recall, directed the cinematically restless and emotionally impactful Declaration of War, an autobiography of sorts about a married couple and their ill child, a few years back which was France's Oscar submission. Her ex Jérémie Elkaïm headlines again though she stays behind the camera this time.
The Tale of Tales (Italy/France/UK) dir: Matteo Garrone
The Gomorrah director returns with an English language film which a strange cast of royals that includes Salma Hayek , Toby Jones, Vincent Cassell and John C Reilly. It's actually a collection of fairy tales by 17th century author Giambattista Basile
Carol, (US) dir: Todd Haynes
Eight years (eight years!) after I'm Not There, the great director finally returns to the silver screen with his greatest Bob Dylan (Cate) in tow for this lesbian drama based on the Patricia Highsmith novel "The Price of Salt"
Qi Shu headlines the martial arts picture The Assassin
The Assassin (Taiwan) dir: Hou Hsiao Hsien
Another eight year absence from features! the director of gorgeousities like Flight of the Red Balloon and Three Times returns with the latter's impossibly attractive movie star pair Qi Shu & Chen Chang. Qi Shu plays a ninth century assassin who is ordered to kill the man she loves.
Mountains May Depart (China) dir: Jia Zhang-Ke
The celebrated director of Still Life and A Touch of Sin is back with a triptych that's set in the past, present and future
Our Little Sister (Japan) dir: Hirokazu Koreeda
The director of Nobody Knows and Like Father Like Son returns with this female driven story of three sisters, their half sister, and their grandmother. I've also heard this one referred to as "Kamakura Diary"
Macbeth, (UK/USA/France) dir: Justin Kurzel
Fassbender tries to ascend while Cotillard tries to wash out that damn spot. Will they pull it off in this adaptation of one of Shakespeare's finest tragedies?
The Lobster (Greece) dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
I'm not even going to attempt to explain this one from the Dogtooth director. See that link for more! It's his first English language film. But check out this great poster (hat tip: George)
Mon Roi (France) dir: Maïwenn
Ubiqutious French faces Louis Garrel and Vincent Cassel star in the latest from Maîwenn, that blue opera diva from the Fifth Element, who has long since reinvented herself as a director. It's a love story but not between the two men. Sorry. Didn't mean to excite you.
Mia Madre (Italy) dir: Nanni Moretti
Cannes regular Moretti is back with what is said to be a tragicomedy. Margherita Buy headlines as a filmmaker in crises. Co-starring John Turturro.
Son of Saul (Hungary) dir: Laszlo Nemes
A Holocaust drama set in Auschwitz about a man burning corpses. (This one, a first film, is eligible for the Camera D'Or as well)
Youth (Italy) dir: Paolo Sorrentino
Just discussed - click the link - from the director of the Oscar winning The Great Beauty (but in English). IMDb is calling this "The Early Years" so there must have been a title change at some point.
Our favorite Norsk director on set with Gabriel Byrne
Louder Than Bombs (Norway) dir: Joachim Trier
I've been singing his praises since Reprise (2006) and the world seemed to catch up with Oslo August 31st (2011). But here is yet another foreign great making their first English language film with American stars. This makes me sad a bit because I love hearing multiple tongues at the cinema.
The Sea of Trees (USA) dir: Gus Van Sant
A suicidal man (Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey) befriends a Japanese man (Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe) near Mount Fuji. The suicidal man's wife (Oscar nominee Naomi Watts) figures in somehow too but you know how it goes at the cinema: always about the men.
Sicario (USA) dir: Denis Villeneuve
FBI Agent Emily Blunt vs. a Mexican Cartel. Well, if anyone can take down a cartel it's the Full Metal Bitch. Villeneuve is on a roll and so is Blunt so cross your fingers!
WHICH OF THESE FILMS ARE YOU HOPING ARE GREAT GREAT GREAT? Which will the Coen Bros led jury warm to? We shall know in a month or so.
OPENING NIGHT FILM
La Tete Haute (France) dir: Emmanuel Bercot
The first female-directed film to open Cannes since the 1980s. Catherine Deneuve stars as a judge trying to help a juvenile delinquent. Bercot, the director, is also an actress and co-stars in the competition entry Mon Roi from another actress/director.
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Isabella Rosellini will preside over this jury
Madonna dir: Shin Suwon
Maryland (France) dir: Alice Winocour
Matthias Schoenarts is a soldier suffering PTSD and Diane Kruger his wife in this French Riviera-set thriller that's also referred to as "Close Protection"
The Fourth Direction (India) dir: Gurvinder Singh
Set during the 1980s Sikh separatist movement
Masaan / Fly Away Solo (India) dir: Neeraj Ghaywan
The screenplay won a Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global's Filmmaking Award which apparently generated interest in making it into a movie.
Hruter / Rams (Iceland) dir: Grimur Hakonarson
From the director of Summerland
Journey to the Shore
Kishibe No Tabi/Journey to the Shore (Japan) dir: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
A husband supposedly drowned at sea three years earlier returns to his wife. International star Tadanabou Asano (Mongol, Thor: The Dark World), who is currently filming Martin Scorsese's Silence, headlines as the missing man.
Je Suis Un Soldat /I Am a Soldier (France) dir: Laurent Larivere
With Jean-Huges Anglade. It's eligilbe for the Camera d'Or (first film)
Zvizdan /The High Sun (Croatia | Serbia | Slovenia) dir: Dalibor Matanic
The Other Side dir: Roberto Minervini
One Floor Below (Romania) dir: Radu Muntean
From the director of the devastating Tuesday, After Christmas
Shameless dir: Oh Seung-Uk
The Chosen Ones dir: David Pablos
Nahid dir: Ida Panahandeh
Eligible for the Camera d'Or
The Treasure (Romania) dir: Corneliu Porumboiu
Alias Maria dir: José Luis Rugeles
Gracia Taklub dir: Brillante Mendoza
Lamb (Ethiopia) dir: Yared Zeleke -it's a debut film so eligible for the Camera d'Or
Cemetery of Splendour (Thailand) dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
AN dir: Naomi Kawase
OUT OF COMPETITION
Mad Max: Fury Road, dir: George Miller
Irrational Man dir: Woody Allen
A philosophy professor enters a relationship with his student. Of course he does - it's a Woody Allen film. Starring Joaquin Phoenix & Emma Stone (Let's hope she steps up her game after her weirdly off work in her first Woody Allen picture last year)
Inside Out(US) dir: Pete Docter and Ronaldo del Carmen
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), dir: Mark Osborne
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Natalie Portman directs herself!
Oka dir: Souleymane Cisse
Not to be confused with Oka! currently on iTunes
Sipur Al Ahava Ve Choshech (A Tale of Love and Darkness), dir: Natalie Portman
This Hebrew language biopic about the youth of Amos Oz, a journalist/writer who advocates a two state solution, stars and is directed by Portman herself (in her feature directorial debut though she's made shorts before). She'll be eligible for the Camera D'Or which is given to one promising new director.
Hayored Lema’ala dir Elad Keidan
Amnesia (Switzerland | France) dir: Barbet Schroeder
Barbet Schroeder? Haven't heard from him in a long time!. This one stars German actor Max Riemelt who you might recognize from the gay drama Free Fall (available on Netflix and it's really good) and Martha Keller, the enduring Swiss star. It's set on thw Spanish island of Ibiza.
Panama (Serbia) dir: Pavle Vuckovic
Asphalte (France) dir: Samuel Benchetrit
With Isabelle Huppert, Michael Pitt, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad dir: Robert Guediguian
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
O Piseu (Office) dir: Hong Won-Chan
Eligible for the Camera D'Or
Amy (UK) dir: Asif Kapadia
The director of Senna has a new documentary. This one is also known as "Raw: The Amy Winehouse Story"
Love (France) dir. Gaspar Noé
The story of a girl and a boy and another girl. Sexually explicit and in 3D