Cannes Diary #1: The festival opens with zombies... again

Elisa Giudici reporting again from Cannes!

Cannes is back again trying to rewrite its new normal. After the skipped 2020 edition and the anomalous summery one in 2021, the 75th Cannes Film Festival is has kicked off with the Croisette in full blossom. Masks are almost gone in theatres (even if before every movie a recorded voice “strongly suggests” to wear one), Marché du film (the huge Film Market's event in Cannes) has ended a period of crisis and low presence. COVID-19 changed the French festival and some changes are here to stay...

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Cláudio's Best Shot Pick: Happy Together (1997)

The next episode of our series, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' arrives Thursday night. Since the Cannes Film Festival is around the corner, it's focused on Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together, which screened at the Croisette 25 years ago. You still have time to participate! Here's Cláudio's entry.

In film criticism, few expressions vex me more than the old "style over substance" adage. To presuppose the audiovisual stylings of any picture should be subordinate to its text, thus taking for granted that true depth exists only in narrative rather than form, is a fundamental misunderstanding of cinema as an art. Such matters come to mind because the works of Wong Kar Wai represent one of the best counterpoints to these erroneous wisdoms. The director's style is indissociable from whatever meaning, narrative, or emotion the viewer can take from his films. That is especially true of Happy Together, one of his masterpieces and one of my all-time favorite pictures…

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YNMS: Crimes of the Future (New Trailer)

by Mark Brinkerhoff

NEON, the enfant terrible of indie film distributors (Parasite, Titane, The Worst Person in the World, etc.), has released a full trailer for the new David Cronenberg film, Crimes of the Future, so you know what that means! Let’s roll…

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Cannes Jury 2022: Vincent Lindon will preside.

by Nathaniel R

Vincent Lindon in Titane (2021)

Hot off his incredible work in Titane (2021), for which he received numerous accolades including a European Film Award nomination, Vincent Lindon will preside over this year's jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Lindon previously won Best Actor at Cannes for his role in The Measure of a Man (2015). The other members of the jury are...

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Our Cannes Plans

by Nathaniel R

© Paramount Pictures Corporation – Jim Carrey, The Truman Show by Peter Weir / Graphic design © Hartland Villa

Look! The official Cannes poster is out (see above) which uses a moment from The Truman Show (1998). About which the festival says:

The decisive scene urges viewers to not only experience the border between reality and its reprsentation but to ponder the power of fiction, between manipulation and catharsis. Just as Truman escapes falsehood as he rises, the Festival, with its famous ascending red carpet, offers viewers the truth of the artists when they enter the theater

Last year we had our most Cannes coverage ever with our favourite Italian Elisa Giudici at the festival covering the Competition lineup. Simultaneously Cláudio was doing a 'Cannes at Home' series to highlight older films by directors with new pictures at the festival. Since you liked both we're doing it again! The 75th edition of the festival runs May 17th- May 28th this year. We'll also be celebrating Cannes with an episode of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" covering Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together on May 12th. That moody gay drama took the Cannes Best Director prize 25 years ago from a jury led by the great French movie star Isabelle Adjani.

P.S. The Cannes lineup post has been updated to reflect the week later additions to the official selection.