Cannes, the world’s biggest, most prestigious film festival, is about to kick off and the word is that it’s going to be a good year with plenty for jury, this year chaired by Robert De Niro, plenty to chew over.
The event opens with Woody Allen’s latest, Midnight in Paris. Out of competition, it's described as a ‘romantic comedy’ and features his trademark stellar cast, including Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard and France’s first lady, Carla Bruni, who will surely get the lion’s share of the camera action.
Talking of which, another red carpet extravaganza will be Pirates of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides whose stars Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz should outshine the film. Another flick that will make waves is The Beaver, starring Jodie Foster (who also directed) and Mel Gibson as a troubled executive who uses a beaver hand puppet as his only means of communication. That in itself will give the international press plenty to discuss especially as the controversial star is expected to attend.
The competition itself features some very big guns. Two-time Palme d’Or winners the Dardenne brothers enter with Boy With A Bike, the story of an 11-year-old boy who turns to a woman after his father has abandoned him. Terrence ‘Badlands’ Malick attends with his long-awaited Tree of Life, starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt.
Another winner, Pedro Almodovar, is in with The Skin I Live In, starring Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon in search of the gang of men who raped his daughter. Always a man who provokes intense discussion, Lars von Trier is back with Melancholia. Featuring a ridiculously adept cast including Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt, it could well be in with a chance.
And then there’s the great Paolo Sorrentino who never fails to deliver the goods. On this occasion he directs Sean Penn as a 50-year-old has-been Goth rock star replete with make up, dyed hair and earrings in This Must be the Place. It sees Penn attempt to track down a war criminal who is hiding out in the US. It premieres at Cannes and rumour has it that the film is extraordinary.
The only British filmmaker in the running is Scottish director Lynne Ramsay with We Need To Talk About Kevin, adapted from Lionel Shriver’s best-selling novel. Oddball Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn is in with Drive, Italy’s Nanni Moretti with Habemus Papa, contentious Japanese auteur Takeshi Mike is in with Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai; while Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki has Le Havre in the competition
Aptly closing the festival is Cannes veteran director Christopher Honore’s Les Bien-Aimés (The Beloved), a romantic comedy set across Europe in different parts of the 20th century, starring Catherine Deneuve.
This year's jury is headed by Robert De Niro and includes Jude Law, Uma Thurman, French director Olivier Assayas, Argentine producer/actress Martina Gusman, Chinese helmer Johnny To, Chinese producer Nansun Shi, Norwegian critic Linn Ullmann and Chad filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
It’s impossible to predict a winner at this stage, although though von Trier, the Dardennes and Almodovar are Cannes favourites. If I was to stick my neck out, I’d say Sorrentino is in with a chance because he never puts a foot wrong and Sean Penn never does a less than admirable job.
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