Probable Entries
The Weinstein Co. hit it big last year with The Artist, acquiring the film before the festival and riding a wave of well orchestrated love all the way to Oscar’s Best Picture. This year they will again likely have a film (if not more) at the festival and it, ironically enough, stars Berenice Bejo, one-half of The Artist‘s lead cast, as I full expect Regis Roinsard‘s Populaire to be among this year’s entries.
The film serves as Roinsard’s directorial debut and is a ’50s-set romantic comedy described as a Cinderella story centered on a young small-town woman whose extraordinary typing abilities lead her to compete at New York’s world typing championship. The cast also includes Romain Duris, Deborah Francois and Shaun Benson. Oh, and did I forget to mention Bejo is being rumored as master of ceremonies for opening and closing nights? Hmmmmmmm…
I also like the chances of at least one major Hollywood feature among the line-up and this year it looks like Oliver Stone will be making it two films in a row after Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps played the fest in 2010. Universal moved Savages from a September release to July 6 and such a move has always had me thinking it was because the film had found a place on the Croisette. After all, it wouldn’t hurt to have John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Salma Hayek and Benicio del Toro walking the red carpet along with the rest of the film’s cast which includes Blake Lively, Emile Hirsch, Demian Bichir, Mia Maestro, Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch.
Alain Resnais‘s You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet, an adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s “Eurydice” is also a strong contender. The 89-year-old director was honored at Cannes in 2009 and with a cast that includes Lambert Wilson, Mathieu Amalric, Michel Piccoli, Sabine Azema, Anne Consigny and Denis Podalydes, I have a hard time believing they wouldn’t enjoy honoring their countryman one more time.
After his film made waves at the Sundance Film Festival, Jeff Nichols took Take Shelter to the South of France where it won the Critics Week Grand Prize. Perhaps this year he’ll make it to the big show with Mud, a coming-of-age drama centered on two 14-year-old boys who encounter a mysterious fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi. Intrigued by the man, the boys enter into a pace to help him evade capture and reconnect with the love of his life. With a cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Sarah Paulson, Ray McKinnon and Joe Don Baker I’m not sure many would argue about its potential worth to the line-up.
And hell, while we’re talking McConaughey, it seems Precious director Lee Daniels‘s new film The Paperboy has risen to the tops of many lists as a likely entry and not only would it bring McConaughey, but Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, John Cusack, Scott Glenn and David Oyelowo.
Ken Loach made the trip to Cannes in 2010 with The Angels’ Share, already in the can I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be a strongly considered candidate.
The dramedy stars newcomer Paul Brannigan as Robbie, a new dad that that swears his newborn son will not have the same tragic life he has had. After escaping a prison sentence by the skin of his teeth he ultimately teams up with a trio of fellow ex-criminals who turn to starting their own whisky distillery as a way to find peace in their lives. Roger Allam and John Henshaw co-star.
Matteo Garrone‘s Gomorrah was released in Italy on May 16, 2008, it played the Cannes Film Festival two days later where it won the Jury Grand Prize. Four years later and Garrone finally has a follow-up and instead of another dark thriller, this one is a dark comedy called Big House.
Looking around the Internet it seems there is a little confusion as to what exactly the film is about, but near as I can tell it centers on the lives of a Neapolitan based family whose father, a fish merchant, is so infatuated with the reality TV show “Grande Fratello” (the Italian version of “Big Brother”) he starts living his life as if he were on it. Other descriptions say the father is actually trying to get on a reality TV show, but one thing is clear, this is a pic poking fun at reality television and it’s one I certainly hope makes the cut.
The first still from Francois Ozon‘s In the House can be seen directly above and it’s recent debut and his cast makes me think his film is likely to have a Croisette premiere. Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Fabrice Luchini, Emmanuelle Seigner and Denis Menochet, In the House is a thriller adapted from Juan Mayorga’s play The Boy in the Last Row, Dans La Maison centering on a professor and a student who comes to threaten the relationships of those around them. Ozon’s last film, Potiche, missed out on Cannes and premiered at Venice and Toronto, I’m not expecting the same for this one.
Last in this batch, and I am only including this because so many others seem quite convinced, we have Terrence Malick‘s The Burial (aka The Funeral) starring Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko, Barry Pepper, Amanda Peet, Michael Sheen and Jessica Chastain. I don’t like counting on Malick to have a film finished, but I am letting others sway my opinion here. Who knows, we could get lucky.
Pitt, Gosling, Kidman, Mikkelsen, Hardy and more on the next page…
