Cannes 2019: Malick, Jarmusch, Herzog, Ferrara, Bong Joon-Ho, Almodóvar and Refn Head to La Croisette
The veil over the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival has been lifted as the festival´s director Thierry Frémaux revealed the main competition line-up. The upcoming edition will boast a slate of seasoned veterans along with promising talents in the ranks up-and-coming filmmakers.
As it was said earlier, the festival will open with Jim Jarmusch´s zombie comedy The Dead Don´t Die (starring zombie Iggy Pop alongside a star-studded cast) that would hopefully made George A. Romero smile. Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho teams up with his production designer Juliano Dornelles as a co-director on Nighthawk, what is supposed to be a genre fare, to vie for the Palme d´Or. The revered Brazilian actress on Mendonça´s sophomore film Aquarius also competing with Sonia Braga starring, along with another acting legend, Udo Kier.
After premiering The Tree of Life in Cannes in 2011, Terrence Malick returns to the French Riviera, confirming earlier rumors, with the WWII drama A Hidden Life. Elia Suleiman directed the French-Canadian comedy of errors, It Must Be Heaven, "a burlesque saga exploring identity, nationality and belonging" that will also bow in the main competition along Jessica Hausner´s sci-fi drama Little Joe, Xavier Dolan´s Matthias and Maxime or Boon Joon Ho's expected family drama Parasite.
Besides the established filmmakers such as Arnaud Desplechin, Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Loach and the Dardennes brothers, the main competition will welcome Céline Sciamma follow-up after award-winning Girlhood, period drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire and New Romanian Wave director Corneliu Porumboiu´s The Whistlers.
Main Competition
The Dead Don´t Die (Jim Jarmusch) - opening film
Atlantique (Mati Diop)
Nighthawk (Bacurau) (Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles)
Frankie (Ira Sachs)
A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
It Must Be Heaven (Elia Suleiman)
Les Misérables (Ladj Ly)
Little Joe (Jessica Hausner)
Matthias and Maxime (Xavier Dolan)
Oh Mercy! (Arnaud Desplechin)
Pain and Glory (Dolor y Gloria) (Pedro Almodóvar)
Parasite (Gisaengchung) (Bong Joon Ho)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (Céline Sciamma)
Sibyl (Justine Triet)
Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach)
The Traitor (Il Traditore) (Marco Bellocchio)
The Whistlers (La Gomera) (Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Wild Goose Lake (Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui) (Diao Yinan)
The Young Ahmed (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne)
Dexter Fletcher who completed Bohemian Rhapsody, then tackled the Elton John biopic/musical fantasy, Rocketman that will play out of competition along two 90-minute episodes from the upcoming crime drama series Too Old to Die Young by Nicolas Winding Refn.
Out of Competition
The Best Years of a Life (Claude Lelouch)
Diego Maradona (Asif Kapadia)
La Belle Époque (Nicolas Bedos)
Rocketman (Dexter Fletcher)
Too Old to Die Young (Nicolas Winding Refn)
The official selection of Un Certain Regard, a parallel section spotlighting auteur works and vision somewhat unsurprisingly will feature the latest by Catalan avant-garde artist and provocateur Albert Serra, Freedom (Liberté). Serra staged an opera of the same name last year in Volskbuhne Berlin, the namesake film (previously titled Personalien) however should follow Rainer Werner Fassbinder as he writes and stages a play "about the debauchery of 18th century". As soon as Bruno Dumont finished a sequel to bizarre rural miniseries P´tit Quinquin, CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans, he announced he is starting another sequel, this time to his musical Jeannette, The Childhood of Joan of Arc. Jeanne (Joan of Arc) is completed and will have the world premiere at Dumont´s home turf. The breakout star, in arthouse and cineaste terms, Oliver Laxe of Mimosas has finished a new project, A Sun That Never Sets, a story about pyromaniac and the power of fire. Also Austin-based filmmaker Annie Silverstein´s latest, Bull, will bow in Un Certain Regard programme, the project synopsis saying: "In a near-abandoned subdivision west of Houston, a wayward teen runs headlong into her equally willful and unforgiving neighbor, an aging bullfighter who's seen his best days in the arena; it's a collision that will change them both."
Un Certain Regard
Adam (Maryam Touzani)
Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
A Brother's Love (Monia Chokri)
Bull (Annie Silverstein)
The Climb (Michael Covino)
Evge (Nariman Aliev)
Freedom (Liberté) (Albert Serra)
Invisible Life (Vida Invisivel) (Karim Aïnouz)
Joan of Arc (Jeanne) (Bruno Dumont)
Room 212 (Christophe Honoré)
Papicha (Mounia Meddour)
Port Authority (Danielle Lessovitz)
Summer of Changsha (Zu Feng)
The Swallows of Kabul (Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec)
A Sun That Never Sets (Oliver Laxe)
Zhuo Ren Mi Mi (Midi Z)
Veteran filmmaker Werner Herzog will debut his latest project shot in Japan with Japanese actor, Family Romance, LLC. also in Cannes as a part of special screenings as will Abel Ferrara´s Tommaso, rumored to be a semi-autobiographical essay with Willem Dafoe portraying a character based on Ferrara.
Special Screenings
Family Romance, LLC. (Werner Herzog)
For Sama (Waad Al Kateab, Edward Watts)
Que Sea Ley (Juan Solanas)
Share (Pippa Bianco)
To Be Alive and Know It (Alain Cavalier)
Tommaso (Abel Ferrara)
Midnight Screenings
The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (Lee Won-Tae)
More films remain to be unveiled among them widely discussed Quentin Tarantino´s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood along the whole line-up of the parallel section Director´s Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs).
So far it has been revealed that the 51st edition of Director´s Fortnight will open French absurdist Quentin Dupieux´s latest film Deerskin, starring Jean Dujardin as a man whose infatuation with 100% suede jacket spirals out of control. What has been further revealed is a VR installation exhibition featuring virtual reality installations by Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang, Go Where You Look! Falling Off Snow Mountain.
72nd edition of Cannes Film Festival runs May 14-25
