With a line-up of 234 feature films, a lot of digging must be done throught the extensive program. Problem is, because of TIFF grabbing the vast majority of Cannes's titles and anticipated world premieres, the World Film Festival (WFF) offers a lot of obscure and unknown movies. Going to the theater becomes a game of head or tail where you never know what you're going to see and might end up with either a stinker or the year's new discovery. Avid followers are aware and ready for this adventurous context that can become very tiresome for casual filmgoers. To quote Dante : « Abandon all hope all ye who enter here. »
Maybe I'm too harsh, the programming team did manage to score a lot of exciting titles this year, such as the North American premiere of Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Other Cannes's favorites include Eric Khoo's My Magic, Maradona by Kusturica, the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Italian political thriller Wild Blood and French exctentric Le Voyage aux Pyrénées. With its Oscar nomination last year and the director's reputation, Andrzej Wajda's Katyn should be one of the highlights.
Quebec is as usual well represented with the world premieres of Le Banquet, a thriller set during a student strike, Ce qu'il faut pour vivre, a film written by Bernard Émond and featuring Natar Ungalaaq, the star of Atanarjuat: The Running Man, and Stéphane Géhami's En plein coeur. The documentary section is also generous with intriguing titles, including Slamdance's hit Dear Zachary: A Letter from a Father to His Son, a incursion in the world of pornography with 9 to 5 - Days in Porn, Orson Welles and Goya and Claudette, a film about a 60 years old prostitute ! Not much for genre lovers, but Your Name Here, a science-fiction drama starring Bill Pullman as a writer whose novel becomes too real, and Gordon Chan's Painted Skin should be worth seeing.
As for guests, we can expect hommages to Tony Curtis, producer Alan Jadd Jr, Isabelle Hupert and a master class given by Brian De Palma. It all begins on the 21st of August with Faubourg 36, the new film from the director of Les choristes.
I invite you all to have a look at the WFF's website. If you see anything interesting I didn't mention, make sure to tell everyone about it in the comments. I should be able to see a few films myself, so expect a bunch of reviews in the days to come.