A Primer to the films in Competition at the 72nd Festival de Cannes
Will you be enjoying the turquoise waters of the south of France this month, and wandering through twilight streets into filigreed theaters for the 72nd Cannes Film Festival? Me neither. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't get excited about the scope of films on offer. As usual, twenty films will compete for the Palme d'Or, decided this year by Alejandro Iñárritu and his jury. Among the contenders are a zombie film, a mafia saga, a science-horror about malevolent plants, and even a movie where a whistled language might solve a crime. Unless you're at Cannes, you won't see these films for a while, so in the meantime enjoy our preview below and watch recommendations of other films by the directors in competition:
Jim JARMUSCH – THE DEAD DON’T DIE
The honor of Film d’Ouverture (opening movie) goes to Jim Jarmusch's third Deadpan undead film, this time featuring zombies, Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, and Chloë Sevigny. On a side note, Sevigny is also director of a short, “White Echo,” to be featured in the CANNES COURT MÉTRAGE (short films).
Jarmusch film to watch: You'll get a different opinion about where to start with Jarmusch depending on who you ask, but my favorite is Down by Law, a surreal jailbreak farce featuring young Roberto Benigni and Tom Waits.
Pedro ALMODÓVAR – DOLOR Y GLORIA (PAIN AND GLORY)
Spanish stylist, Almodóvar, is working again with Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, here self-reflexively directing a film about a film director. The film probes memories and relationships, and will likely be coupled with Almodóvar's penchant for intertextuality and challenging themes.
Almodóvar film to watch: Talk to Her is beautiful and melancholy, funny and heartbreaking, and among other surreal moments, features a tiny man climbing a woman's enormous, naked body.
Marco BELLOCCHIO – IL TRADITORE (THE TRAITOR)
A biography of Tommaso Buscetta, the first Italian Mobster to be known as a pentito (informant), and who was key in indicting nearly five-hundred members of the Mafia. This old country Goodfellas is directed by outspoken Italian New Wave director, Marco Bellocchio.
Bellocchio film to watch: Why not start with Bellochio's first, Fists in the Pocket, said to be autobiographical and scored by a youngish Ennio Morricone.
BONG Joon-Ho – GISAENGCHUNG (PARASITE)
The trailer for Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite describes the film as a family tragicomedy, but besides that it's hard to make sense of what's going on, except that forgery, deception, and fresh fruit come into play. Starring Bong Joon-Ho's frequent lead, charismatic-oddball Song Kang-ho, there's no doubt that this will be another of Bong's genre-bending, and eminently entertaining thrillers.
Bong film to watch: Obviously, watch them all, but if you don't know where to start, skip to his second film, Memories of Murder, a cerebral thriller about Korea's most infamous serial killings, starring Song Kang-ho, of course, and setting the table for Bong's penchant for genre disruption.
Jean-Pierre DARDENNE & Luc DARDENNE – YOUNG AHMED
Cannes sweethearts the Dardenne Brothers are back, trying for their third Palme d'Or with Young Ahmed, a story about the radicalization of a boy living in Belgium. An exploration of racism, youth, innocence, and above all what it means to be an outsider, Young Ahmed is already said to be a controversial film.
Dardennes' film to watch: The brothers' monumentally influential blend of committed naturalism, long takes, and flesh-and-blood characters is thoughtfully manifest in L'Enfant, an honest and wounded long look at youthful parents.
Arnaud DESPLECHIN – OH MERCY!
In Oh Mercy! – or Roubaix, Une Lumière – Descplechin directs Roschdy Zem as Daoud, a police chief investigating a murder on Christmas night. Léa Seydoux also stars in what is said to be a journey from darkness to, possibly, hope.
No Trailer Available
Desplechin film to watch: Desplechin was sued for Kings and Queen, or Rois et Reine, by his ex-girlfriend, who accused the director of revealing intimate details about their private life. The film tells two overlapping narratives. In one, Catherine Deneuve's character, Nora, cares for her ill father and her autistic son; meanwhile Nora's ex plots to escape from a mental hospital.
DIAO Yinan – NAN FANG CHE ZHAN DE JU HUI (THE WILD GOOSE LAKE)
Starting his career as a writer for director Zhang Yang, Diao began directing his own films a decade ago. His stories revolve around police, sheriffs, killers, and criminals, and feature carefully drawn characters in tightly constructed stories. There's little information about The Wild Goose Lake except that it involves a gangster, his family, and a redemption arc.
No Trailer Available
Diao film to watch: Black Coal, Thin Ice took Diao eight years to write and won the Golden Bear at the 64th Berlin International film festival. Liao Fan, who won a Silver Bear for his leading role, plays a detective investigating a dismembered body.
Mati DIOP – ATLANTICS
Not only the first woman on this list, but the first black woman in Cannes competition ever, Mati Diop's first feature-length film takes place in and was filmed around Senegal. Local actors populate Atlantics, which follows a young woman whose lover goes missing.
No Trailer Available
Diop film to watch: Look for A Thousand Suns, a documentary / fiction / nonfiction hybrid that follows Magaye Niang, the non-professional actor who starred in Touki Bouki, one of two films directed by Diop's celebrated filmmaker uncle, Djibril Diop Mambéty.
Xavier DOLAN – MATTHIAS AND MAXIME
Matthias and Maxine is Canadian Xavier Dolan's eighth film as director, and he's only 30-years-old! While early films were celebrated – including at Cannes – Dolan's recent output has received increasingly negative reception. Little is known about Dolan's latest, except that he's the director, writer, producer, and star.
No Trailer Available
Dolan film to watch: Laurence Anyways tells the story of a husband's male-to-female transition and the journey that she experiences with her wife. Dolan, an openly gay filmmaker, won the Queer Palm for this film, which like every one of his films he both wrote and directed.
Jessica HAUSNER – LITTLE JOE
A genetically altered plant scatters seeds which alter the living beings they come into contact with. Or do they? This seems to be the question Jessica Hausner's Little Joe will probe, perhaps updating Invasion of the Body Snatchers for our post-human generation.
No Trailer Available
Hausner film to watch: Amour Fou, Hausner's fourth film, tells the story of the last days of Heinrich von Kleist, a German dramatist whose life would end fulfilling a suicide pact with his terminally ill lover, Henriette Vogel.
Ken LOACH – SORRY WE MISSED YOU
In the rarified air of film-makers who have won the Palme d'Or twice, Loach is tackling, once again, social issues, with Sorry We Missed You, a film about the 2008 financial crisis in Great Britain, as experienced by a debt-ridden family.
No Trailer Available
Loach film to watch: The Wind That Shakes the Barley explores the moral conflicts of the Irish revolution, as seen through the eyes of two brothers, played by Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney. This would be Loach's first film to win the Palme d'Or.
Ladj LY – LES MISÉRABLES
Actor, documentarian, and now director, Ladj Ly's Les Misérables is a feature-length expansion of his short film of the same name, which follows an anti-crime squad's difficulty dealing with conflicting Parisian gangs, all the while being monitored by drones.
No Trailer Available
Ly film to watch: “365 Days in Clichy-Montfermeil” is a 45 minute documentary which, in Ly's words is “about the riots in the Paris suburbs in 2005. The idea was to give an insider point of view. To give a voice to the people revolting.”
Terrence MALICK – A HIDDEN LIFE
While his last two films were loose and experimental improvisations, Terrence Malick's latest, A Hidden Life, is said to be a return to narrative form; in other words, he's back to using a screenplay. The film follows a World War Two conscientious objector, and I won't give any more spoilers away, except to say the ending sounds grim.
No Trailer Available
Malick film to watch: Why not start with Badlands, in which Malick perfectly blends his painterly screen compositions with a tense road journey. Filmed in 1973 and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, Badlands was inspired by the real life killing spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate.
Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO & Juliano DORNELLES – BACURAU
When a documentary filmmaker brings a camera into the Brazilian backcountry he discovers there's more to the locals than they let on, especially after the trauma of the sudden death of a village matriarch. Udo Kier and Sônia Braga star, and Kleber Mendonça Filho co-directs with his past production designer Juliano Dornelles.
No Trailer Available
Mendonça Filho to watch: Aquarius features a celebrated performance by Sônia Braga who plays Clara, a 65-year-old Brazilian widow who would die rather than leave her tenement, which is slated for demolition. The film provoked criticism from the Brazilian government, prompting protests at the 2016 Cannes film festival.
Corneliu PORUMBOIU – THE WHISTLERS
Yes, there is whistling in The Whistlers, the latest from Eastern European director Corneliu Porumboiu. The whistling is an actual language used in some parts of the Canary Islands and plays a pivotal roll in this thriller featuring a conflicted Romanian detective roaming the tropical island of La Gomera.
No Trailer Available
Porumboiu film to watch: The Romanian director's first film, 12:08 East of Bucharest, won the Caméra d'Or Prize (best first film) at Cannes in 2006. It uses deadpan humor to sort through the paradoxes of a city's role in the Romanian revolution.
Ira SACHS – FRANKIE
A family spanning three generations meets for a reunion in a historic seaside village in Portugal. There, a family matriarch – played by Isabelle Huppert in her 10,000th film – faces mortality. Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear and Brendan Gleeson co-star.
No Trailer Available
Sachs film to watch: For complicated family dynamics check out Forty Shades of Blue, which features Rip Torn and is inspired by Satyajit Ray's classic Bengali film, Charulata.
Céline SCIAMMA – PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU
An 18th century portrait painter must get to know a young bride on the eve of her wedding in order to create a portrait in secret. Expect subversion of gender-norms, as Sciamma is known for exploring gender fluidity and sexual identity.
No Trailer Available
Sciamma film to watch: Water Lilies – or its superior French title Naissance des Pieuvres (birth of the octopi) – focuses on the coming-of-age of teen girls navigating queer relationships. It also stars Adèle Haenel, Sciamma's current romantic partner.
Elia SULEIMAN – IT MUST BE HEAVEN
Always writing, directing, and starring in his own films, Suleiman is at it again with It Must Be Heaven. This time Suleiman plays an ostensibly autobiographical character, a Palestinian man who wants to be anywhere but Palestine. However, no matter the distance he travels, Suleiman's character feels Palestine breathing down his back as he discovers that elements of racism, military policing, and border politics are globally ubiquitous.
No Trailer Available
Suleiman film to watch: A professor and a Christian Palestinian, Suleiman won the 2002 Cannes Jury Prize for his controversial Divine Intervention, a surreal, comedic look at the Israel-Palestine border conflict.
Justine TRIET – SIBYL
The fourth film by a woman on our list, which, sadly, ties the 2011 record, Sibyl is said to be a film about the female psyche. Triet's film focuses on a novelist-turned-psychoanalyst who becomes increasingly absorbed by her client's life.
No Trailer Available
Triet film to watch: Filmed during the May 6, 2012 French presidential elections, Age of Panic mixes documentary style film-making with the fictitious story of a journalist covering the event. Triet employed her strengths as a past documentary filmmaker.