“Slack Bay” (“Ma Loute”)
Director: Bruno Dumont
Synopsis: In a small French fishing community in 1910, the investigation into the disappearance of some tourists brings the police inspectors into the orbit of an eccentric, inbred family of aristocrats and the incorrigible 18-year-old prankster son of a local ferryman,.
What You Need To Know: If there’s been any filmmaker’s transformation more unexpected and delightful than the director behind such crushingly morose theologically-minded fare as “Camille Claudel” and “Outside Satan” morphing into the droll, hilarious trickster behind 2014’s brilliant miniseries “Li’l Quinquin,” we can’t think of it. And it appears Dumont is staying in the latter register for his new film, which reunites him with “Camille Claudel” star Juliette Binoche, but looks as goofy as that title was grim. The trailer suggests the level of madcap hi-jinks (all centered, like with “Li’l Quinquin,” around the investigation of a crime) will if anything be even more slapstick than before, with Binoche especially looking like she’s having a ball, amid a cast including Valeria Tedeschi-Bruni and Fabrice Luchini. If you’d told us a couple of years ago that our best bet for Croisette-side belly laughs would come from a Bruno Dumont joint, we’d have blinked at you slowly and made the “cuckoo” gesture, but now here we are, expecting major LOLs from “Slack Bay.” Wonders will never cease.
“Staying Vertical”
Director: Alain Guiraudie
Synopsis: A filmmaker in search of inspiration finds plenty during a series of unexpected and unusual encounters that occur when he finds himself suddenly saddled with sole responsibility for a baby after a tryst in the countryside.
What You Need To Know: We can’t say we were overly familiar with Guiraudie prior to 2013, although he’d made 5 features in his native France prior to his international breakout. “Stranger by the Lake,” which won him the Best Director award in the Un Certain Regard section (deservedly so; it’s a terrifically taut piece of filmmaking) seems both typical of his approach in that most of his features have dealt with LGBT themes, and atypical in its chilly, Hitchcockian vibe. “Staying Vertical” sees him return to what is apparently more his hallmark style with a gentler-sounding dramedy, but we’re very curious to see how the renewed confidence he must feel after the 2013 win affects him. And his “promotion” from Un Certain Regard into the main competition also bodes well here, even if films about filmmakers trying to find inspiration are usually roughly as enticing as books about writers with writer’s block.
“Toni Erdmann”
Director: Maren Ade
Synopsis: A highly eccentric prankster father tries to reconnect with his serious businesswoman daughter on a trip to Bucharest by developing a wild alter ego.
What You Need To Know: According to popular wisdom, German films have historically had a hard time making it into Cannes competition lineups, and the festival’s unimpressive track record as regards female directors is well documented. So it would seem that Ade, the German director behind 2009’s terrific “Everyone Else,” has overcome two significant barriers to land a slot in the 2016 main competition with her third directorial feature. Her firstm “Forest for the Trees,” was actually her no-budget, DV-shot graduation film, but even then her unique perspective and talent for coaxing extraordinary performances from actors was in evidence, before the much more polished “Everyone Else” picked up the Jury Prize and the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2009 Berlinale. Since then, Ade’s been busy as a producer, most notably on Miguel Gomes’ “Tabu” and then his “Arabian Nights” trilogy, but despite that producer pedigree, we’re very glad to see her back as a writer/director, especially with a premise that sounds like it will give her incisive eye for the weirdness of interpersonal relationships full rein after far too long an absence.
“Two Lovers and a Bear”
Director: Kim Nguyen
Synopsis: In a small town near the North Pole in eternally frozen surroundings, two young people fall in love, despite inner demons and the difficulty of life in this exposed and isolated place.
What You Need To Know: Nguyen’s most celebrated previous title, the bruising 2012 African child soldier film “War Witch,” gained a Special Mention in Berlin and went on to be a finalist for Canada in the Foreign Language category at the Oscars. And its mixture of rugged, ugly and uncompromising social issues cinema with a subdued, almost prosaic sense of magic realism means that his new film, which trades the sweltering jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo for the icy wastelands of the arctic and features one actor whose character, according to IMDB is “Bear’s Voice,” might not be quite such a departure as it seems. The other reason to get excited is the cast, with “Orphan Black” phenomenon Tatiana Maslany getting an eagerly anticipated lead, starring opposite Dane DeHaan, who despite impressive turns in several indies, has not quite broken through in the way it looked like he would after 2012’s “Chronicle.”
“The Unknown Girl” (“La Fille Inconnue”)
Director: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
Synopsis: A young doctor refuses treatment to a nameless woman and discovers that she subsequently died, so the doctor embarks on a quest to discover who she was.
What You Need To Know: Two-time Palme d’Or winners the Dardenne brothers were truly unlucky to miss out on silverware with their last Cannes entry, the brilliant, riveting “Two Days One Night” and have to be considered major contenders for their newest title. Working again with a slightly higher-profile cast than they traditionally do, here celebrated French actor Adele Haenel takes the lead. She’s less internationally recognized than Marion Cotillard, who starred in “Two Days One Night,” but has won Cesar Awards the last two years running and scored in Cannes in 2014 with the Directors’ Fortnight-winning “Love at First Fight,” so she’s a pretty big noise in France. The film also sees the brothers reunite with regular cast members Fabrizio Rongione and Olivier Gourmet, plus Jeremie Renier and Thomas Doret who featured in their Grand Prix-winning “The Kid With The Bike” and boasts a typically socially-conscious, morally provocative storyline. The Dardennes usual standard of business is so exceptionally high that the suggestion this films might be “business as usual” from the Belgian brothers is actually an immense compliment.
Honorable Mentions:
This list could have gone on forever —in fact, we toyed with the notion of listing only the films we’re not that interested in, as that would be far more manageable. However, the most egregious absence from the above is probably the borderline sacrilegious omission of previous Palme winner Ken Loach‘s “I, Daniel Blake,” the story of a family caught in the welfare trap. We weren’t keen on Loach’s last Cannes title “Jimmy’s Hall,” but hope and expect that ‘Daniel Blake,’ which will be his 14th film selected for Cannes Competition, breaking his own record, will prove a more fitting swansong, if swansong it is.
On the other end of the seriousness scale: “Blood Father” from the director of “Mesrine” and the “Assault on Precinct 13” remake, looks like it’s giving Mel Gibson the chance to grab the “grizzled aging actioner” crown from Liam Neeson; “Hell or High Water” is a crime drama with Chris Pine and Ben Foster from David Mackenzie who directed the stunning “Starred Up” (see the first images above and below here); “Sweet Dreams” with Berenice Bejo is the latest from prolific Italian maestro Marco Bellocchio; trickster god Alejandro Jodorowsky returns to warp our minds with “Endless Poetry“; beloved Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda follows up the slightly minor-feeling “Our Little Sister” with Un Certain regard title “After The Storm“; French actress-turned director Nicole Garcia returns with “From the Land of the Moon,” the second Marion Cotillard film In Competition along with Xavier Dolan‘s; uncompromising award-winning Filipino director Brillante Mendoza competes with “Ma’ Rosa“; Jim Jarmusch will not only play In Competition with “Paterson” but his Iggy Pop/Stooges documentary “Gimme Danger” will play in a Midnight slot; the new trailer for Na Hong-jin‘s “The Wailing” has reminded us just how great his previous thrillers “The Yellow Sea” and “The Chaser” were; and a quick shout-out too to Kleber Mendonca Filho‘s film “Aquarius” which scooped a Competition slot despite only being his sophomore narrative feature —having caught up with his chillingly assured debut “Neighboring Sounds” we can see why.
And finally, very late addition (a special screening as a tribute to Robert de Niro) of Jonathan Jakubowicz’ boxing drama “Hands of Stone,” which stars de Niro and Edgar Ramirez, also has us very curious: we’re big fans of Ramirez and are always hopeful that the next de Niro film will arrest his latter-day slump.
We’re champing at the bit to bring you coverage of all these and more from next Thursday onward. Tell us what you’re most looking forward to so we can make sure not to skip it —a definite, worrying possibility with a schedule this packed.
