The classics strands at film festivals are frustrating things for critics. On the one hand, the chance to see shiny new restorations of some of the greatest movies ever made on the big screen in plush surroundings is as about as good a way to spend your time as we can imagine. On the other, if you’re there as press, it’s almost impossible to sneak off to one of those films without missing something you’re meant to be covering.
Still, it’s always fun to see the line-ups of what you’re missing half a world away, or while you’re queueing for the new Atom Egoyan film or something, particularly as new restorations often end up screening at more local festivals, or ending up on a shiny new Blu-Ray. And this year being the 70th Cannes Film Festival, the Cannes Classics strand is shaping up to be a doozy.
The program in part will showcase a history of the festival, with new restorations of films including “The Wages Of Fear,” “Blow-Up,” “In The Realm Of The Senses” and “All That Jazz,” while “L’Atalante,” “Belle De Jour” and, uh, a 4K restoration of Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” will screen outside that section. And in the documentary section, the highlight looks to be “Filmworker,” a new doc about the relationship between Stanley Kubrick and his collaborator and assistant Leon Vitali.
Like the rest of the fest, it all kicks off on May 17th. You can read the full line-up below.
A Brief History Of The Cannes Film Festival
BATTLE OF THE RAILS – Rene Clement (1946)
THE WAGES OF FEAR – Henri-Georges Clouzot (1952)
MERRY-GO-ROUND – Zoltan Fabri (1955)
ILA AYN? – Georges Nasser (1957)
I EVEN MET HAPPY GYPSIES – Aleksandar Petrovic (1967)
BLOW-UP – Michelangelo Antonioni (1966)
SIEGE – Gilberto Tofano (1969)
OH, SUN – Med Hondo (1970)
BABATU, LES TROIS CONSEILS – Jean Rouch (1976)
IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES – Nagisa Oshima (1976)
ALL THAT JAZZ – Bob Fosse (1979)
MAN OF IRON – Andzej Wajda (1981)
THE WAY – Yilmaz Güney (1982)
BALLAD OF NARAYAMA – Shohei Imamura (1983)
EL SOL DEL MEMBRILLO – Victor Eric (1992)
A SHORT HISTORY OF SHORT FILMS (1951-1999)
Other events
MADAME DE… – Max Ophuls (1953)
L’ATALANTE – Jean Vigo (1934)
NATIVE SON (Pierre Chenal (1951)
PAPARAZZI – Jacques Rozier (1963)
BELLE DE JOUR – Luis Bunuel (1967)
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT – Robert Redford (1992)
LUCIA – Humberto Solas (1968)
Documentaries About Cinema
THE BELGIAN’S ROAD TO CANNES – Henri de Gerlache (2017)
DAVID STRATTON – A CINEMATIC LIFE – Sally Aitken (2017)
FILMWORKER – Tony Zierra (2017)
BECOMING CARY GRANT – Mark Kidel (2017)
JEAN DOUCHET, L’ENFANT AGITÉ – Fabien Hagege, Guillaume Namur, Vincent Haasser