The 2010 Cannes Film Festival kicks off today, and yes, The Playlist will be in attendance again this year (though we don’t arrive until the weekend – no point in flying early to see “Robin Hood”). As we scour the schedules, get packed and get the details in place before we hit the Riviera this weekend we’ve highlighted the ten films we’re eager to see. Once we got over the absence of Terrence Malick’s highly anticipated “Tree Of Life,” we realized there is still a lot to look forward to this year.
Presented in alphabetical order are our 10 most anticipated titles. Check out the site this week as we round up the feedback from the red carpet and join us next week as we report directly from the south of France with our thoughts on the films that will be unspooling.
“Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats)” – dir. Xavier Dolan – Un Certain Regard
The Canadian phenom Xavier Dolan, who made a splash on the Croisette last year with his debut feature “I Killed My Mother,” returns with his sophomore effort and looks ready to wow the Un Certain Regard jury. The film tracks the complicated love triangle between best friends Francis and Mary as they both fall in love with Nick. The trailer for the film was released late last month and made a splash, displaying an unerring visual eye and a bold, pop approach. Can lightning strike twice for this auteur-in-the-making?
“Another Year” – dir. Mike Leigh – In Competition
Starring a number of Leigh mainstays including Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wright and Oliver Maltman, the sure-to-be improvised, slice-of-life film evidently centers on a married couple (played by Broadbent and Sheen) during the four seasons of a particular year. The director’s modus operandi is generally this: rehearse with his actors for months and let the story surface from the character’s interactions. Then a loose idea forms, the story eventually coalesces and he writes a script based on those improvisations and then shoots it, all with room for more spontaneity. The director’s approach hasn’t failed him yet and we’re curious what results come forth this time around.
“Biutiful” – dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu – In Competition
Produced by the Cha, Cha, Cha team (Guillermo Del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Iñárritu), the Spanish-language film stars Javier Bardem and Rubén Ochandiano (the gay character in Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces”), but not too much is known otherwise. From what we have gathered a man involved in illegal/shady dealing and possibly going through a midlife/personal crisis is confronted by his childhood friend who is now a policeman. The film marks the first screenplay the director has written without his longtime collaborator Guillermo Arriaga, who felt stiffed out of credit and moved on to direct his own multi-tiered narratives. Two-time Academy Award winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Iñárritu’s “Babel” and “21 Grams” collaborator) is handling the music chores this time around, and we are intrigued at the prospect of Iñárritu’s first venture outside his productive, award-winning partnership with Arriaga.
“Blue Valentine” – dir. Derek Cianfrance – Un Certain Regard
Director Derek Cianfrance’s “Brother Tied” made quite a splash over a decade ago at Sundance, but he’s barely been heard from since (though he has made several portrait docs of musicians like Mos Def, Run DMC and Jam Master Jay). His latest follows an imploding couple (Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) with a child, who are on the verge of a break-up and retreat to a motel to salvage and reminisce about their 10-year marriage. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, and is already slotted for an Oscar-baiting December 31st release. The awesome, made-for-each-other pairing of Gosling and Williams, along with the score by psych-pop indie rockers, Grizzly Bear has already made it one of our most anticipated films of the year; now we’re eager to see if it can live up to our expectations.
“Carlos” – dir. Olivier Assayas – Out Of Competition
Director Olivier Assayas does a 180 in his follow-up to the nuanced, celebrated and Playlist-approved family drama “Summer Hours.” His latest project, a made-for-TV mini-series, is an expansive, five and a half hour long biopic of famed terrorist Carlos The Jackal. As big fans of Assayas’ films, we’re interested to see how the director will shift gears to portray a personality as large and as infamous as this. However, judging by his previous work, we expect (and hope) his ability to craft characters, as well as his quiet approach, will add depth and resonance to a story that could so easily be played for cheap thrills.
“Certified Copy” – dir. Abbas Kiaorstami – In Competition
Celebrated Iranian director and previous Golden Palm winner Abbas Kiarostami returns to Cannes with this latest film, “Certified Copy.” Starring Cannes poster girl Juliette Binoche, details on this one are being kept close, but it concerns a love affair between British author and a French art gallery owner. Complications ensue. If anything, the film is certain to look gorgeous, though Kiaorstami’s enigmatic style may divide audiences.
“Fair Game” – dir. Doug Liman – In Competition
The story of CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson and what transpired when her husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq, has been given the big screen treatment by the unlikeliest of directors. Doug Liman, best known for “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. And Mrs. Smith” directs this film that early reviews have called a “wonderful human drama with political suspense that should interest anybody no matter how they vote.” Whether or not audiences are keen to revisit the “weapons of mass destruction” debacle that served as a pretext for the current war in Iraq remains to be seen, but if the performances by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn live up to the hype, this could be one of the unexpected breakouts at Cannes.
“Kaboom” – dir. Gregg Araki – Out Of Competition
We weren’t big fans of Araki’s previous schlocky, sexually transgressive films that were clearly made to shock and provoke with very little artistry going on (“Doom Generation,” “Totally Fucked Up”) but with 2004’s “Mysterious Skin” the director proved that he’s maturing by leaps and bounds, and with the right material, he can knock it out of the park. While his last film, “Smiley Face,” was a diversion into stoner-comedy territory, his latest finds him back in the wheelhouse of his earlier works. The film follows a college student who trips hard on hallucinogens and then believes he witnessed the murder of the mysterious red-haired girl who’s been haunting his dreams. This has the possibility of being a complete trainwreck or totally great (obviously, we’re hoping the latter) but it should be fascinating nonetheless.
“Route Irish” – dir. Ken Loach – In Competition
This last minute addition to the festival — Loach apparently had a change of heart about submitting the film — is so fresh that as of press time, it’s still not on the official site or screening schedules. The drama, which sees Loach reuniting with regular screenwriter Paul Laverty and, for the first time in 20 years, DoP Chris Menges (“Kes,” “The Reader”), is named after the dangerous road between Baghdad airport and the green zone of the city, and follows two private contractors in love with the same woman. It’s apparently quite action-heavy and a departure for the filmmaker. This is the second Iraq-focused film entering the competition and it will be interesting to see how the approaches compare and contrast, and more importantly, how the jury and press interpret their messages. Loach is a Cannes favorite, having won the Palme d’Or in 2006 with “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” and appearing at Cannes two years in a row following last year’s very celebratory and inspirational life-lessons comedy, “Looking For Eric.”
“You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger” – dir. Woody Allen – Out Of Competition
Yep, it’s the yearly hit-or-miss Woody Allen film, but, despite how you might feel about his late-stage work (a lot of misses, frankly), we’re always willing to give his films a shot. His latest London-set dramatic comedy features a stellar cast consisting of Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Lucy Punch, Freida Pinto. As we previously reported, the film centers on Brolin (playing the Allen character type) as a writer who doubts his own work and enters an extra-marital affair, while his wife (Watts) pines for a baby and seeks advice from a gypsy fortune teller. Of course, that’s only part of the story as the rest of the ensemble will surely flesh out the characters and situations.
Honorable mention: There are also a number of other titles piquing our curiosity at Cannes in the upcoming days. New Wave icon and provocateur Jean-Luc Godard will unveil his latest, “Film Socialisme” which, good or bad, will be sure to spur a reaction from audiences; Oliver Stone brings greed back to the big screen with his timely “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps”; Stephen Frears’ Gemma Arteton-starring softcore porn romantic comedy “Tamara Drewe” will try and charm festival attendees when it premieres; Hideo Nakata will try and serve up thrills with his English language “Chatroom”; Criti Puiu follows up his celebrated “The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu” with the drama “Aurora”; Diego Luna makes his directorial feature debut with “Abel” about a young boy, mute since his father leaves the family, who miraculously talks again only to have his life disrupted when the father returns; Patricio Guzman, best known for his trilogy “La batalla de Chile” returns with the docu-drama “Nostalgia For The Light”; and Lodge Kerrigan will unveil his latest, “Rebbeca H. (Return To The Dogs).” Let’s just hope nothing happens to the negative.