Bruno Dumont will be back on the Cannes Croisette next month, albeit in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, not in competition for the Palme d’Or.
“Red Rocks” will be the French auteur’s first film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival since 2021’s “France,” and his seventh feature-length movie to premiere there overall. Other notable world premieres for Dumont at Cannes include two Grand Prix wins, for “L’Humanité” in 1999 and “Flandres” in 2006. But should “Red Rocks” premiering out of competition at Cannes be considered a snub? Not necessarily. Dumont’s has plenty of history with the festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section; he even premiered his feature-length debut, “The Life Of Jesus,” in that category in 1997.
But enough about Dumont’s Cannes history, and onto a brief synopsis of “Red Rocks.” Shot on the French Riviera, the film marks a major pivot in the director’s eccentric filmography, away from sci-fi dramedy hijinks of 2024’s “The Empire” toward a realistic portrait of childhood. As per a logline via Mubi, the film is “the chronicle of the rivalry between two gangs of kids, locals and summer visitors, competing in the perilous game of cliff jumping. Their story turns into a “Romeo and Juliet”-style romance, a game of life, love, and death.”
“Red Rocks” joins a Directors’ Fortnight lineup that includes Reed Van Dyk‘s “Atonement,” starring Kenneth Branagh, a new film by Radu Jude, Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri‘s “Mrs. Dalloway,” and Kantemir Balagov‘s “Butterfly Jam.” Take a look at the entire lineup for the 58th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight here.
Stay tuned for more details on “Red Rocks,” like the official world premiere date, soon. No word on who will distribute “Red Rocks” stateside yet but expect it to hit French cinemas later this year.
