The best of IRL Cannes
It’s back! Here are our top six picks from the festival
THE MAD MUSICAL: ANNETTE
Opening Night bash at Cannes IRL this year is Annette, French filmmaker Leos Carax’s follow-up to his truly bonkers masterpiece, Holy Motors. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard will sing surreal original songs from the band Sparks, in what the trailer pitches not as merely a film, but “une expérience de cinema”.
THE PROVOCATEUR: BENEDETTA
“It’s a love story, it’s a religious story, it’s a strange story!” is how Paul Verhoeven described his latest film film to Empire last year. Based on the book Immodest Acts by Judith C. Brown, this lesbian nun psychosexual melodrama is likely to ruffle some feathers on the Croisette — and that’s exactly how Verhoeven likes it.
THE DARK COMEDY: RED ROCKET
Director Sean Baker filmed Tangerine on iphones and The Florida Project from the perspective of a six-year-old. His new film — telling the irreverent story of a washed-up porn star (Simon Rex) returning to his Texas hometown — promises another strikingly fresh perspective, with almost entirely non-professional actors in the cast.
THE RELIABLE ECCENTRIC: THE FRENCH DISPATCH
Wes Anderson’s tenth film was supposed to debut at last year’s Cannes, before the pandemic scuppered that. The filmmaker decided to save its premiere for 2021, turning his patented symmetrical stylings and quirky humour into a love letter to journalism and French culture. It’s bound to go down like a pastelcoloured macaron at the festival.
THE INTENSE HORROR: TITANE
French filmmaker Julia Ducournau’s first film, the cannibalistic horror Raw, caused audience members to faint when it first premiered; her mysterious follow-up looks similarly unnerving. Curiously, in lieu of a synopsis (no plot details are available beyond a trailer), the film’s distributor has simply provided a definition for the movie’s title: “A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion”. Well then.
THE CRITIC’S FAVOURITE: MEMORIA
The English language debut of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul — who previously won the festival’s top prize for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives — sees Tilda Swinton as a character suffering from Exploding Head Syndrome in a surreal Herzogian jungle. An early Palme D’OR frontrunner? Bien sûr!