CANNES FEST PREVIEW
What’s getting the buzz
Quebec director Denis Villeneuve will carry the flag for Canada at the Cannes Film Festival this year, when his new film, Sicario, plays in competition. The crime drama — the Spanish title means hit man — stars Emily Blunt as an FBI agent fighting a Mexican drug cartel. The film also stars Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro and Jon Bernthal. The film is a U.S. production.
Last year, three Canadian films were in competition for the Palme d’Or and other festival prizes: David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars; Atom Egoyan’s The Captive; and Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, which took home the jury prize, tied with Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language.
The 2014 festival also featured Lost River, the directing debut of London, Ontario, native Ryan Gosling, and a new film from Quebec’s Stéphane Lafleur, Tu dors Nicole.
But when the announcement was made on Thursday for the 2015 lineup, Villeneuve was the only Canadian in a list of 17 films that is heavy on European productions and also includes three Asian directors.
The competition list usually includes 20 films, so there will probably be some late additions before the festival, which runs from May 13 to May 24 this year.
For North American audiences, many of the biggest names will be screening their films out of competition, which means no possibility of prizes, but guarantees all the glitz of the festival’s redcarpet galas. They include Woody Allen’s newest,
Irrational Man, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone; Pixar’s Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen; Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy and directed by George Miller; and The Little Prince, directed by Mark Osborne and based on the beloved book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Much of the animation for The Little Prince was done in Montreal.
THE COMPETITION ALSO INCLUDES:
Carol, from U.S. director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven), based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith and starring Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett in the story of department store clerk in 1950s New York who falls for a married woman.
Macbeth, directed by Australia’s Justin Kurzel, stars Michael Fassbender as Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth in a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s 1606 play. This one was filmed on location in Scotland.
The Sea of Trees, by U.S. filmmaker Gus Van Sant, stars Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe in the story of two men who meet in a forest near Mount Fuji that is famous for its suicides. Naomi Watts also stars as McConaughey’s wife.
Youth, from Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, stars Michael Caine as an orchestra conductor who is asked to come out of retirement. The film also features Paul Dano, Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda and Harvey Keitel.
Louder Than Bombs, an English-language debut from Danish director Joachim Trier, stars Gabriel Byrne, Jesse Eisenberg, Amy Ryan and David Strathairn. It tells the story of a war photographer (Isabelle Huppert) who is killed in a car crash, and what her family discovers about her afterward.
The Lobster, from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps), stars Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, Olivia Colman and John C. Reilly and tells a bizarre story about a future society where people must find a mate in 45 days or be transformed into animals. Also in competition: Dheepan, by French director Jacques Audiard; La loi du marché (A Simple Man), by French director Stéphane Brizé; Marguerite and Julien, by French director Valerie Donzelli; Il racconto dei racconti (The Tale of Tales), by Italy’s Matteo Garrone; The Assassin, by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien; Mountains May Depart, by China’s Jia Zhangke; Our Little Sister, by Hirokazu Koreeda of Japan; Mon Roi (My King ) by the French director who goes by Maïwenn; and Son of Saul, the only debut feature in competition, from Laszlo Nemes of Hungary.