“Les Filles D’Olfa” (“Four Daughters”), Kaouther Ben Hania
“Anatomie D’une Chute,” Justine Triet
“Monster,” Kore-eda Hirokazu
“Il Sol Dell’Avvenire,” Nanni Moretti
“La Chimera,” Alice Rohrwacher
“About Dry Grasses,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“L’Ete Dernier,” Catherine Breillat
“The Passion of Dodin Bouffant,” Tran Anh Hung
“Rapito,” Marco Bellocchio
“May December,” Todd Haynes
“Firebrand,” Karim Ainouz
“The Old Oak,” Ken Loach
“Perfect Days,” Wim Wenders
“Banel Et Adama,” Ramata-Toulaye Sy
“Jeunesse,” Wang Bing
Killers of the Flower Moon will play out of competition, along with films from Victor Erice, Takeshi Kitano, Steve McQueen, Wang Bing and Wim Wenders (in addition to their competition entries), Kleber Mendonça Filho, Sam Levinson, Kim Jee-woon, and Warwick Thornton
Credit to Cannes for consistently challenging themselves programming-wise even if the press releases for Competition seem rote. I have no doubt there are a lot of great stuff folded in UCR, and sometimes hiding in plain sight in Competition.
I was hoping they'd pare the Italians down to Rohrwacher and Bellochio, but Moretti's going to be wanting that Competition slot every single time. I suppose why shouldn't he since Fremaux will give him that Competition slot every single time, but I suppose it's more amplified when you have a more judicious Scorsese refusing Competition although, I'm sure, there's a big difference in launch between Scorsese's two-hundred million history of the FBI, and Moretti driving a moped around Rome. Moretti is easily one of the more tiresome directors and film personalities around, and I have seen nothing good from him (I haven't seen anything prior to Caro diario, and I admit I skipped his 2021 Cannes bomb.)
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Fremaux did a good job paring down the Americans to two, at least. Two is a good number for the Americans even in a busy year. If I recall correctly, the other Americans thrown about were Jeff Nichols and Alexander Payne, so at least Fremaux landed on the two most interesting Americans available. Wes Anderson's last was perhaps his most aesthetically exhilarating of his career, and Anderson is probably being taken for granted at this point. He will be missed whenever we're not used to him. During the presser, Fremaux succinctly described it as a "Wes Anderson film. Full stop." I'll take it even though of course a new Todd Haynes film is infinitely more interesting, perhaps moreso since he seems to returning to familiar territory after 2019's underrated whistle-blower Dark Waters (an important snap-study of an important American lawyer) and 2021's blast of The Velvet Underground.
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Regardless of Wang Bing (and the recent Venice and Berlin winners), I'm actually a big fan of segregating documentaries from Competition if only because it's easier as a jury member to go along with something you agree with intellectually and emotionally and can compromise on. It's perhaps a silly stance on my part, but it's nice to see Cannes widen a bit this year, and there's no reason to expect this will be a 2004 where a dodgy doc wins the top prize and Competition is open to children's animation. Programming any debut feature straight in Competition is bold, so I hope that Senegalese film works out for a lot of people. The last competition debut was execrable (2018's Yomeddine), but Son of Saul before it couldn't be a described as a miss in the slightest. (I wonder what Laszlo Nemes's is up to? Sunset was underrated).
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I could've used a Kore-eda break, and I can't say I'll even see his new one (unless critical tide is overwhelming), so perhaps they should've just swapped he and Kitano to make things more interesting at least before Hamaguchi continues in his token Japanese director at Cannes role (deserving and much more exciting!). It would have been nice to see more southeast Asian films as they always seem to deliver (even something like The Wild Goose Lake), but, obviously, if Bi Gan or Jia or whoever isn't ready, then they aren't ready. Plus, again, Fremaux locked-in Wang Bing.
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I've exhausted my energy toward boomer locks with Moretti, so I don't think I can much complain about Ken Loach again. His last two films were genuinely solid portraits of the gig economy (even the criticisms that Loach and Laverty were needlessly raising the stakes missed the point of working parcel jobs, visiting food banks regularly, etc.). It's been since 2008 with Wenders, so Wenders is probably fair game even if he seems plausible that he shows up...with a very late Wim Wenders film. (Two actually! counting his one in Premiere)
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On paper, I imagine this Jonathan Glazer will be the most anticipated for many, and I'm glad many have a big, mysterious title to look forward to especially since Glazer seems perhaps a tad too secretive. I tried to like Under the Skin like others here, but I found it mostly bereft of ideas (Sundance-y even) and peculiarly, memorable visuals outside of the ScarJo setpieces (most of the film is Johannson creeping around a truck in Glasgow at night). But Glazer deserves the benefit of the doubt; he's of course more than capable of delivering something memorable.
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I strongly suspect Fremaux will add at least two more to Competition in the weeks-to-come. The return of no-less-than Victor Erice occurring not in Competition seems baffling, but perhaps Erice doesn't want to compete like Scorsese. Nonetheless, year-in, year-out, Fremaux has difficulty programming Spanish-language films. My hope is that he throws Lisandro Alonso's latest in Competition ala Albert Serra last year. I don't know if Alonso's is in Spanish—I assume so, but it'd be welcome. Reygadas won't be ready until next year, at least. A lot of the Competition is geographically isolated to a few certain spots, so I'd love to see another Romanian filmmaker in Competition that isn't Cristian Mungiu. Puiu is probably available, and he's not returning with a Malmkrog sequel, but Radu Jude would have been such an exciting Cannes debutante although his might not be finished.
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One of those final Competition slots will go to a French film, though, I'm sure, and despite my bellyaching about more geographical diversity, Fremaux has selected (on-paper) another uninspiring batch to represent the festival's home country with Breillat being the exception. Justine Triet's Sibyl was just about the most middlebrow French-film of Cannes in recent years, and I'm not confident that Triet has the palette to deliver something that's not in the same wheelhouse. The Tran Ang Hung selection seems more for Magimel and Binoche than anything although I am open to it being 1996 again. Tran's film seems like the film that will screen in Competition the day Scorsese's sucks all the attention. I suspect one of the final Competition slots will go to Robin Campillo, Bertrand Bonello, or Bruno Dumont. I'm rooting for Bonello and Dumont. I admire Fremaux's lack of sentimentality toward his country people, but perhaps he should go with the interesting name here, especially since he lost Alice Diop to Venice last year. (Barbera's job gets so much easier once Fremaux combs through the titles.)
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Overall, I'm rooting for Aki Kaurismäki because I like Aki Kaurismäki. I wound not be surprised in the slightest, though, if Nuri Bilge Ceylan comes thundering down with the best film, though. (The Fortnight lineup should be fairly leviathan.)
soundchaser wrote: Thu Apr 13, 2023 6:36 pm
Very happy the new Kaurismäki will be there; was worried given the radio silence since its announcement.
Kaurismäki actually gave a big interview here in Finland recently, saying, among other things, that the film was shot in less than three weeks. He got this one made quickly, I think the film was already completed around new year.
I noticed that the english title is now Fallen Leaves, not "Dead Leaves".
You seemed to hint that the film could still end up in Competition. Is this a possibility?
Technically and to commend Apple’s decision to release the film in theatres even though the film was selected out of Competition, I extended the option for it to be in Competition. I invited Marty’s film to premiere out of Competition since it was a film for a platform, that was already fantastic. Then Apple said that they would release the film in theatres which was also fantastic. So I said, well in that case, you are welcome in Competition, and now we’ll see what their response is.
I’ll respect the decision of Martin Scorsese and of Apple.
So is this a symbolic gesture to extend your hand to all films from platforms that decide to be released in theatres?
Films that are not released in theatres cannot be in Competition. All films from platforms selected in Cannes that are released in theatres can be in Competition. Then we’ll decide based on the quality of the films.
Occupied City - 240'
Killers of the Flower Moon - 234'
Youth (Spring) - 212'
About Dry Grasses - 197'
Anatomy of a Fall - 150'
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - 142'
Asteroid City - 139'
Monster - 126'
Jeanne du Barry - 116'
The Old Oak - 110'
Olfa's Daughters - 110'
Last Summer - 104'
Club Zero - 100'
Banel & Adama - 100'
The Sun of the Future - 95'
Fallen Leaves - 81'
Strange Way of Life - 31'
Waiting for half these films to alienate the jurors who have already made up their minds to award Strange Way of Life the Palme based on the 'less is more' principle
I mean, there's of course really nothing to suggest that those are the actual run-times for these particular films even if they seem plausible (especially for Ceylan). It's just someone on Twitter poking around. Of course, a given film will be as long or as short as it needs to be, but all will be revealed soon enough. I haven't heard encouraging things out of the rumors for the five-or-six films expected to be added, but they are rumors. I wouldn't be surprised if Fortnight is the last stop in terms of hype. Knowing the films Fremaux has rejected over the years, I would not be surprised if this is very much not the best line-up he could have fielded (he's still giving slots to Moretti, Loach, Wenders...), but maybe one of his remaining selections can be on the level of a Pacificition.
The user who posted the run-times said that most of times listed are official as they came from the distributors' websites except for the Scorsese and McQueen. The run-times for those 2 came from Thierry Fremaux, where he said that the latter was four hours long in an interview and that the former was "5 minutes more than Once Upon a Time in America". He doesn't mention which version he compares it to OUATIA but the extended cut is 251 minutes and the European cut is 229 minutes, which means that the Scorsese can be anywhere from 235-256 minutes long.
In other news, Wang Bing himself revealed that his film in comp is the first part of a trilogy that was shot from 2014-2019.
It had been so long since any new word on the project that I'd assumed Wang abandoned it for the other films he shot in the region (Bitter Money, Mrs. Fang, 15 Hours). So it's exciting to hear that it instead turned into a sort of West of the Tracks-on-the-Yangtze. Now I hope we don't have a similarly long wait for I Come from Ikotun.
His out-of-competition film Man in Black is another one-person interview a la Fengming and Beauty Lives in Freedom, this time with the composer Wang Xilin. But it was filmed on stage in Paris (sans audience) in collaboration with the great Caroline Champetier, so it should look quite a bit different from those.
Just saw that Nick Pinkerton wrote The Sweet East - another critic taking a big step into filmmaking. (Wonder what Kent Jones is working on these days?)
Additions to the Cannes slate include new films from Lisandro Alonso, Robert Rodriguez, Amat Escalante, a short by Pedro Costa, and competition slots for Catherine Corsini and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
Between the Maiwenn / Depp opening film and now the new Corsini movie being actually selected in competition, looks like Frémaux decided decided to give 0 f**k and be absolutely tone-deaf.
It almost feels like a new Houellebecq / Depardieu is 2 days away from being added to the main competition.
Last edited by tenia on Mon Apr 24, 2023 7:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
