Over the weekend I was hard at work adding additional titles debuting at this year’s 2010 Cannes Film Festival in an effort to make sure once I am in town it is all about seeing the movies and working as little as possible on the asset process. As a result, I now have 17 of the 18 films in competition in the database as information on Sergei Loznitsa’s Schastye Moe (My Joy) doesn’t seem to be available. However, information on the other 17 is now readily available along with some new pictures and trailers for several of them.
First off, to the right is one of the first three images available for Mathieu Amalric’s Tournee, of which I also have the official synopsis for the film from the man most of you know as the villain from Quantum of Solace or Jean-Dominique Bauby from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
In Tournee (On Tour), Amalric stars as Joachim, a former Parisian television producer that left everything behind to start a new life in America. He comes back with a team of New Burlesque strip-tease performers whom he has fed fantasies of a tour of France. But their dream of this tour culminating in a last grand show in Paris goes up in smoke when Joachim is betrayed by an old friend and loses the theatre. You can browse all three images from the film in the RopeofSilicon gallery right here.
Next is Hors la Loi (Outside the Law), which I unfortunately don’t have any images or trailers for as of yet, but it sounds like it should be great. The film is actually a sequel to Franco-Algerian helmer Rachid Bouchareb’s 2006 Oscar-nominated feature Days of Glory (Indigènes), which was set in 1943 and tells the story of four soldiers along with 130,000 other “indigenous soldiers” from France’s North African colonies who helped liberate Gaul from the Nazis during WWII. Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) moves the story forward to the Algerian battles in Paris for independence from France in the wake of WWII. I’m making it a point to hopefully see Days of Glory before I leave for the festival.
The picture you see to the right is the first image from Kornél Mundruczó’s Tender Son – The Frankenstein Project, which was inspired by Mary Shelley’s original “Frankenstein” novel except with Mudruczo’s film the monster has been replaced by a child returning home from boarding school and centers on his familial struggles. You can get a larger look at the image by clicking here.
Another film that has particularly caught my eye is Bertrand Tavernier’s La Princesse de Montpensier starring Mélanie Thierry (The Legend of 1900), Gaspard Ulliel (Hannibal Rising), Lambert Wilson (Matrix Reloaded), Louis Garrel (The Dreamers and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet who will also be seen in the anticipated Cannes Midnight Screening of Black Heaven.
The film is based on a short story by Madame de La Fayette (published in 1662), co-scripted by Tavernier and Jean Cosmos and tells the tale of the passions and tragic fate of a princess, a rich heiress of a French kingdom under threat in the wars of religion of 1562. In love with the Duke of Guise since she was a child, she is forced to marry the Prince of Montpensier. I still don’t have any assets for this one as of yet, but should soon enough.
I have added the first five images from Xiaoshuai Wang’s Chongqing Blues, which centers on Lin, a sea captain returning from a six month journey when he is told that his 25-year-old son Lin Bo has been gunned down by the police. In his quest to understand what happened, he realizes he knew very little about his own son. He starts a journey back to Chongqin, a city he once lived. He will understand the impact of his paternal repeated absence on the life of his child. You can browse that gallery of images right here.
Finally, the only other In Competition title I have yet to tell you about since the line-up was announced is Daniele Luchetti’s La Nostra Vita, which I do have an international trailer for directly to the right.
This film centers on Claudio (Elio Germano), a construction worker with two children and a third on the way when he abruptly loses the love of his life. Upon his wife’s death he temps fate in an effort to rid himself of the pain. He focuses his attention in giving his children what they have not yet had — the welfare, money, whims and holidays. In a word “things.” He begins hunting a deal he can’t handle alone and is forced to turn to the only ones he can trust.
I have been updating the Cannes line-up as I add each movie and if you click here you will see all of the titles so far and links to those in the RopeofSilicon database.
Among the films not In Competition, but showing at the festival that I have recently updated include Xavier Dolan’s Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats), which is an Un Certain Regard entry centered on Francis (Dolan) and Mary (Monia Chokri), two friends who fall in love with the same person (Niels Schneider). The unhealthy trio born from this chance encounter, soon unravels in a situation where everyone interprets ambiguous obsessive and destructive behavior of their tormentor. The teaser trailer recently debuted much to the delight of several online readers. Check it out below and browse the RopeofSilicon gallery of five images from the film right here.
I also recently added David Verbeek’s R U There, a drama centered on Jitze, a young professional gamer, who travels the world to compete in video game tournaments. During a stay in Taipei his arm starts to hurt and he’s forced to take a few days rest. A night in his hotel, Jitze meets a girl and starts realizing what it means to be human in the age of the virtual worlds.
R U There is part of the Un Certain Regard competition, but sounds as if it would be an interesting film to play alongside Black Heaven, which also deals with the addiction of the virtual world to some extent. You can browse the gallery of four images from the film right here.
I just uploaded a Cannes promo trailer for Diego Luna’s Abel, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and will be showing as a Special Screening at Cannes. The film is Luna’s first narrative feature following his 2007 documentary on Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez. The film centers on the title character, a nineâ€yearâ€old boy whose confounding behavior and refusal to speak has landed him in a mental health facility near his home. His single mother, convinced that a reunion with his brother and sister might help his condition, persuades Abel’s doctor to release the boy for a single week. With his father absent, Abel becomes the unorthodox paternal figure who brings the family together. You can browse a gallery of seven pictures from the film right here.
Today’s second to last title to be mentioned is Andrei Ujica’s three-hour documentary The Autobiography Of Nicolae Ceausescu, which is playing out of competition. The film is described as a “demonstration” by the Romanian director, covering the life of Nicolae Ceausescus, a Romanian politician who was the Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989. The documentary is made exclusively of archive pictures of TVR and the National Film Archive and includes video of Nicolae and his wife’s December 1989 trial at which the two were sentenced to death by a military court on charges ranging from illegal gathering of wealth to genocide, and were executed in TârgoviÅŸte. The video is said to include footage of the two with their hands tied behind their backs as they were led outside to be executed.
And finally, below is the trailer for Cooked, a seven-minute short film that will be debuting at the Cannes Film Festival for to the Cinéfondation and Shorts Jury. While you can’t tell much from the trailer alone, the film tells the story of an improbable love triangle that springs up between a walrus, a seal and a lobster in an Arctic sauna. Director Jens Blank has put together much more information on the making of the short at his official site.
Stay up to date on all of my 2010 Cannes Film Festival coverage right here. The festival begins on May 12 and runs through May 23rd and I will be on the Croistette covering ever single day of it.
