Cannes 2009

[ellipsis7]

Coppola's 'Tetro' to open Fortnight

Francis Ford Coppola is to open the 41st edition of Directors' Fortnight (May 14-24) with his Argentina-set family drama 'Tetro.'

[Nothing]

Wow, Coppola must be really pissed to have done that =P~

I guess we're all jumping the gun a little with the Dumont. Perhaps it wasn't finished (unlikely) or perhaps it just isn't any good - Twentynine Palms was great but a step down from L'Humanite and, whilst I liked it on first viewing, Flandres borders on disappointing in retrospect. If this is a step down again...

Oh and another one missing: Brisseau.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The full Director's Fortnight lineup (the features, anyway):

Ajami by Scandar Copti & Yaron Shani (Israel) (closing film)
Amreeka by Cherien Dabis (U.S.)
Les Beaux gosses by Riad Sattouf (France)
Carcasses by Denis Coté (Canada)
Daniel y Ana by Michel Franco (Mexico)
Eastern Plays by Kamen Kalev (Bulgaria)
La Famille Wolberg by Axelle Ropert (France)
Go Get Some Rosemary by Benny & Josh Safdie (U.S.)
De Helaasheid der dingen by Felix van Groeningen (Belgium)
Here by Tzu-Nyen Ho (Singapore)
Humpday by Lynn Shelton (U.S.)
I Love You Philip Morris by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (U.S.)
J'ai tué ma mère by Xavier Dolan (Canada)
Jal Aljido Motamyunseo (Like You Know It All) by Hong Sang-soo (Republic of Korea)
Karaoke by Chan Fui (Chris) Chong (Malaysia)
Navidad by Sebastian Lelio (Chile)
Ne change rien by Pedro Costa (Portugal)
Oxhide II by Liu Jiayin (China)
La Pivellina by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel (Austria)
Polytechnique by Denis Villeneuve (Canada)
Le Roi de l'évasion by Alain Guiraudie (France)
La Terre de la folie by Luc Moullet (France)
Tetro by Francis Ford Coppola (U.S.) (opening film)
Yuki & Nina by Nobuhiro Suwa & Hippolyte Girardot (France/Japan)

Seems pretty strong, even if I'm not familiar with about half of these names. The idea of a sequel to Oxhide is so perverse I can't wait to see it.

[Doug Cummings]

The last few years, I've been a lot more excited by the Director's Fortnight than the Official Competition, and this year is no different. Costa, Hong, Moullet, etc. Oxhide was fantastically brilliant; I can't wait to see the new film.

[Ovader]

Seems pretty strong, even if I'm not familiar with about half of these names.

I have seen two of Denis Villeneuve's films (32nd Day of August on Earth & Maelström) and I consider him as one of my favourite Canadian directors based on those two films alone. Polytechnique has already been released in Canada but of course I could not find any screenings of the film in my area of Canada. Polytechnique (filmed in B&W I believe) is based on the massacre that happened on December 6, 1989 which some of the posters here may remember. Marc Lepine walked into Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique armed with a semi-automatic rifle and, fuelled by a hatred of feminism, gunned down 14 women in cold blood before turning the weapon on himself.

[Antoine Doinel]

Here's the trailer for Polytechnique. The film was shot both in French and English language versions.

[Oedipax]

The idea of a sequel to Oxhide is so perverse I can't wait to see it.

Speaking of which, is there any way to see Oxhide? I've been waiting to see that one for years now. The rumored French DVD never surfaced, to my knowledge...

[foggy eyes]

Speaking of which, is there any way to see Oxhide? I've been waiting to see that one for years now. The rumored French DVD never surfaced, to my knowledge...

Ditto. Anyone?

[spinetta]

Any news of the competing short films and cinefondation?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The Cinefondation and short selections haven't been announced yet. Cannes Classics are still TBA as well.

Speaking of which, is there any way to see Oxhide? I've been waiting to see that one for years now.

There is no commercial DVD release. I'm sure there are festival screeners out there, but not "in the wild" as it were. I e-mailed mk2 about a DVD release a couple of years back but never heard from them.

[spinetta]

thanks fanciful...

[rohmerin]

Almodóvar must win. Los abrazos rotos is his best film.

I dislike when Spanish film directors fancy to be more international than tampax and they shot in English-language. Amenábar and Coixet's films are in English, so, are they Spanish films? For me not.

Bellecchio's last one, Vincere sounds promising, starred by the beautiful Giovanna Mezzogiorno. Here's (but in Spanish) is the picture & story about the bastard son of Mussolini and the woman that suffered the Duce's secret passion. It's not Clara Pettaci, I didn't know about this story and it's enough sad, powerful and dramatica that you should use a web traslator if you don't speak Spanish, please, have a look

[Nothing]

No, Almodovar must not win.

[Vatel]

Where's Danis Tanovic's Triage? The teaming of Colin Farrell and Christopher Lee in a contemporary political thriller (I'm assuming that's what it is) has me damned curious. I expected it to have a place here.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Cannes Classics:

Tributes
The Red Shoes (1948, Powell & Pressburger)
To Hell and Back: Memories of Henri-Georges Clouzot (1964/2009, Henri-Georges Clouzot & Serge Bromberg)

World Cinema Foundation
A Brighter Summer Day (1991, Edward Yang)
Al-Momia (1969, Shadi Abdel Salam)
Redes (1936, Emilio Gomez Muriel & Fred Zinnemann)
Images From the Playground (2009) -- Ingmar Bergman "home movies," restored by Stig Björkman

Joseph Losey Centenary
Accident (1967)
Don Giovanni (1979)

Documentaries on filmmaking
Les Deux de la vague (2009, Antoine de Baecque & Emmanuel Laurent) -- on Godard, Truffaut, and their debut features
Pietro Germi, Il Bravo, Il Bello, Il Cattivo (2009, Claudio Bondí)

New prints
L'Avventura (1960, Michelangelo Antonioni)
An uns glaubt Gott nicht mehr (1982, Axel Corti)
Giu la testa (1971, Sergio Leone)
Loin du Vietnam (1967, Joris Ivens/William Klein/Claude Lelouch/Agnes Varda/Jean-Luc Godard/Chris Marker/Alain Resnais)
Pierrot le fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)
Prince Yeonsan (1961, Shin Sang-ok)
Senso (1954, Luchino Visconti)
Monsieur's Hulot's Holiday (1953, Jacques Tati)
Victim (1961, Basil Dearden)
Wake in Fright (1971, Ted Kotcheff)
Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)

The Cinéfondation lineup is here, if anyone's curious. I suspect Song Fang is the same Song Fang from Flight of the Red Balloon.

[justeleblanc]

If anyone is curious, that new Senso print will be what Criterion releases onto DVD later this year.

[Toby Dammit]

Senso!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy!

[Davidspector]

Juste

Re a Criterion Senso - is this a hope or based on something I haven't as yet come across?

[justeleblanc]

Criterion emailed me this last year here

[Davidspector]

Juste

Grazie.

[swo17]

New prints
L'Avventura (1960, Michelangelo Antonioni)
Pierrot le fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)
Monsieur's Hulot's Holiday (1953, Jacques Tati)
Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)

Just curious--how often do new prints of extant Criterion titles lead to reissues?

[ptmd]

Just curious--how often do new prints of extant Criterion titles lead to reissues?

Almost never, unless the new print is by Janus or Rialto or is related to a restoration project. Criterion rarely sources material directly from prints.

[MichaelB]

It's not unknown for the final neg cut to be made as the festival opens, and the first prints rushed, hardly dry from the labs, to a screening in the Palais... The Faber and Faber published book CANNES by Corless & Darke gives a reasonable impression of how it all works...

...and the films are often modified following their Cannes premieres - Wong Kar-wai is notorious for this, and the commercially released version of The Man From London had a significantly different soundtrack, though Bela Tarr said he always intended it to be in English and French and just didn't have time to record it before the premiere.

Thanks for the reminder about the book , btw - I've been meaning to pick up a copy for ages (one of the authors is a good friend, so I really have no excuse).

[Creation]

Everyone knows that the 20 films competing for the Palme d'Or will have their first 5 minutes posted on the Cannes' official website, right?

Just in case.

[Cde.]

I've never bought into those 'watch the first X minutes!' things, but this is kind of cool, I guess. I prefer to see those opening minutes for the first time in the same unbroken experience when I watch the entire film.

Not to say I won't be tempted to watch some of these.