This is likely to be my last preview of this nature before I take off for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival on Monday morning, but seeing how it includes first look photos at several of the higher profile films at the festival I didn’t think I could pass up the opportunity to share.
Unfortunately the images I received were not high resolution so I have put them together as best as I could to give you the best look at each and not distort the images. I’ve also included the date the first screen at the festival and hopefully (if all goes right) I’ll have reactionary coverage soon after the credits for each. Stay tuned and enjoy…
Biutiful is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel) and stars Javier Bardem as a man involved in illegal dealing who is confronted by his childhood friend, who is now a policeman.
Carlos carries a 5 hours and 30 minutes running time and Wednesday, May 19 has basically been dedicated to the film directed by Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours) and starring Edgar Ramirez (The Bourne Ultimatum) as the Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by the French police.
I recently previewed the teaser trailer and poster for Iranian-helmer Abbas Kiarostami’s Copie Conforme (Certified Copy), which stars Juliette Binoche and William Shimell telling a story set in a small Italian village in southern Tuscany where a middle-aged English writer (Shimell) is promoting his latest book and while there he hits it off with a French art dealer (Binoche), and the two jet off to San Gimignano together.
The film with the biggest potential in terms of making an international splash is Doug Liman’s Fair Game starring Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame, whose status with the CIA was compromised by leaks from Bush Administration insiders to journalists. Summit recently acquired the film for distribution and the Cannes Film Festival will mark its audience debut.
The Housemaid is directed by Im Sangsoo and is a remake of Kim Ki-young’s 1960 original, which tells the story of Eun-yi, a middle-aged divorcee forced through circumstance to takes a position as a housemaid with an upper class family. It is not long before her master, Hoon, takes advantage of his social position by sharing her bed. When Eun-yi becomes pregnant and her secret is discovered by the family, she is compelled to have an abortion. Her forced termination turns Eun-yi’s already fragile mental condition for the worse and she decides to take matters into her own hands.
La Princesse de Montpensier (The Princess Of Montpensier) is directed by Bertrand Tavernier (Round Midnight) and is based on a short story by Madame de La Fayette (published in 1662), co-scripted by Tavernier and Jean Cosmos, La Princesse de Montpensier is a 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. Mélanie Thierry, Gaspard Ulliel, Lambert Wilson, Louis Garrel and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet star.
Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage tells the story of a battle for power, as several yakuza clans vie for the favor of their head family in the Japanese underworld. The rival bosses seek to rise through the ranks by scheming and making allegiances sworn over saké. Their vengeful disputes over money, turf and betrayals are seldom settled without violence and death. Veteran yakuza henchman Otomo (Beat Takeshi) has seen his kind go from elaborate body tattoos and severed fingertips to becoming important players on the stock market. Theirs is a never-ending struggle to end up on top, or at least survive, in a world where there are no heroes.
Stephen Frears’s Tamara Drewe will be making its debut in Cannes shortly after star Gemma Arterton was seen in Clash of the Titans and shortly before she stars in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. The film is based on Posy Simmonds’ acclaimed graphic novel and follows the title character (Arterton), a sexy flirt who returns to her small country village and stirs up dark passions among the locals.
Woody Allen returns to Cannes yet again, he was there only a couple of years ago with Vicky Cristina Barcelona and this year he arrives with You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, a film described as having a little romance, some sex, some treachery and apart from that, a few laughs. The story follows the lives of a group of people whose passions, ambitions and anxieties force them all into assorted troubles that run the gamut from ludicrous to dangerous. Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Freida Pinto, Antonio Banderas and Lucy Punch star.
You can stay up-to-date on all of my coverage from the 2010 Cannes Film Festival right here.
