This Thursday, April 14, the Cannes Film Festival will be announcing the line-up for the 64th edition of their festival and in the past two days speculation has continued as to what the films will be. The only title 100% confirmed is Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris which will serve as the fest’s opening night film. Beyond that nothing is known for sure although Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life seems like a lock at this point.
Variety’s Justin Chang posted an article on Sunday giving a list of previously rumored films he says have emerged as strong prospects, which include Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In, Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos’s Alps, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s The Kid With a Bike, Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre, Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope and Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place.
Additionally, Chang speculates the Un Certain Regard section and includes likely contenders Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and Gus Van Sant’s Restless.
Beyond that it seems wide open though today notable French newspaper Le Figaro is reporting what I’ve long speculated, that Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will play the fest on Saturday, May 14. This makes complete sense considering it gets the likes of Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz on the red carpet and serves as early buzz leading up to its French release on May 18 and its stateside debut on May 20. The question now is what other big studio feature will find its way to the Croisette?
Last year Robin Hood opened the festival and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps played out of competition while Summit’s Fair Game played in competition. I’ve heard rumors of Kung Fu Panda 2 to X-Men: First Class, the latter of which seems entirely unlikely and even more so now that the blockbuster slot appears to have been filled by Pirates.
Either way, we’ll know soon enough just what films I’ll be looking to review come May 11-20 (I’m leaving two days before the close) on Thursday. You can stay up-to-date with all of my Cannes coverage on the Cannes homepage here on RopeofSilicon and come Thursday the homepage will have a new tab dedicated solely for the festival. Stay tuned.
