Looking over this year’s selection at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, at first glance it looks like it may be less interesting than last year’s selection, but that’s only because one of the most anticipated films of the last three years isn’t among the films listed. Last year The Tree of Life was far and away the biggest title going into the fest. Other than that, this year the possibilities remain just as high.
Last year we didn’t know for certain Woody Allen‘s Midnight in Paris and Michel Hazanavicius‘s The Artist would end up Best Picture contenders and two of the most adored films of the year. We didn’t know Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive would become such a general consensus favorite. We didn’t know Lars von Trier would create such a stir with Melancholia or that Kirsten Dunst would win Best Actress and we couldn’t have anticipated Lynn Ramsay‘s haunting We Need to Talk about Kevin.
We don’t remember last year’s Cannes Film Festival because the titles were so great going in, but because they were so great once they had been seen and this year’s line-up offers just as many exciting possibilities and my top ten most anticipated titles of the fest might not even hold what ultimately ends up being my favorite over the next couple of weeks.
When it comes to putting this list together and ordering them, it became a question of excitement over how great it could be versus the excitement of merely seeing it. It was about the excitement of seeing a young filmmaker potentially following in the footsteps of his father and a first timer wowing Croisette audiences just as much as he did on the slopes in Park City. It’s the hope for thrills, romance and thought-provoking features, something I certainly hope each and every one of these titles offer, but in all honesty, I’d even settle for 50%.
That said, let’s dig in and see what this year’s festival has to offer, and remember, if you feel like some titles might be missing it’s only because you haven’t yet read click right here and read it first if you like as I go over several notable titles, or read it after my top ten. I have a link at the end of this post.
Let’s get to it and remember, like I mentioned in Part One, I won’t be in town to see David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis or Jeff Nichols’s Mud, so those two aren’t on this list…
10.
Like Someone In Love
(dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone in Love makes this list primarily because it’s being described as a thematic follow-up to his 2010 feature Certified Copy, a challenging romance that tests the audience and tells a beautiful story at the same time. With that in mind, I have to believe there is more to the story than we are being told by the film’s synopsis, either that or we are being told exactly what the film is while special nuances will be able to be found around the edges.
The provided synopsis makes it pretty easy to see how it could be compared to Certified Copy, although it seems you could make the argument it serves as that film’s opposite:
An old man (Tadashi Okuno) and a young woman (Rin Takanashi) meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty-four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.
With that there is just enough to get us interested, but not nearly enough to gain any answers. I can’t wait to see it.
SCREENING: Sunday, May 20 at 7:30 PM CET
9.
Room 237
(dir. Rodney Ascher)
I only came across Rodney Ascher‘s documentary Room 237 in the last 24 hours, but it didn’t take long for it to climb the ranks as soon as I read the synopsis:
Many movies lend themselves to dramatic interpretations, but none as rich and far-ranging as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. In LA-based filmmaker Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, we hear from people who have developed far-reaching theories and believe they have decoded the hidden symbols and messages buried in the late director’s film. Carefully examining The Shining inside out, and forwards and backwards, Room 237 is equal parts captivating, provocative and pure pleasure. It gives voice to the fans and scholars who espouse these theories, reworking the film to match their ideas and inter-cutting it with layers of dreamlike imagery to illustrate their streams of consciousness. Sometimes outrageous, sometimes mind-blowing, the words of the interviewees are given full-force by Ascher’s compelling vision.
As a Kubrick fan I can’t wait to eat this film up. It screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and I didn’t want to read the reviews so as to go in as fresh as possible, but I couldn’t help but skim and be fascinated by this piece on the film over at the “New York Times”.
SCREENING: Monday, May 21 at 2:15 PM CET
