Drive My Cannes: The New Competition Lineup!

Direct from France, please welcome longtime reader / first time contributor Arnaud Trouvé to talk about the Cannes festival and share the new lineup... uPDATE 04/23: new additions indicated below under red headlines

Ruben Östlund's "Triangle of Sadness" © SF Studios

by Arnaud Trouvé

My first encounter with the Cannes Film Festival was in 1998, when Roberto Benigni kissed Martin Scorsese’s feet after winning the Grand Prix for Life is Beautiful (which he mistakenly took for the Palme d’Or). Cannes ceremonies are always broadcast live on French TV and my interest grew rapidly over the years. Flash-forward to 2009: the Paris visual effects company I’m working for had to deliver over a hundred shots for an upcoming production destined for the Croisette. "It has to be ready for Cannes," was the motto as we worked on a very tight schedule. This production happened to be Gaspar Noé’s Enter The Void and we managed to screen it in Competition at the last minute, with no opening or closing credits!

A decade later, the announcement of the Cannes lineup is still an annual event for cinephiles around the world. And after a bonkers ceremony in the summer of 2021 that saw the victory of Titane, the festival is ready to get back to its usual May slot. Let’s have a look at its anticipated official selection unveiled today by artistic director Thierry Frémaux...

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I'll Link To That

Today's must read
• IndieWire's Eric Kohn has an interesting piece on Jim Carrey's retirement and why A list actors get bored and why they don't pursue more challenging opportunities. Some good theories here even if some of the information shared about how name actors (and their agents) invest time in finding fresh auteurs who could improve their filmographies.

Secret Lynch film, Nicolas Cage reflections, Nimona resurrected, Joel Grey celebration, Mother's Instinct pre-production, and more after the jump...

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Hou Hsiao-Hsien @ 75: International Acclaim (1987-1998)

by Cláudio Alves

In contrast with their critical acclaim abroad, the Taiwanese reception of Hou Hsiai-Hsien's films was less enthusiastic. Dwindling box-office returns and accusations that his films were too uncommerciable led the director to attempt bridging the popular and the artful. 1987's Daughter of the Nile returns to the realm of modern Taiwan's youth, abandoning the midcentury narratives that had characterized the autobiographical films. It's also notable for its more significant urban setting and single-minded focus on a female protagonist. 

After this project, he wouldn't pay much attention to commercial appeal while his ambitions grew. At the end of the 80s, we encounter a peak of international recognition, the ascension of Hou Hsiao-Hsien to the pantheon of modern-day masters of cinema. All it took was a landmark film that, in 1989, earned the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and kickstarted a trilogy of historical reflections…

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Best International Feature Film: Croatia, Finland, Japan and more...

FEAR

Since we last posted there have been five more countries announcing their submissions for our favourite Oscar category that doesn't include "actress" in the title. Find out about those movies after the jump.

BULGARIA
Bulgaria has opted to send a film called Fear by Ivaylo Hristov. It's about a widow on the Bulgarian/Turkish border who meets an African refugee. And yes, it's yet another 2021 film that's shot in black and white (so many this year!)...

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Brazil's Cinematic History Aflame

by Camila Henriques

It wasn't even a month ago when Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho made a plea at the Cannes Film Festival for people all around the world to discuss what was happening to the Cinemateca Brasileira (or Brazilian Cinematheque, if you will). As the Bacurau helmer mentioned the 500,000 lives that our country lost due to COVID-19 and how the Jair Bolsonaro administration (if you can even call them an administration) is truly responsible for those deaths, it was inevitable that that neglect would extend to other parts of the society. Which brought him to talk about the Cinemateca. In fascist governments, culture and knowledge are threats, and yesterday, the whole world saw just another chapter of this horror fest as some of our most precious memories caught on fire.

For the past year, the Brazilian Cinematheque, in São Paulo, has been closed. The archives that held more than 240,000 film reels were left to their own luck, as all the workers who took care of that historic treasure were fired...

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