Cannes Line-Up

It's Auteur Heavyweight Heaven at Cannes this year, with the likes of Michael Haneke, Park Chan-Wook, Lars Von Trier, Pedro Almodovar, Jane Campion and Ang Lee all up against each other. Here's a full line-up of what will be playing at the festival in May.

Opening Film:

Up (dir. Pete Docter and Bob Peterson). Pixar's latest about a 78 year-old man who ties a bunch of balloons to his house and flies to South America, accompanied by an earnest eight year-old who stows along for the ride. Surely one of the most reliable production companies, Pixar are good at turning strange-sounding concepts into cinematic gold.

Closing Film:

Coco Avant Chanel (dir. Anne Fontaine). Biopic of the French fashion designer, starring Audrey Tatou in the lead role. It's nice to see Tatou nab a juicy role as ever since her star-making performance in Amélie, she's struggled to really make much of a mark, which is a pity to anyone who saw her troubling performance in Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things.

In Competition:

Bright Star (dir. Jane Campion). Another biopic, but this time a more focused one. Campion's film will concentrate on the final three years of John Keats' (Ben Whishaw) life and his romance with Fanny Browne (Abby Cornish). Campion previously won the Palme D'Or for The Piano, and although she's been a bit hit-and-miss since then, she's consistently made interesting, challenging movies. Both Whishaw and Cornish have enjoyed Next Big Thing status for some time now; it's be nice to see them break out.

Spring Fever (dir. Lou Ye). Don't know much about this. He's played at Cannes before and is no stranger to controversy. His last film, Summer Palace, a romance set during the time of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, saw him receive a five year ban on filmmaking from the Chinese government.

Antichrist (dir. Lars Von Trier). Willem Defoe stars as a psychologist who takes Charlotte Gainsbourg into a cabin in the woods where spooky things start happening. Billed as a horror film, anyone who's seen the trailer can testify that this looks distinctly bizarre (hopefully in a good way). Trier has his detractors - he can certainly be heavy-handed sometimes - but a return to the same area he pursued in his miniseries The Kingdom has got a lot of people interested.

Enter The Void (Gaspar Noé). Another controversial figure but one that I feel doesn't have much to back it up with. His last film Irreversible, with its brutal eight-minute rape scene, was, to this viewer at least, obvious, almost completely lacking in intelligence and slammed its point home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. There are plenty of admirers though so maybe this will do well.

Face (dir. Tsai Ming-liang). Malaysian-born Chinese director whose last film, I Don't Want To Sleep Alone, I've been wanting to see for ages (primarily 'cause I love the title but also because the front of the DVD showed people having cuddles). The plot concerns a Taiwanese film director who travels to Paris to shoot a new film about the Salomé myth. Previously won the Golden Lion at Venice for Vive L'Amour in 1994.

Les Herbes Folles (dir. Alain Resnais). New film from the French New Wave director. My "extensive" search of the internet, which basically includes wikipedia and imdb doesn't give much info apart from much-respected director blah blah blah.

In The Beginning (dir. Xavier Giannoli). From the director of The Singer, which did very well at the Césars a couple of years ago. This new film, again, stars Gérard Depardieu, who I've never had much love for but can never put my finger on exactly why that is.

A Prophet (dir. Jacques Audiard). From the director of The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which did good business and won a fair amount of international awards, including a BAFTA for Best Film Not In The English Language. I admired the movie rather than truly liked it - the interplay between violence and art was much better examined in Haneke's The Piano Teacher in my opinion, but it did boast a firecracker of a performance from the not-ugly Romain Duris.

The White Ribbon (dir. Michael Haneke). Bloody love Haneke. He's probably one of the most interesting directors working at the moment, although his own remake of Funny Games into English didn't exactly receive glowing reviews. Set in Germany in 1913, this is said to explore the evolution of fascism. Definitely looking forward to this one.

Vengeance (dir. Johnnie To). Thriller from a prolific Hong Kong director. When a hit man for an organised crime syndicate is suspected of being a double agent for the FBI, a kill order is placed, but the hit man survives the attempt on his life.

The Time That Remains (dir. Elia Suleiman). Palestinian-Israeli director who won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002 for Divine Intevention. His new film is described by imdb as "An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day".

Vincere (dir. Marco Bellocchio). Italian movie about Mussolini's secret lover and their son Albino.

Kinatay (dir. Brillante Mendoza). Filipino film of which I know nothing.

Thirst (Park Chan-Wook). The Korean director of the excellent Vengeance trilogy has followed up with a vampire movie. The trailer makes it look immense and after the success of Let The Right One In, bleak films about bloodsuckers definitely have an audience. After an onslaught of American remakes of great Asian horror flicks, I'm hoping that Park Chan-Wook can show everybody how it's really done.

Broken Embraces (dir. Pedro Almodóvar). Always a winner, Almodóvar is reteaming with Penelope Cruz for his latest film, which debuted in Spain a month or so ago. Time Out has a positive review if you're interested, which claims this to be more of an ilk with Bad Education than Volver. This might prove difficult, as international audiences have tended to prefer Almodóvar's human dramas such as Talk To Her more than the Hitchcockian gayness of Bad Education, but I loved the latter so will be looking forward to this.

Maps Of The Sounds Of Tokyo (dir. Isabel Coixet). Another Spanish director, whose last film, Elegy, was almost universally panned. However, anyone who saw her low-key movie My Life Without Me starring the always-reliable Sarah Polley and Mark Ruffalo will surely be keen to see if she can pull another gem out of her hat. Maps Of The Sounds Of Tokyo is a thriller, centered on a contract killer who also moonlights as an employee at a fish market.

Fish Tank (dir. Andrea Arnold). Second feature from the director of Red Road, which I thought was good but over-hyped, although her eye for the grittier side of suburbia is certainly impressive. This new film focuses on a fifteen year-old girl trying to come to terms with her mum's new boyfriend. It stars Michael Fassbender, an actor who is everywhere all of a sudden, and rightly so. This follows on from starring turns in Angel, Hunger and Eden Lake, all in which Fassbender displayed impressive versatility. Rising star + rising director could = win.

Looking For Eric (dir. Ken Loach). Surely the strangest-sounding film on the list, at least on paper. It concerns the friendship between a postman and Eric Cantona. Loach won the Palme D'Or for the ridiculously overrated The Wind That Shakes The Barley but I can't see a movie about a well-known football player doing well at Cannes. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino). The amusing/irritating trailer doing the rounds suggest that Tarantino is still going down the Kill Bill/Death Proof route of tongue-in-cheek, intentionally offensive homage to the movies of his youth. Those that love him (and I'm one of those people) will probably love this, but it's got an unusually starry cast for a Tarantino film. Okay, so it's got Brad Pitt, but that is a wee bit odd isn't it? I like Brad Pitt as much as the next homosexual man who saw Thelma and Louise but he's not given a particularly impressive performance in anything for about ten years.

Taking Woodstock (dir. Ang Lee). I'd walk over hot coals for Ang Lee and was wet with anticipation about his new film concerning the origins of Woodstock. Starring an unknown actor in the lead role (Elliot Tiber) has worked wonders before (look at Tang Wei's phenomenal performance in Lust, Caution) and the supporting cast includes Liev Schrieber, Imelda Staunton and Emile Hirsch. Big love for Emile Hirsch. Then I saw the trailer, which is quite possibly one of the most revolting trailers I've ever seen. Horrible. But, The Hulk notwithstanding, Ang Lee has produced one of the most consistent body of films of any director working today. I hope this lives up to the promise.

Out Of Competition:

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (dir. Terry Gilliam). This will get less attention because it's a Terry Gilliam film than that it's the last film made by Heath Ledger. The story, involving a travelling theatre group that allows its audience members to enter their own imaginations through a magic mirror sounds a real treat. Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp will all be playing incarnations of Ledger's character.

The Army Of Crime (dir. Robert Guédiguian). French film starring Virginie Ledoyen, who for some reason I really like, although I'm not exactly sure why. A supporting performance in The Beach and a L'Oreal advert really shouldn't be doing it for me.

Agora (dir. Alejandro Amenábar). This is Amenábar's second English-language movie after The Others, and his last movie, the Javier Bardem-starring The Sea Inside, was well liked so this could get a pretty decent reception. The plot concerns an Egyptian slave (Max Minghella) who falls in love with his mistress, Hypatia of Alexandra (Rachel Weisz). Weisz is luminous, and needs a hit after husband Darren Aronofsky's ridiculous The Fountain. Also, Minghella was hyped to the max about a year ago and then pretty much disappeared. Never seen him in anything but surely pretending that you fall in love with Rachel Weisz can't be much of a stretch for anyone.