Cannes prepares to unleash the deluge

Pio Marmaï in The Electric Kiss, Cannes opening film, by Pierre Salvadori Photo: © Guy Ferrandis/Festival de Cannes

Cinema is alive and well and about to burst forth in abundance in the South of France at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival whose official selection was unveiled in Paris today by its artistic director Thierry Frémaux flanked by Iris Knobloch, the event’s president. With a bumper programme of distinctly art-house heavy titles, uniting such stalwarts as diverse as Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-ada, Steven Soderbergh, Laszlo Nemes and Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the mood could not be more buoyant and upbeat at this early stage in the proceedings.

General delegate Thierry Frémaux in full flood today

Running from 12 to 23 May, the organisers say a few titles remain to be confirmed in the coming weeks, including one to be added to the 21 titles announced for the Competition. Frémaux underlined the paramount place of cinema in a world of conflicts, the upsurge of AI and the proliferation of social media and screens of every shape and size. The vitality of film, he suggested, was bolstered by the fact that 2541 features had been submitted for the official selection – 1000 more than had been the case even just ten years ago. Knobloch noted that the Festival had been born at a time of great uncertainty in 1939 and that cinema “was not a luxury but a necessity” and was able to showcase the human “capacity to dream.”

“With entries from 141 countries, we’re approaching Olympic-level numbers,” Fremaux beamed at the assembled throng in the state of the art cinema Pathé Palace (formerly Gaumont Opéra Capucines), and designed by architect Renzo Piano close to the Opéra Garnier in the heart of Paris.

Frémaux also was pleased to note that with five women filmmakers in Competition the gender balance was healthier than for many years with Léa Mysius with The Birthday Party; Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet with A Woman’s Life and Jeanne Herry with Another Day (Garance) as well as Marie Kreutzer and Gentle Monster and Valeska Grisebach and The Dreamed Aventure.

Although the Hollywood studios will have less of a presence it meant that independent American cinema would have more of place and the lack of studio titles was “not part of a trend.” Ira Sachs is the only American director in competition with his musical fantasy The Man I Love with Rami Malek, a musical fantasy set in New York during the 80s AIDs crisis.

Gentle Monster Photo: Film i Väst

Farhadi will premiere his second French film, Parallel Stories, filmed in Paris, and featuring Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and Adam Bessa.

Away from the official Competition Un Certain Regard which increasingly has become a focus for young filmmakers and edgy auteurs will feature slew of US contenders including Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, directed by Jane Schoebrun and featuring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, as well as a directorial debut from Jordan Firstman, Club Kid in which he also stars alongside Cara Delevingne and Diego Calva.

Historical conflicts with contemporary resonances figure prominently, among them young Belgian director Lukas Dhont’s First World War drama Coward, looking at war from the point view of young soldiers, while Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes (Son Of Saul) returns to the Croisette with Moulin, a biopic of French resistance leader Jean Moulin, played by Gilles Lellouche. Similarly Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski returns with Fatherland starring Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler, and dealing with writer Thomas Mann and his relationship with his daughter revealed as they embark on a road trip across a Germany in ruins. France’s Emmanuel Marre debuts in the Competition with Notre Salut, a Second World War drama starring Swann Arlaud.

Arthur Harari whose Onoda, opened Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2021, makes a return visit with The Unknown with Lea Seydoux and Niels Schneider as a man who wakes up in the body of an unknown woman.

Bitter Christmas Photo: Film Factory Entertainment

Pedro Almodovar, heading a quartet of Spanish directors, deals with an advertising executive coping with the death of her mother in Bitter Christmas while Rodrigo Sorogoyen offers The Beloved (El Ser Querido) starring Almodvar favourite Javier Bardem as a film director shooting a drama in the Sahara. The other Spanish contender in Competition is from the tandem of Javier Ambrosia and Javier Calvo – The Black Ball is a queer-themed story with a starry cast of Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, Lola Dueñas, Miguel Bernardeau, and Carlos González.

The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or winner for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) will field Fjord with Renate Reinsve and Sebastien Stan as ultra religions parents of five children who end up in a small Norwegian village.

The Festival previously has announced the opening film on 12 May as a 1920s comedy, The Electric Kiss (La Vénus électrique) by Pierre Salvadori and starring Pia Marmaï and Anaïs Demoustier as well as the premiere of John Travolta’s directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach in the Cannes Premiere selection.

South Korean director Park Chan-wook, the acclaimed filmmaker behind Oldboy, The Handmaiden and No Other Choice, already has been named as the jury president and will be judging his compatriot Na Hong-Jin with his English-language debut, the sci-fi thriller Hope, starring Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Alicia Vikander, Cameron Britton and Michael Fassbender.

Other assorted highlights embrace projects as varied as Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell; Steven Soderbergh's John Lennon: The Last Interview; Ron Howard’s Avedon, a documentary on the celebrated photographer; and actor Andy Garcia making his directorial debut with Diamond (Out of Competition), .

For sheer razzamatazz and off the scale adulation Cannes watchers should prepare now to witness The Lord of the Rings creator Peter Jackson and superstar Barbra Streisand receiving accolades for the sum of their achievements with honorary Palme d’Or gongs.

You can keep track of our full coverage here and the full line-up so far is below:

Official selection

Competition

• Minotaur, Andrey Zvyagintsev
• The Beloved, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
• The Man I Love, Ira Sachs
• Fatherland, Pawel Pawlikowski
• Moulin, Laszlo Nemes
• The Birthday Party, Lea Mysius
• Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
• Notre Salut, Emmanuel Marre
• Gentle Monster, Marie Kreutzer
• Nagi Notes, Koji Fukada
• Hope, Na Hong-jin
• Sheep In The Box, Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Another Day, Jeanne Herry
• The Unknown, Arthur Harari
• Sudden, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
• The Dreamed Adventure, Valeska Grisebach
• Coward, Lukas Dhont
• The Black Ball, Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
• Life Of A Woman, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
• Parallel Tales, Asghar Farhadi
• Bitter Christmas, Pedro Almodovar

Out of competition

• The Electric Kiss, Pierre Salvadori (opening film)
• Diamond, Andy Garcia
• Her Private Hell, Nicolas Winding Refn
• L’Abandon, Vincent Garenq
• Karma, Guillaume Canet
• L’Objet Du Delit, Agnes Jaoui
• La Battalie De Gaulle: L’Âge De Fer, Antonin Baudry

Un Certain Regard

• Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun (opening film)
• Elephants In The Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah
• Ben’imana, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo • Forever Your Maternal Animal, Valentina Maurel
• Everytime, Sandra Wollner
• I’ll Be Gone in June, Katharina Rivilis
• Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep, Rakan Mayasi
• Congo Boy, Rafiki Fariala
• The Meltdown, Manuela Martelli
• Club Kid, Jordan Firstman
• Strawberries, Laïla Marrakchi
• Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
• Uļa, Viesturs Kairišs
• Words Of Love, Rudi Rosenberg
• All The Lovers In The Night, Sode Yukiko

Midnight Screenings

• Colony, Yeon Sang-ho
• Roma Elastica, Bertrand Mandico
• Sanguine, Marion Le Coroller
• Full Phil, Quentin Dupieux
• Jim Queen, Nicolas Athane, Marco Nguyen

Cannes Premiere

• Propeller One-Way Night Coach, John Travolta
• The Samurai and the Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
• Visitation, Volker Schlondorff
• The Match, Juan Cabral, Santiago Franco
• The Third Night, Daniel Auteuil

Special Screenings

• John Lennon: The Last Interview, Steven Soderbergh
• Avedon, Ron Howard
• Les Survivants du Che, Christophe Réveille
• Les Matins Merveilleux, Avril Besson
• L'Affaire Marie-Claire, Lauriane Escaffre, Yvo Muller
• Rehearsals For A Revolution, Pegah Ahangarani
• Cantona, David Tryhorn, Ben Nicholas