Fourteen out of 21 features from Europe

by Fabien Lemercier

24/04/2012 - At midday today in Paris, new artistic director Edouard Waintrop revealed the 21 features (of which 18 international premieres) in the line-up this year at the 44th Directors’ Fortnight from May 17 to 27 at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. The selection, said to have been chosen to delight audiences notably with many comedies, features eight European productions by French, Belgian, Spanish, Swiss, and British filmmakers, and six European co-productions.

France will have five majority productions on show: Adieu Berthe, l’enterrement de mémé by Bruno Podalydès, Camille redouble by Noémie Lvovsky (closing film), Alyah by Elie Wajeman, Rengaine by Rachid Djaidani, and an animation film co-produced by France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, Ernest & Celestine by the trio Stéphane Aubier - Vincent Patar - Benjamin Renner.

Also in the line-up, there will be Dream and Silence by Spanish director Jaime Rosales (news), Opération Libertad by Swiss director Nicolas Wadimoff, and Sightseers by British director Ben Wheatley in a special screening.

This year, the Fortnight also welcomes six films from Latin America (two from Chile, one from Argentina, one from Uruguay, one from Colombia, and one from Mexico). Asia will shine with four films (one from South Korea, one from China, one from India, and one from Iran), North America will be represented by two American features (including The We and the I by French director Michel Gondry at the event’s opening), and Africa will be represented by an Algerian film.

Six European co-productions will also be screened, as Germany co-produced 3 by Pablo Stoll Ward, the United Kingdom co-produced Gondry’s film, and France co-produced four films in the selection: Le repenti by Merzak Allouache, A Respectable Family by Massoud Bakhshi, La Sirga by William Vega, and La noche de enfrente by the late Chilean director Raoul Ruiz to be shown in a special screening.

Feature films:

Opening: The We and the I - Michel Gondry (US/UK)
Adieu Berthe, l’enterrement de mémé [trailer] - Bruno Podalydès (FR)
Camille redouble [trailer] - Noémie Lvovsky (FR)
Alyah [trailer] - Elie Wajeman (FR)
Ernest & Celestine [trailer, film focus] - Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner (FR/BE/LU)
Rengaine - Rachid Djaidani (FR)
Dream and Silence [trailer, film focus] (Sueno y silencio) - Jaime Rosales (ES/FR)
Opération Libertad [trailer, film focus] - Nicolas Wadimoff (CH) Fogo - Yulene Olaizola (MX)
Infancia clandestina - Benjamin Avila (AR)
No - Pablo Larrain (CL/US)
3 - Pablo Stoll Ward (UY/DE/AR)
Room 237 - Rodney Ascher doc (US)
La Sirga - William Vega (CO/FR/MX)
The King of Pigs - Yuen Sang-ho (KR)
Gangs of Wasseypur - Anurag Kashyap (IN)
Dangerous Liaisons - Jin-ho Hur (CN)
A Respectable Family - Massoud Bakhshi (IR/FR)
Le repenti (El taaib) - Merzak Allouache (DZ/FR)

Special screenings

La noche de enfrente [trailer, film focus] - Raoul Ruiz (CL/FR)
Sightseers – Ben Wheatley (UK)

Short films – Programme 1
Avec Jeff, à moto - Marie-Eve Juste (CA)
Konigsberg - Philipp Mayrhofer (FR)
Os Mortos-vivos (Les morts vivants) - Anita Rocha da Silveira (BR)
Porcos raivosos (Enraged Pigs) - Leonardo Sette & Isabel Penoni (BR)

Short films – Programme 2
Drawn From Memory (Portret z pamieci) - Marcin Bortkiewicz (PL)
Rodri - Franco Lolli (FR)
The Curse - Fyzal Boulifa (MA)
Tram - Michaela Pavlatova (CZ/FR)
Wrong Cops - Quentin Dupieux (FR)

(Translated from French)