CANNES 2009 Selection
Rumours circulate as press conference approaches
by Fabien Lemercier
14/04/2009 - Rumours are circulating in Paris, ten days ahead of the April 23 press conference at which the official selection for the 62nd Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24, 2009) will be unveiled.
According to our sources, as expected, the competition put together by Thierry Frémeaux is set to include an impressive list of directors who have previously won honours on the Croisette. Among the European titles are Looking for Eric [trailer, film focus] by the UK’s Ken Loach, Antichrist [trailer, film focus] by Denmark’s Lars von Trier, Broken Embraces [trailer, film focus] by Spain’s Pedro Almodovar, The White Tape [trailer, film focus] by Austria’s Michael Haneke, Mr Nobody [trailer, film focus] by Belgium’s Jaco van Dormael and Vincere [trailer, film focus] by Italy’s Marco Bellocchio.
French Palme d’Or contenders include Alain Resnais’ Les Herbes Folles [trailer] (“Wild Reeds”) and Bruno Dumont’s Hadewijch [trailer]. Deliberations are underway to choose the third Gallic title from among the following: Jacques Audiard’s Un prophète [trailer, film focus] (“A Prophet”), Denis Dercourt’s Demain dès l'aube... [trailer, film focus] (“Tomorrow from Dawn”) and Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu’s Les Derniers Jours du Monde (“The Last Days of the World”), alongside outsider favourite In the Beginning [trailer] by Xavier Giannoli.
The rest of the world will be represented in competition by Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds [trailer], Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control, Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Todd Solondz’s Forgiveness, Jane Campion’s Bright Star, Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains, Tsai Ming-liang’s Face and Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Air Doll.
The Directors’ Fortnight – whose line-up will be unveiled on Friday, April 24 – will present the latest films by Romania’s Corneliu Porumboiu and Portugal’s João Pedro Rodrigues (unless they end up in the Un Certain Regard section), as well as French director Alain Guiraudie’s Le Roi de L’évasion [trailer] (“The King of Escape”).
Meanwhile, International Critics’ Week – whose press conference will streamed the same day on the Internet – may select French films Les Beaux Gosses [trailer] (“Beautiful Kids”) by Riad Sattouf and La Grande Vie (“The High Life”) by Emmanuel Salinger.
(Translated from French)
