2013 Cannes Film Festival Predictions: Julia Leigh’s Disquiet

#91. Julia Leigh’s Disquiet

Gist: Like her feature debut – the 2011 Main Competition alum Sleeping Beauty – Julia Leigh is again directing her own screenplay, only this time it’ll be adapted from one of her own novels: 2008’s critically lauded Disquiet. (Her other novel, 1999’s The Hunter, was adapted to the screen in 2011 by Daniel Nettheim and starred Willem Dafoe.) This more recent novel, which has been described as “so spare that it seems as if the characters are deprived of some of their life,” concerns a mother of two young children who leaves her husband and goes to live with her own mother in rural France. Based on the cover of the book (see image above), her mother is ridiculously wealthy and has indulged herself with a massive mansion, so who can blame her?

Prediction: While Leigh was gifted with an exceedingly rare Competition berth for her debut feature, we imagine that her next film may not be so lucky (admired in certain quarters, Sleeping Beauty wasn’t exactly a success; we imagine she fills the Australia quota when Andrew Dominik and John Hillcoat aren’t premiering new work). With an Aussie already playing a big role in the festival (Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby), we wonder if they’ll once again pull in two pictures from the Outback. Then again, the film was only announced in May 2012, there has been no publicized word on any casting or shooting dates, so it may be more likely land in one of the Fall festivals, or perhaps even Cannes 2014. Should it be ready, though, expect UCR.