The final Cannes sidebar of new feature films to unveil its lineup, the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), announced 25 features this morning - 21 competing, and 4 special screenings. This year's edition is especially heavy on European films, which take up a whopping 17 of the 21 competing slots. Just like the Critic's Week selection, we've got a majority of debut films and films by little known directors, but also a handful of names that most cinephiles will already be familiar with. This is, of course, part of the pleasure of discovery in these sections: the ability to be taken completely by surprise (ie. last year's Two Gates of Sleep and Le Quattro Volte) that you don't get with finding a masterpiece in the Competition. The Fortnight runs parallel with the Official Competition, opening on May 12th and ending on the 21st.
Looking at the lineup, there are a number of names that we saw coming, and predicted in the months leading up to today's announcement. Two days ago, we posted that Vimukthi Jayasundara's Mushrooms would be in the lineup (it is). Easily the biggest name in the section is Cannes regular André Téchiné, who follows up The Girl on the Train with Impardonnables. Gust Van den Berghe (who did not impress me with his debut Little Baby Jesus of Flandr in last year's Fortnight) will be bringing his sophomore film Blue Bird. Little Baby Jesus was his thesis student film, so hopefully his filmmaking has matured a bit since then.
A title we thought would possibly be in the Official Selection is Kamen Kalev's The Island (see pic above) Kalev was in the Fortnight in 2009 for Eastern Plays, and we're excited to see Laetitia Casta in a bigger role after her turn in Tsai Ming-liang's Face. Also competing will be Return by Liza Johnson, who was part our batch of last year's American New Wave 25.
For the Special Screenings, there are a couple of films with have already screened in North America: Stephane Thibault's At Night, They Dance (Montreal International Documentary Festival, Hot Docs), and Natalia Almada's El Velador (MoMA's New Directors/New Films). Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono made waves with his accomplished Love Exposure, but has recently shown signs of becoming one of cinema's more controversial provocateurs after his violent and misogynist Cold Fish, which played Venice last September. His Guilty of Romance clocks in at over two hours and should be a sizzler. Lots to look forward to! Here's a look at the full lineup:
Feature films (21)
Après le sud - Jean-Jacques Jauffret (1h29, France)
Breathing - Karl Markovics (1h38, Austria)
Blue Bird - Gust Van den Berghe (1h26, Belgium)
Palawan Destin - Auraeus Solito (1h33, Philippines)
Chatrak - Vimukthi Jayasundara (1h30, France, India)
Code Blue - Urszula Antoniak (1h21, Netherlands, Denmark)
Corpo celeste - Alice Rohrwacher (1h40, Italy, Swiss, France)
Eldfjall - Rúnar Rúnarsson (1h39, Denmark, Iceland)
En Ville - Bertrand Schefer & Valérie Mréjen (1h15, France)
Impardonnables - André Téchiné (1h50, France)
Jeanne captive - Philippe Ramos (1h32, France)
La Fée - Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, & Bruno Romy (1h33, France, Belgium)
La Fin du silence - Roland Edzard (1h20, France)
Les Géants - Bouli Lanners (1h25, Belgium, France, Luxembourg)
O Abismo prateado La Falaise argentée - Karim Aïnouz (1h22, Brazil)
Play - Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Denmark)
Porfirio - Alejandro Landes (1h41, Colombia, Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, France)
Return - Liza Johnson (U.S.A.)
Sur la planche - Leïla Kilani (1h50, Morocco, France, Germany)
The Island - Kamen Kalev (1h50, Bulgaria, Sweden)
The Other Side Of Sleep - Rebecca Daly (1h31, Netherlands, Hungary, Irland)
Special screenings (4)
Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes - Jérôme de Missolz (France, Belgium - 1h37)
El Velador Le Veilleur de nuit - Natalia Almada (U.S.A., Mexico, France - 1h12)
Koi no Tsumi - Sion Sono (Japan - 2h23)
La Nuit elles dansent - Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault (Canada - 1h21)
Short films (14)
Armand 15 ans l'été - Blaise Harrison
Bielutin - Dans le jardin du temps - Clément Cogitore
Boro In The Box - Bertrand Mandico
Cigarette at Night - Duane Hopkins
Csicska - Attila Till
Demain, ça sera bien - Pauline Gay
Fourplay : Tampa - Kyle Henry
Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys - Jens Assur
La Conduite de la Raison - Aliocha
Las Palmas- Johannes Nyholm
Le Songe de Poliphile - Camille Henrot
Mila Caos - Simon Paetau
Nuvem - Basil da Cunha
Vice Versa One - Shahrbanoo Sadat
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