We waited for the other shoe to drop and this year’s Directors’ Fortnight is chockfull of directorial films with six of the twenty-three (twenty-four films if you include Robert Rodriguez‘s Red 11 – a Masterclass on the SXSW title). Among those who don’t need an introduction we find the heavily anticipated sophomore film by Robert Eggers. The Lighthouse might have been too avant-garde for the Un Certain Regard and Main Comp and reunites the section with Willem Dafoe who was there with The Florida Project. Lav Diaz makes his first trip to the Croisette with The Halt while master filmmakers we find Takashi Miike with First Love and Bertrand Bonello‘s shot in Haiti Zombi Child (which was still in production in January – so this print will still be wet) are among the headliner names. Rebecca Zlotowski returns to Cannes with An Easy Girl (Grand Central was a Un Certain Regard selected title). And we also find Luca Guadagnino making his first trip to Cannes with the 35-minute short in the fashion world with The Staggering Girl starring among others Julianne Moore. Shahrbanoo Sadat, who won the top prize in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes for her debut feature Wolf and Sheep (2017), returns with her second feature, The Orphanage. Among the carry-overs from other fests – we have a pair of Sundance items in Kirill Mikhanovsky‘s Give Me Liberty (we expect the final cut to be different from what was shown in Park City) and Babak Anvari‘s night at a bar hell with Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson and Zazie Beetz in Wounds. We were at both of those world premieres – you can see the video coverage below. Here are the feature selections:
Deerskin – Quentin Dupieux (France) – OPENING FILM
Alice and the Mayor – Nicolas Pariser (France)
And Then We Danced – Levan Akin (Sweden, Georgia)
The Halt – Lav Diaz (Philippines, China)
Song Without a Name – Melina León (Peru, Switzerland) *
Ghost Tropic – Bas Devos (Belgium)
Give Me Liberty – Kirill Mikhanovsky (USA)
To Live to Sing – Johnny Ma (China, France)
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants – Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää (Finland, Latvia)
The Lighthouse – Robert Eggers (Canada, USA)
Lillian – Andreas Horwath (Austria) *
Oleg – Juris Kursietis (Latvia, Belgium, Lithuania, France)
Blow It to Bits – Lech Kowalski (France) (Docu)
The Orphanage – Shahrbanoo Sadat (Denmark, Afghanistan, France)
Les Particules – Blaise Harrison (Switzerland, France) *
Perdrix – Erwan Le Duc (France) *
For the Money – Alejo Moguillansky (Argentina)
Sick Sick Sick – Alice Furtado (Brazil, Netherlands, France) *
Tlamess – Ala Eddine Slim (Tunisia, France)
An Easy Girl – Rebecca Zlotowski (France)
Zombi Child – Bertrand Bonello (France)
Yves – Benoît Forgeard (France) – CLOSING FILM
Red 11 – Robert Rodriguez – (USA) – Masterclass SCREENING
SHORTS:
Two Sisters Who Are Not Sisters – Beatrice Gibson
The Marvelous Misadventures of the Stone Lady – Gabriel Abrantes
Grand Bouquet – Nao Yoshigai
Stay Awake, Be Ready – An Pham Thien
Je te tiens – Sergio Caballero
Movements – Dahee Jeong
Olla – Ariane Labed
Piece of Meat – Jerrold Chong & Huang Junxiang
Ghost Pleasure – Morgan Simon
The Staggering Girl – Luca Guadagnino
That Which Is to Come Is Just a Promise – Flatform
