Even when you include Gus Van Sant's Restless, there are no surprises this morning with the names mentioned in the Masters programme finally released today. From Cannes, Aki Kaurismäki, the Dardennes, Bruno Dumont, Robert Guédiguian and a must-see masterwork from Nuri Bilge Ceylan make the cut, while from the upcoming Venice film festival we'll be heavily inclined to see Chantal Akerman's Almayer's Folly and Alexander Sokurov wrap up his trilogy of films about 20th-century rulers with Faust.
We were the first on the interwebs to mention Mitulescu, Dresen, Labaki, Pierre Schoeller, Joachim Trier and Bruno Dumont's L'Empire (now going by the title of Hors Satan) as strong contenders for the Un Certain Regard 2011 edition, but as usual there are a handful of titles/filmmakers particularly from Asia, that were completely off our radars. Added to the odd inclusion of Gus Van Sant's film announce yesterday, we're happy to see Kim Ki-duk again -- we hope that Arirang is a return to form for the filmmaker and the prolific Hong Sang-soo must be in some creative surge period in his life -- he will present The Day He Arrives in the same section he won last year with Hahaha. Both of these Cannes-selected films sandwich Oki's Movie - a film which he presented at Venice.
Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender are in negotiations to topline the feature which would go into production next year. If they sign up, it'll be a fun shoot with director and actors all hitting a "sweet spot" in their acting careers. Wasikowska's last and current film is with Tim Burton and Gus Van Sant. Not too shabby.
He'll be inevitably compared in both his acting and now, directing career to Y tu mamá también/Rudo Y Cursi counterpart Gael Garcia Bernal. Bernal who made his social class structure, pool yard debut with Déficit, has since fallen back to playing in front of the camera, while Diego Luna's film schooling has included Julian Schnabel, Julie Taymor, Steven Spielberg, Harmony Korine, the Cuaron brothers and most recently, Gus Van Sant.