Cannes Film Festival 2015

[Precious Doll]

The thing is most of Van Sant & Moretti's recent output has been sub standard and not fit to be shown in competition where at least Jia Zhang-Ke & Hirokazu Kore-Eda's recent work has been of a high standard.

This is one of the numerous problems with the Cannes competition in recent years. The inclusion of mediocre work by once major filmmakers at the expense of more interesting and frankly better work by up and coming director that is regulated to Un Certain Regard.

The other problem are English language films featuring Hollywood stars that are included strictly for red carpet purposes. Thankfully, this appears to be less the case this year though.

The line up this year looks interesting, though does the world really need another adaptation of MacBeth. Roman Polanski made what is the definitive version over 40 years ago that is still as fresh now and it must have been back then (I first saw it in the early 80s).

[HarryGoldfarb]

Definitely, there are specialists in doing "Cannes friendly" films... Gus Van Sant and Nanni Moretti already have won the Palme d'Or. Audiard's A Prophet also received an award. Matteo Garrone won a few years ago (2 times the Grand Prix: Gomorrah in 2008 and Reality in 2012), Yorgos Lanthimos also won for that wonder called Dogtooth... Sorrentino has been nominated for the Palm 3 times (two years ago by the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) and won something a few years ago for Il Divo. Hsiao Hsien won the Jury Prize in 1993, Zhangke received something in 2013, Koreeda won the Jury Prize in 2013... The beautiful French actress turned into director Maïwenn won the Jury Prize for Polisse back in 2011...

It looks more and more like a usual suspects club... Missing are the Dardenne Brothers, sure to participate in a year or two with their next film, whatever they do...

[anonymous1980]

The lineup:

COMPETITION
Dheepan (working title), dir: Jacques Audiard
A Simple Man, dir: Stephane Brize
Marguerite and Julien, dir: Valerie Donzelli
The Tale Of Tales, dir: Matteo Garrone
Carol, dir: Todd Haynes
The Assassin, dir: Hou Hsiao Hsien
Mountains May Depart, dir: Jia Zhang-Ke
Our Little Sister, dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Macbeth, dir: Justin Kurzel
The Lobster, dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
Mon Roi, dir: Maiwenn
Mia Madre, dir: Nanni Moretti
Son Of Saul, dir: Laszlo Nemes
Youth, dir: Paolo Sorrentino
Louder Than Bombs, dir: Joachim Trier
The Sea Of Trees, dir: Gus Van Sant
Sicario, dir: Denis Villeneuve

La Tête Haute, dir: Emmanuelle Bercot (out of competition)

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Madonna, dir: Shin Suwon
Maryland, dir: Anna Winocour
The Fourth Direction, dir: Gurvinder Singh
Masaan (Fly Away Solo), dir: Neeraj Ghaywan
Hruter (Rams), dir: Grimur Hakonarson
Kishibe No Tabi (Journey to the Shore), dir: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Je Suis Un Soldat (I Am a Soldier), dir: Laurent Larivere
Zvizdan (The High Sun), dir: Dalibor Matanic
The Other Side, dir: Roberto Minervini
One Floor Below, dir: Radu Muntean
Shameless, dir: Oh Seung-Uk
The Chosen Ones, dir: David Pablos
Nahid, dir: Ida Panahandeh
The Treasure, dir: Corneliu Porumboiu

OUT OF COMPETITION
Mad Max: Fury Road, dir: George Miller
Irrational Man, dir: Woody Allen
Inside Out, dir: Pete Docter and Ronaldo del Carmen
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), dir: Mark Osborne

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Oka, dir: Souleymane Cisse
Sipur Al Ahava Ve Choshech (A Tale Of Love And Darkness), dir: Natalie Portman
Hayored Lema’ala, dir Elad Keidan
Amnesia, dir: Barbet Schroeder
Panama, dir: Pavel Vuckovic
Asphalte, dir: Samuel Benchetrit

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
O Piseu (Office), Dir: Hong Won-Chan
Amy, Dir: Asif Kapadia