Heading to Cannes tomorrow, and here’s the list of films I’m looking forward to:
Heli (Escalante) Comp
Jimmy P (Desplechin) Comp
Grisgris (Haroun) Comp
A Touch of Sin (Jia) Comp
Like Father, Like Son (Kore-eda) Comp
Blue is the Warmest Color (Kechiche) Comp
Jeune et Jolie (Ozon) Comp
Venus in Fur (Polanski) Comp
Only God Forgives (Refn) Comp
Death March (Alix) UCR
Les Salauds (Denis) UCR
Notre, the End of History (Lav D) UCR
L’inconnu du lac (Guiraudie) UCR
L’image Manquante (Panh) UCR
La Jaula de Oro (Quemada-Diaz) UCR
Manuscripts Don’t Burn (Rasoulof) UCR
My Sweet Pepper Land (Saleem) UCR
Grand Central (Zlotowski) UCR
The Last of the Unjust (Lanzmann) Non-Comp
Blind Detective (To) Midnight
Seduced and Abandoned (Toback) Spec Screenings
Goha (Baratier) Cannes Classics
Manila in the Claws of Light (Brocka) Classics
Plein Soleil (Clement) Classics
A Story of Children and Film (Cousins) Classics
Le Joli mai (Lhomme/Marker) Classics
Charulata (Ray) Classics
Borom Sarret (Sembene) Classics
The Summer of Flying Fish (Said) Quinzaine
Jodorowsky’s Dune (Pavich) Quinz
The Dance of Reality (Jodorowsky) Quinz
Magic Magic (Silva) Quinz
Tip Top (Bozon) Quinz
Un Voyageur (Ophuls) Quinz
Shadow of a Cloud (Jude–short) Quinz
Solecito (Navia–short) Quinz
Swimmer (Ramsey–short) Quinz
The Dismantlement (Pilote) Semaine
3X3D (Greenaway/Godard) Semaine
With almost all of the Camera d’Or films, who knows? But many of those will be a primary focus of my daily blogs for Film Comment. I didn’t plan it this way, but I just noticed that I have exactly nine each in the Competition, UCR and Quinzaine. For the first time maybe ever, there are a whole bunch of French films that have me excited. That almost never happens, and that seems to be fairly overlooked in the pre-festival prognostications and coverage.
What’s your Palme prediction? Mine is Refn’s Only God Forgives, all things (Jury especially) considered. But though I love Refn’s cinema, I really want to see Jia win for A Touch of Sin. (A nice word pun on King Hu’s A Touch of Zen.) But that would be a miracle on a Spielberg Jury. And wouldn’t it be something if Polanski’s Venus in Fur wins? He’s the last one the Jury will see…