Film Postcard: Cannes
"I like large parties," says Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby. "They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." This may be true, but it's doubtful whether the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from Wednesday to May 26, will provide much intimacy
"I like large parties," says Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby. "They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." This may be true, but it's doubtful whether the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from Wednesday to May 26, will provide much intimacy. With Baz Luhrmann's glittering take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920s novel opening world cinema's hottest party, all eyes will be on the French Riviera for two weeks.
As usual Hollywood has muscled in - from Luhrmann's all-star cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, via Steven Spielberg heading the jury, to Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, her real-life tale of Los Angeles teen housebreakers who target Beverly Hills celebrities, which opens the festival's Un Certain Regard strand. Fortunately, the competition - the 20 films jostling for the coveted Palme d'Or - sees a more tasteful American influence.
Regular Cannes attendees are back in force, including Alexander Payne (who brings his black-and-white father/son road trip Nebraska), Jim Jarmusch (a late addition with vampire tale Only Lovers Left Alive) and James Gray (with The Immigrant). They'll be joined by former Palme d'Or winners Joel and Ethan Coen, with their 1960s folk music drama Inside Llewyn Davis, and Steven Soderbergh, who won the prize for his 1989 debut Sex, Lies, and Videotape and returns with what will be, so the 50-year-old filmmaker claims, his swansong, Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra.
Beyond the US heavy-hitters, there is much to look forward to. Iranian director Asghar Farhadi hits Cannes with The Past, his first film since 2011's A Separation, which claimed an Oscar and Golden Globe for best foreign film. While the plot details are under wraps, it is known that Farhadi's first film shot outside his native Iran stars The Artist's Bérénice Bejo and A Prophet's Tahar Rahim, two French thespians who owe a great deal to Cannes for boosting their careers.
Speaking of the French: prolific Gallic director François Ozon returns with his latest film, Young & Beautiful. Starring Marine Vacth, this portrait of a teenage girl "in four seasons and four songs" comes hot on the heels of In the House, one of the best movies of the French auteur's career. Italian maestro Paolo Sorrentino, after his oddball US odyssey This Must Be the Place, also reappears. His new film, The Great Beauty, promises to be a contemporary tale set among the Rome glitterati - re-acquainting him with regular star Toni Servillo.
Of course, there are the usual omissions. British filmmaker Steve McQueen's anticipated Twelve Years a Slave, starring his Shame actor Michael Fassbender and Hollywood megastar Brad Pitt, was said to be not ready. Sexy Beast director Jonathan Glazer's Scottish sci-fi Under the Skin also didn't make the cut. But Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux ensured the door was left open for Lars von Trier, after the Danish director's ill-advised "Nazi" comments in his 2011 Cannes press conference saw the festival declare him "persona non grata".