Wes Anderson’s films have premiered at various festivals, including Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The French Dispatch (2021) and the upcoming ensemble comedy Asteroid City. After , Cannes is a film festival he returns to again and again. Last week, I asked Anderson what he thought was so glamorous about his Croisette debut.
“I think the reason I’m going to Cannes is because they said yes,” he said deadpan. “After that, I don’t really think about it.”
Well, it means more than that, admitted Anderson. For film lovers, there is no pilgrimage more sacred than the Cannes Film Festival. There, movies are treated with the utmost respect, and marathon standing ovations are regularly given.
Here, great film directors such as Martin Scorsese, who won the Palme d’Or in 1976 with “Taxi Driver” and will return this year with the new work “Killers of the Flower Moon”, and Quentin Tarantino, can be canonized. It’s a place that has been The Palm Award-winner (1994’s Pulp Fiction) and Cannes regular will return to the Cannes Film Festival this year for a wide-ranging conversation that may even touch on his upcoming final film. is.
“I look at Cannes in the light of other films I know that have screened at Cannes, and I feel lucky to be part of the program that premieres those films,” said Anderson. rice field. “For me, it’s a chance to get involved in the history of this movie that I love so much.”
A Cannes launch can be very expensive for a studio, as airfare, star entourage and five-star hotels alone add up. Still, the return on investment can be large. Last year, “Top Gun: Maverick” launched with a Tom Cruise flirtatious summit and fighter jets flew over southern France, while Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” staged a rock concert on the beach and drones I tracked the silhouette of Elvis Presley floating in the sky. Both films leveraged their flashy debuts to become global hits of the year and even earned Oscar nominations to boot.
This year, there are several star-driven films looking to capitalize on Cannes’ bounty, including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate, which is said to be Harrison Ford’s final appearance in one of his most iconic roles. . It can overcome the tepid reception to its predecessor, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and the fact that Steven Spielberg has been replaced by James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari) as series director. Huh? At the very least, the addition of Phoebe Waller-Bridge to one of the most high-profile roles since “Fleabag” would make a welcome impact on the series.
Director Todd Haynes, who premiered Carol at Cannes, is returning to the festival with another female-led double feature. May December stars Julianne Moore as a teacher whose scandalous relationship with a former student is brought under scrutiny in the film. Star (Natalie Portman) is preparing to play a teacher in a movie. Other star-studded films include The New Boy, where Cate Blanchett played the role of a nun for the first time since The Tar, Jude Law as Henry VIII, and Alicia Vikander for the last time. There is also “Firebrand” where he played the role of his wife Catherine Parr.
And then there are the two most anticipated premieres of the fest: Asteroid City and Killers of the Flower Moon. The former takes place at a 1950s training camp featuring space-obsessed youngsters and Anderson’s regular stars like Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, and new recruit Tom Hanks. work with anyone The Scorsese-directed Apple-backed film, which follows the mysterious Osage murders of the 1920s, is set to hit the red carpet with stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
(Still, let’s shed tears remembering what could have happened: Greta Gerwig’s candy-coloured July release of Barbie skips its early premiere at Cannes and beats all others.) It robs us of the red carpet illusion.)
In recent years, winners of the prestigious Palme d’Or have often starred in movies with blockbuster potential, such as “Parasite” and “Triangle of Sorrow.” The latter film’s director, Ruben Ostlund, will preside over this year’s competition jury, which includes Brie Larson and Paul Dano, who will choose their favorites from a line-up of writers that includes several Palme Award winners.
Among them are director Wim Wenders, who won the Palm Award for Paris, Texas and is returning with Perfect Days, a story about a toilet cleaner in Tokyo, and his first starring role in his new film Monster. Director Hirokazu Kore-eda is also included. Japan since the Palme Prize-winning work Shoplifters. No director has ever won three Palm Awards, but Ken Loach won this year’s new working-class drama The Old Oak as high as “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” and “I, Daniel Blake.” If evaluated, it is possible.
A significant proportion of feature films were shown at Cannes this year, and although Steve McQueen’s documentary “Occupied City” about Nazi-occupied Amsterdam is four hours and six minutes long, all the much-talked-about premieres are feature films. It won’t. The festival will also premiere short films by directors Pedro Almodovar (The Strange Way of Life) and the late Jean-Luc Godard (The False War), as well as HBO’s already controversial Euphoria. ]series “The Idol” will also be broadcast. Mastermind Sam Levinson starring, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye.
And while the festival will offer G-rated fun in the form of Pixar’s new film, Elemental, it wouldn’t be Cannes without a few boundary breakers. Catherine Brier’s sexually explicit filmography (Fat Girl, Romance) is joined by Last Summer, about a lawyer who falls in love with her teenage stepson.
The movie I am most interested in is the drama “Zone of Interest” directed by Jonathan Glaser and set in Auschwitz. Rumor has it that Cannes was desperate to make up for its mistake by passing Glaser’s daring “Under the Skin” in 2013. Glazer’s films (“Birth” and “Sexy Beast”) are infrequent but excellent, so the director’s new project is reason enough to announce his participation at Cannes, and I will consider it specifically after that. no longer needed.
