Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Cannes Film Festival Sunday, July 4, 2021 ere are the 24 films competing for ‘Lingui’ the Palme d’Or as the Cannes Film by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad HFestival returns from July 6 to 17, Set in the outskirts of N’Djamena, with a jury led by US director Spike Lee. “Lingui” tells the story of an adolescent whose unwanted pregnancy puts her in ‘Annette’ conflict with her country’s traditions and by Leos Carax, France the law. Haroun lives in France, but most Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard star of his films have been produced in his as a glamorous celebrity couple whose birth country of Chad, which he left during lives are upended by the arrival of their unrest in the 1980s. first child. The first film in a decade from auteur Carax is also the first in English ‘Paris 13th District’ from the eccentric French mind behind by Jacques Audiard, France arthouse favourites “Holy Motors” and Audiard won the Palme in 2015 for “The Lovers on the Bridge.” “Dheepan”, but is best-known abroad for This combination of file pictures (from left, up to down) shows the Jury of the 74th Cannes Film Festival, including US director Spike Lee, “The Prophet” and “Rust and Bone”. His French actress and director Melanie Laurent, US actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, French singer Mylene Farmer, Austrian film director Jessica ‘The French Dispatch’ latest is based on three graphic novels by Hausner, French actor Tahar Rahim, Brazilian Director Kleber Mendonca Filho, South-Coreen actor Song Kang-ho and French movie director by Wes Anderson, US US author Adrian Tomine and set in a Mati Diop. — AFP Film fans can never get enough of mixed neighbourhood of Paris. It features Wes Anderson, and his latest quirky four young people who are sometimes bauble can be counted on for more friends, sometimes lovers, and sometimes obsessively curated sets and shots, both. 20th-century nostalgia, family disharmo- ny and Bill Murray. Plus yet more megas- ‘The Restless’ tars in Anderson’s menagerie in the form by Joachim Lafosse, Belgium of Timothee Chalamet and Benicio Del Starring Leila Bekhti and Damien Toro, and a set-up-foreign correspon- Bonnard, the film tells the story of a cou- dents in France-that is likely to play well ple under stress due to Bonnard’s charac- with critics at Cannes. ter suffering from bipolar disorder, and he Cannes Film Festival returns Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray and many daughter Dylan. Also in the competition who do their best to protect their child. next week, promising to bury the more. Two other stars of that film-Tilda are Iran’s two-time Oscar winner Asghar ‘Benedetta’ Tlong months of darkness and soli- Swinton and Lea Seydoux-will be near- Farhadi, who returns with “A Hero”, and by Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands ‘The Divide’ tude under an avalanche of celebrity, ubiquitous on the Croisette, with appear- Russia’s Kirill Serebrennikov, who is From “Robocop” to “Basic Instinct” to by Catherine Corsini, France champagne and chin-stroking arthouse ances in a remarkable eight movies unable to attend due to an embezzlement “Starship Troopers,” Dutch director Paul Two decades after her film “Replay” cinema. It is billed as nothing less than a between them. Damon is in town for the conviction that is widely seen as punish- Verhoeven has always walked a fine line entered the Cannes competition, Corsini resurrection. “Cinema is not dead!” festi- premiere of his latest thriller, the ment for criticizing Vladimir Putin. between gaudy schlock and cinematic returns with a drama about a couple stuck val supremo Thierry Fremaux declared Marseilles-set “Stillwater”. genius. His latest tale recounts a lesbian in a hospital that comes under siege dur- last month. It is the first major fully- But Cannes is all about the filmmak- Gender imbalance affair in a 17th-century convent, starring ing a violent Paris demonstration inspired fledged film festival since the pandemic, ers, and after last year’s edition was can- The panel judging the 24 entries is Virginie Efira and Charlotte Rampling. by the Yellow Vests movement. and a truckload of Hollywood stars-from celled due to the pandemic, a particularly headed by US director Spike Lee-the first Timothee Chalamet to Nicole Kidman to rich crop of festival alumni is competing time a black man has led the jury-and ‘A Hero’ Matt Damon-are expected on the for the Palme d’Or. Among those submit- includes “The Serpent” star Tahar Rahim by Asghar Farhadi, Iran Croisette between July 6 and 17. ting themselves to the famously blunt and US actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. With Iran’s lauded director Asghar Farhadi It’s not quite a return to normal, of audiences of Cannes are several past just four female directors in the competi- has worked in multiple languages but course, even if France’s COVID numbers winners: Italy’s Nanni Moretti with his new tion, the festival’s tendency to pick the returns to his homeland for his latest, have been steadily improving and most film “Tre Piani”, France’s Jacques usual (male) suspects of the arthouse details of which are scant. He has won restrictions lifted. There will be no “bises”- Audiard (“Les Olympiades”) and elite is once again under scrutiny. Only awards all over, including Oscars for “A the French-style peck on the cheeks-at Thailand’s master of the slow-burn one woman has won the top Palme d’Or Separation” and “The Salesman”, which the top of the fabled steps to the Palais Apichatpong Weerasethakul with his prize in 73 editions of the festival: Jane also won best screenplay at Cannes. des Festivals. And some of the glitz will English-language debut (“Memoria”). Campion for “The Piano” in 1993. The be toned down, with many after-parties The opening night film is also a first in selection is more balanced in the other ‘Tout s’est Bien Passe’ (Everything cancelled and the big galas cutting their English for France’s Leo Carax, directing sections, however, with over half the Went Fine) invite lists in half to meet social distancing Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard in what entries in the independent Directors’ by Francois Ozon, France ‘The Worst Person in the World’ guidelines. is certain to be a bizarre and visually Fortnight and International Critics Week Featuring French stars Sophie by Joachim Trier, Norway Organizers are also slowly waking up arresting musical about a celebrity couple coming from women directors. Marceau and Charlotte Rampling, A film about love and its complications, to the fact that the sight of celebrities and and their mysterious child, “Annette”. US actor-director Jodie Foster will like- France’s prolific and eclectic director Trier’s latest concludes an accidental trilo- moguls arriving on private jets and mega- Dutch shockmeister Paul Verhoeven, ly field questions on the subject as she Francois Ozon tells the story of a woman gy of Oslo-based films exploring exclusion yachts doesn’t seem so chic in an age of who made his name with Hollywood picks up an honorary Palme. There is asked by her father to help him die. and isolation. It tells the story of Julie, impending climate disaster. So this year: megahits like “Robocop” and “Basic plenty happening outside the competi- turning 30 and looking for answers in a no plastic, lots of electric cars, and most Instinct”, continues his late run of (slight- tions, including a first showing of Oliver ‘Tre Piani’ (Three Floors) new relationship, only to be let down by symbolic of all: a red carpet that is half the ly) more subtle European fare with Stone’s new documentary about the JFK by Nanni Moretti, Italy reality. size and made from recycled material. “Benedetta” about lesbian nuns in 17th assassination, updating his feature-length Exactly 20 years after winning the century Italy. conspiracy theory from 1991. That will Palme d’Or with “The Son’s Room” and ‘Hytti No 6’ (Compartment No 6) Stargazing Sean Penn will also be hoping for a play in the new Cannes Premiere section, nine years after heading the main jury at by Juho Kuosmanen, Finland But our collective need to gawp at personal resurrection after his cata- along with other intriguing documen- Cannes, Moretti is back with his first-ever Two strangers-a Finnish woman and a megastars on the Cote d’Azur will not be strophic Cannes appearance in 2016, taries: one about troubled star Val Kilmer adaptation of a novel, which looks at gloomy Russian-share a train compart- denied. One film in this year’s competi- when his Africa-based humanitarian love (“Val”) and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s ode to three families who live on three different ment winding its way up to the Arctic circle tion accounts for an outsize share of the story “The Last Face” was mercilessly her mother Jane Birkin (“Jane”).—AFP floors, in three chapters. in a road movie set against the backdrop celeb-count: Wes Anderson’s “The booed. He is aiming for a warmer recep- of the 1980s Soviet Union. Kuosmanen French Dispatch” includes Chalamet, tion to “Flag Day”, starring himself and his ‘Titane’ hopes to follow the success of his charm- by Julia Ducournau, France ing, low-key boxing flick, “The Happiest Starring French veteran actor Vincent Day in the Life of Olli Maki”. Lindon, “Titane” is the second feature after “Grave” by horror film specialist ‘Casablanca Beats’ Ducournau, which she reportedly wrote by Nabil Ayouch, France-Morocco Cannes director: in six weeks between two Covid-19 lock- Ayouch rocks the suburbs of downs. Casablanca with a film about young peo- ple seeking an outlet through hip-hop in The return ‘Red Rocket’ an underprivileged neighborhood made by Sean Baker, US infamous in 2003 after a group of radical- of cinema is The comedy-drama by indie filmmaker ized local youth carried out suicide bomb- Baker features Simon Rex as an over- ings in the city.