Dispelling concerns about tense international relations between Paris and Washington over the Iraq war, Cannes Film Festival organizers promised a full complement of Hollywood movie stars for the event next month.
These include both Nicole Kidman and her former husband Tom Cruise, with his new love, Penelope Cruz, along with Meg Ryan, Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, Sean Penn, James Caan and Ewan McGregor. Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves, who will be on hand with the entire cast of the high-flying blockbuster, The Matrix: Reloaded, which will have a special out-of-competition screening.Yet, there are differences this year, including a slimmed-down lineup of films, some new faces in the competition, and a decline in the English and American presence on the Riviera. The 56th edition of the festival runs May 14 to 25.
Seventeen years after his most successful film, Decline of the American Empire, debuted on the Croisette, Quebec director Denys Arcand has been selected for the Cannes competition for his new work, Les invasions barbares (Invasion of the Barbarians), a sequel to his Decline of the American Empire, chronicling the lives of intellectuals who came of age in the 1960s.
The film, which is described as an examination of death and the bonds of family, set against the backdrop of an overcrowded Quebec hospital, was screened for the press in Montreal on April 15 and will open in Quebec on May 9. Barbarians follows several of the characters from Decline of the American Empire as they reunite, at the request of Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau) to be with his ill father, Rémy (Rémy Girard). Continuing with his examination of the Sixties generation of Quebec reformers, the film is considered a return to form for Arcand after the failure of his English-language film, Stardom, which screened out of competition at Cannes.
Arcand is the sole Canadian in the official selection this year (Tiresia by Bertrand Bonello is a joint France-Canada entry). Only 20 out of 2,500 titles seen were picked for competition. A couple have yet to be announced for the Un Certain Regard list.
Although Cannes had dipped back to familiar directors, this year also represents a minor revolution, with a half-dozen spots going to directors who have previously never been represented in official competition. Several films -- including Emir Kusturica's Hungry Heart, Jane Campion's In the Cut, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, the Coen brothers' Intolerable Cruelty and Wong Kar-wai's 2046 -- were not ready in time for the festival and there were reported difficulties in coming up with a strong slate.
The competition includes only three American entries -- Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, Gus Van Sant's Elephant (a secretive, low-budget project made with Timothy Bottoms and a group of amateur actors from Portland, Ore.) and Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny.
The Gallo film, which features an explicit oral-sex scene involving Gallo and actress Chloë Sevigny, already promises to provide the requisite annual scandal of the festival.
Eastwood has had three films (Pale Rider, Bird and White Hunter, Black Heart) shown at Cannes before and last appeared nine years ago as president of the jury. Mystic River, adapted from Dennis Lehane's best-selling mystery novel, stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney.
Both Gallo and Van Sant are first-timers in the competition. Other international newcomers include China's Lu Ye (Purple Butterfly), Japan's Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Akarui Mirai) and Naomi Kawase (Shara), and Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Uzak).
There is only one British director represented in the official selection. Peter Greenaway's The Moab Story/The Tulse Luper Suitcases -- Part I includes Kathy Bates, William Hurt, Don Johnson, Madonna, Molly Ringwald, Isabella Rossellini and Sting.
Other offerings come from perennial Cannes directors. Denmark's Lars von Trier's presents Dogville, which is set in the Rockies but shot entirely in studio. It stars Kidman and the cast includes Stellan Skarsgaard, Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Philip Baker Hall, Bacall and Caan.
Russia's Alexander Sokurov returns with Father and Son. Hector Babenco's Carandiru is a drama set in a Brazilian prison, chronicling the death of more than 100 inmates during a 1992 revolt.
Not yet 25 but already a Cannes familiar face, Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf will bring the first feature shot in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban, entitled A cinq heures de l'après-midi (Five in the Afternoon). The movie concerns a bomb blast in central Kabul and a horse-cart driver and his family.
There are five French entries, including André Téchiné's Les égarés (Strayed) with Emmanuelle Béart as well as one from the Swiss-based Raul Ruiz's Ce jour-là (This Day).
Fanfan la Tulipe, a remake of the 1953 French hit movie, starring Penelope Cruz, will kick off the festival, and a digitally restored version of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) will close it.
This year's festival will offer special tributes to actress Jeanne Moreau and the late Italian director Federico Fellini. In keeping with what appears to be a deliberately European orientation to Cannes this year, it will be the site of a conference of 25 European cultural ministers.
Cannes 2003
The films in competition at the 56th Cannes Film Festival, followed by special out-of-competition showings.
IN COMPETITION:
Les invasions barbares, Denys Arcand, Canada
Il Cuore Altrove, Pupi Avati, Italy
Carandiru, Hector Babenco, Brazil
Uzak, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey
Mystic River, Clint Eastwood, United States
The Brown Bunny, Vincent Gallo, United States
The Moab Story/The Tulse Luper Suitcases -- Part I, Peter Greenaway, Britain
Shara, Naomi Kawase, Japan
Akarui Mirai, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan
A cinq heures de l'après-midi,
Samira Makhmalbaf, Iran
Ce jour-là, Raoul Ruiz, Switzerland
Father and Son, Alexander Sokurov, Russia
Dogville, Lars von Trier, Denmark
Elephant, Gus Van Sant, United States
Purple Butterfly, Lou Ye, China
Les cotelettes, Bertrand Blier, France
La petite Lili, Claude Miller, France
Swimming Pool, François Ozon, France
Les égarés, André Téchiné, France
Tiresia, Bertrand Bonello, France/Canada
OUT OF COMPETITION:
Le temps du loup, Michael Haneke, France
Vai E Vem, Joao Cesar Monteiro, Portugal
Mansion by the Lake,
Lester James Peries, Sri Lanka
The Matrix: Reloaded,
Andy and Larry Wachowski, United States
Les triplettes de Belleville,
Sylvain Chomet, France
Qui a tue Bambi?, Gilles Marchand, France
In Pictures:
