Monday, April 18, 2011

64th Cannes Film Festival (2011) Official Selection

This year's poster features an image of the stunning Faye Dunaway from Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970).

On last Thursday, April 14th.  The official selection lineup for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival was announced.  French actress Melanie Laurent will serve as Mistress of Ceremonies and Robert De Niro will preside over the Competition Jury.

This year's exciting competition lineup boasts quite an incredible list of directors, some of whose films I have been greatly anticipating.  Most notably, Cannes darlings Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Boy with a Bike, Terrence Malick's long awaited Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic sci-fi Melancholia starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Other interesting entries are Takashi Miike's 3D remake of Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 classic Hara-Kiri, veteran Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's revenge thriller The Skin I Live In reuniting him with star Antonio Banderas, and Bertrand Bonello's L'Apollonide set in an early 1900's Paris brothel.


There are officially 19 20 films in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or, two of which are directorial debuts, four from female directors:
Pater
Alain Cavalier
France
Hanezu No Tsuki - 朱花の月
Naomi Kawase
Japan
The Source (La Source des Femmes)
Radu Mihaileanu
Belgium, Italy, France
This Must Be The Place
Paolo Sorrentino
Italy, France, Ireland
President of the Jury - Robert De Niro.
 

6 comments:

Das Auto! said...

The 3d remake of Hara-Kiri sounds quite intriguing

Jack L said...

Some very interesting films this year.
I'm amazed that Miike will include another one of his film when 13 Assassins has barely been released, he works at an amazing speed...

I'm very interested in Tree Of Life and Meloncholia and I can see them winning a few awards.

It's funny to see De Niro back in France for the first time in many years, I thought he had sworn never to set foot in the country again!

Anyway, great post, and I love that Faye Dunaway image they chose for the poster.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I think Miike is too prolific for his own good. He is capable of great work but his catalog is filled with so many duds

About De Niro, I guess it's one job/honor you just can't turn down.

Beasts in Human Skin said...

I agree with you about Miike. Some of his films blow my mind and others are complete messes. Some of these Cannes entries sound interesting, though.

The Angry Lurker said...

Would love to visit Cannes for this event, would be a great experience.

Hermann Rorschach said...

Whoa whoa, hold the phone...Melancholia? What?
The festival doesn't mean too much to an uncultured slob like me, but the phrase "apocalyptic scifi" does.

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