Cannes 2011 – Official Selection
Established directors and new blood will vie for Palme d’Or
A surprising generational and stylistic head-to-head is in store for the competition at the
64th Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22, 2011),
whose official selection was unveiled at midday today in Paris by delegate general Thierry Frémaux. Indeed, 19 titles are screening in competition,
including eight by newcomers to this level, an enormous proportion that shows a desire to re-boost the potential of the Cannes event.
Big names in world cinema will put in an appearance as usual with four former Palme d’Or winners (Lars von Trier, Nanni Moretti and brothers
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) and seven previous award winners on the Croisette: Pedro Almodóvar, Aki Kaurismäki, Paolo Sorrentino, Alain Cavalier,
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Naomi Kawase and Terrence Malick.
But above all, the 2011 edition opens a window onto a totally new panorama of talent with one director making his second shot (Bertrand Bonello) and
eight newcomers to the Palme d’Or race: Maïwenn Le Besco, Lynne Ramsay, Nicolas Winding Refn, Radu Mihaileanu, Takashi Miike, Joseph Cedar,
Markus Schleinzer and Julia Leigh (the last two with their debut features). Four women directors have been selected this year, which is a record number.
With 12 titles, Europe dominates the competition by far. Those vying for honours include three French directors (Bonello – see news, Cavalier and Maïwenn – see news); two Italians (Moretti – see news, and Sorrentino, with his first English-language film, starring Sean Penn – see news); and Spanish icon Almodóvar (see news), who has in the end accepted his invitation to Cannes after considering giving it a miss.
Also in the line-up are von Trier (see news); Belgium’s Dardenne brothers (see news); Brit director Lynne Ramsay (see news); Finland’s Kaurismäki (see news); and Austria’s Schleinzer.
Turkey’s Bilge Ceylan acts as a bridge between Europe and Asia, which has two Japanese directors in competition (Kawase and Miike with a samurai film) and Israel’s Cedar.
While South America is completely absent from the 2011 Palme d’Or competition, Australia is represented by Leigh and the United States by Malick (who returns to the competition he first discovered back in 1979) and Drive by Denmark’s Winding Refn.
The out-of-competition line-up looks particularly attractive, with Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris as opening film (see news); Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; Jodie Foster’s The Beaver; and Xavier Durringer’s The Conquest (which looks back at Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign for the last presidential elections – see news).
<Official Selection>
* Competition
The Skin I Live In (Spain) – Pedro Almodóvar
L’Apollonide (France) – Bertrand Bonello
Footnote (Israel) – Joseph Cedar
Pater (France) – Alain Cavalier
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkey) – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Hanezu no Tsuki (Japan) – Naomi Kawase
The Kid With a Bike (Belgium) – Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Le Havre (Finland) – Aki Kaurismäki
Sleeping Beauty (Australia) – Julie Leigh
Tree of Life (US) – Terrence Malick
Polisse (France) – Maïwen
The Source (France) – Radu Mihaileanu
We Have a Pope [trailer] (Italy) – Nanni Moretti
Ishimei (Hari-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) (Japan) – Takashi Miike
Michael (Austria) – Markus Schleinzer
We Need to Talk About Kevin (UK) – Lynne Ramsay
Melancholia [trailer] (Denmark) – Lars von Trier
This Must Be the Place (Italy) – Paolo Sorrentino
Drive (US) – Nicolas Winding Refn
* Out of Competition
- Opening Film
Midnight in Paris [trailer] (Spain/US) – Woody Allen
The Conquest (France) – Xavier Durringer
The Beaver (US) – Jodie Foster
The Artist (France) – Michel Hazanavicius
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (US) – Rob Marshall
- Midnight Screenings
Wu Xia (China) – Chan Peter
Day of Grace – Everardo Gout (Mexico)
- Special Screenings
Labrador (Denmark) – Frederikke Aspöck
Le Maître des Forges de l’Enfer (France) – Rithy Panh
Michel Petrucciani (US) – Michael Radford
Tous au Larzac (France) – Christian Rouaud
an excerpt : http://www.cineuropa.org/newsdetail.aspx?lang=en&documentID=201496
