69th Cannes Film Festival Official Lineup, 2016

Thanks, Paddy! Fixed.

Loving the diversity of the Competition list, too – probably the least “Hollywood” list of competitors in a few years.

Have to echo Paddy’s cheer for Andrea Arnold, as well as Loach, Assayas, Nichols, Aldomovar, and (yes, Paddy) -Dolan. (just heard a groan). Also the Dardennes and Winding Refn, who has some damage to repair from his last outing but remains an exciting prospect.

Is it really almost Cannes time again? Time is definitely accelerating – or is it just a sign of me getting older?

Oh how I would love to be there. So many of the listed films that I’d love to see. Quite a few by people I’ve never heard of too – but that’s all to the good. Really keen to see the new work by Park Chan-Wook and Xavier Dolan, in particular.

I was expecting James Gray and Farhadi, but this seriously looks great!

I recently have become very much attached to Jeff Nichols so very much looking forward to Loving
The Neon Demon – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn…I am crying i want to see this movie so damn much
Also what even is Xavier Dolan’s life ?? He is so young and this is already his 4th movie in competition ???
Do people have to submit separately for out of competition because it would have been great to see a woman directed film in the lineup

I liked Mommy. That’s it. His upcoming projects sound far too ambitious for his limited abilities, though there’s nothing new there.

Rumors led me to believe that this would be a big year for East Asian cinema at Cannes, so a bit disappointed to see most of its reps in side selections. Still, Park and Mendoza’s return to competition is nothing to sneeze at (but where oh where is Johnnie To…?)

Most anticipated: The Handmaiden, Paterson, Toni Erdmann, Family Photos, and The Neon Demon

Sweet!

Cafe Society is in the competition or not ??

How many of them would make the Oscar lineup? Yes, Oscars are important for recognition.

I hoping that at some day Dardenne brothers will make the cut.

You are right !! He shot it with a Sony digital camera.

I’m predicting Nichols will get a best director nomination for Loving and am sure he was in the running for original screenplay with Take Shelter. Hard to say if Refn was close with Drive. He got nominated in a lot of places but the film was mostly shut out. Almodovar has won and the Dardennes should’ve been nominated for screenplay for at least The Child. The Dardennes will most likely be more recognized since Two Days, One Night got a nomination. I love this lineup.

Definitely excited for a Shane Black film. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of my favorite comedies. If he can make Russell Crowe truly funny (he had some chops with Man With the Iron Fists, don’t judge me!) I’ll bow to the man.

Sad to see Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture starring Rooney Mara didn’t make it to that list. Thought it had a big shot. Would be nice to see her again at Cannes.

Anyhow, the rest looks great.

I’ve only seen rave reviews and a lot of favor among gamblers. Plus– I doubt any of this box-office or extraneous personal issues carry any weight over to Cannes.

He had a brief stint in British politics but it didn’t pay off. I think he feels he’s making more of a difference as a filmmaker than as a politician.

Consider yourself judged.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION HYPE LIST (MOST TO LEAST):

Ma Loute – directed by Bruno Dumont
Personal Shopper – directed by Olivier Assayas
Elle – directed by Paul Verhoeven
The Unknown Girl – directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Rester Vertical – directed by Alain Guiraudie
Sieranevada – directed by Cristi Puiu
Toni Erdmann – directed by Maren Ade
Paterson – directed by Jim Jarmusch
The Neon Demon – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
American Honey – directed by Andrea Arnold
The Last Face – directed by Sean Penn
Aquarius – directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho
Ma’Rosa – directed by Brilliante Mendoza
Agassi – directed by Park Chan-Wook
Bacalaureat – directed by Cristian Mungiu
Loving– directed by Jeff Nichols
It’s Only The End Of The World – directed by Xavier Dolan
I, Daniel Blake – directed by Ken Loach
Julieta – directed by Pedro Almodovar
Mal de Pierres – directed by Nicole Garcia

Overall, this strikes me as a quirky year… many of these filmmakers are respectable but inconsistent in my book. With the exception of Dumont and Assayas, none of them are among my top 30 or so favorite working directors, but all of them are “interesting” except perhaps Garcia.

I expected Mendoza in UCR if anywhere…I want the Cannes Classics lineup now. For us commoners it’s terrific heads up on upcoming blurays of classics. Also interested to see who were the big names who threw the UCR bone back at them and opted for CW or DF both of which have had increasingly bigger profiles over that last couple years.

Here’s one that’s decidedly less impressed…

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/julieta-film-review-881691

It seems too small and too apolitical to win the Palm to me. A joint best actress award seems more likely, but you never know with these things.

I still have to see Umimachi diaries (unfortunately it’s from a manga series and he was invited back probably because of Like Father, Like Son), but I think since I Wish, his movies have a cloying quality to it, and it seems it’s extending into this one as well….but I’m a huge fan of Abe (so sexy) and Kirin…

I didn’t know he had a new film this year. I haven’t checked yet his last one “Office”. The guy is a machine

But you’ve gotta start somewhere with Diaz. You did, I did, and the respective Cannes, Locarno and Berlin juries in recent years all must have, and his films took home prizes in two of those three occasions. I didn’t find that I needed to be well-versed with his narrative and filmmaking style when I saw Norte, my first Lav Diaz film. It was one of 18 films I watched in 8 days at the London Film Festival three years ago, and not the only one over three hours. It became my favourite film of 2013. Ditto From What Is Before, which I watched in London the year after – one of 23 films I watched in 10 days, and my favourite film of 2014. Last year in London, I watched Kevin Jerome Everson’s eight-hour long Park Lanes – one of 22 films in 10 days, and in my top five films of 2015.

Can’t wait for The Last Face directed by Sean Penn and starring Charlize Theron

Russell Crowe gave the best performance in Les Miz, not that that’s saying much. This movie will never leave me be!

Your opinion on Lullaby is one that I’ve read from a number of writers who were at Berlin.

Recommending Lav Diaz films to anyone outside of the Philippines isn’t much use, since only Norte is actually available to buy.

You can get away with that without getting judged, since you’re evidently unwell, and it’s not fair to provoke the mentally ill.

So, just looking at the film in competition, the only ones I know of are Personal Shopper, Loving, and The Neon Demon. I look forward to finding out more about the others as well.

That’s quite unfortunate. But I think Batang West Side is still being invited in European festivals once in a while and I hope you can catch it on some of those who still screen acclaimed arthouse films Paddy. If you have spare time, you can also stream it online. It was in mubi.com late last year and the site streams it more often. Batang West Side is a one of a kind piece of cinema.

For the meantime, I found this first image from Mendoza’s “Ma’Rosa” which stars Jaclyn Jose who also worked with him in “Serbis”.

it’s bombing, b.o.-wise

It’s the first Almodovar film, in ages, I haven’t gone to the theater, to see it. Will probably watch it, when released on bluray/streaming services. It’s odd, that back in 2003, some people in this site, thought I was one of the Almodovar brothers, shamelessly promoting “Talk to Her”… even thought I later met Agustín, I’ve never met Pedro (however, later, I made some friends in common), and while I do admire his work, I am not a fan of his persona and not even in my top 5 spanish directors at work today (my faves are Javier Fesser – who’s a master -, Nacho Vigalondo, Álex de la Iglesia, Juan Antonio Bayona and maybe, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo). Just check out anything by this quintet… both Fesser and Vigalondo were already nominated for Oscars (short subject, amazing ones), de la Iglesia is known in Hollywood (he rejected Alien: Resurrection, due to Fox not allowing him to rewrite the screenplay), Bayona has just signed for Jurassic World 2 (after his Oscar-nominated The Impossible), and Daniel Sánchez Arévalo is the hidden gem of spanish filmmaking (you owe yourself to discover “Gordos” and “La Gran Familia Española”, trust me).