Cannes 2005

The 58th annual Cannes Film Festival kicks off today. Much has been made of the main competition's reliance on past masters, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn't change the fact that there are some films getting excited about:

In competetion

David Cronenberg's A History of Violence has the baggage of being adapted from a comic book...oh, excuse me, a graphic novel, but as he has proven before, pulp source material can be transformed into excellent cinema (see: The Dead Zone, Dead Ringers).

Michael Haneke's Cache, starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche (reuniting with her Code Unknown director), sounds appropriately ominous from its description on the Cannes site: "Georges, who hosts a TV literary review, receives packages containing videos of himself with his family -- shot secretly from the street -- and alarming drawings whose meaning is obscure. He has no idea who may be sending them. Gradually, the footage on the tapes becomes more personal, suggesting that the sender has known Georges for some time. Georges feels a sense of menace hanging over him and his family..."

Haneke may have won the Grand Jury prize in 2001 for The Piano Teacher, but for my money his 2003 entry Time of the Wolf was even stronger. Here's hoping he continues that upward trend. Here's the trailer.

Love him or hate him, there's no denying the fact that Lars Von Trier will at least give a mean press conference for Manderlay, his follow up to Dogville and the second chapter of his self-described USA Trilogy. Bryce Dallas Howard (Opie's girl) takes over for Nicole Kidman in the role of Grace, and Willem Dafoe replaces James Caan as her father. The great Anthony Dod Mantle does return however as cinematographer. Check out the trailer for an idea of what to expect.

If Coffee and Cigarettes felt like an uneven biding of time, maybe Broken Flowers will bring back the long form Jim Jarmusch we know and love. With Bill Murray in the lead, this may end up being the most widely distributed and seen film of the white-haired New Yorker yet.

Wim Wenders lent Jarmusch a major hand by donating leftover black and white stock from the shooting of The State of Things for the younger director to make Stranger Than Paradise. Wenders is back in Cannes competition this year with Don't Come Knocking, a Sam Shepard-written movie about a fading western actor searching for a daughter he does not know. Shepard's wife Jessica Lange costars, along with Sarah Polley, Tim Roth, and Eva Marie Saint. The documentary Buena Vista Social Club not withstanding, Wenders has fallen out of critical favor in recent years (though his last film, Land of Plenty, received some good reviews at the Toronto Film Festival back in October, IFC Films still has not released it), but maybe reuniting with his Paris, Texas collaborator Shepard will get him back in with those same critics who elevated his career to its popular peak.