Cannes (pronounced kan…oh, those crazy French) is not just a beautiful city in the south of France but the home of the Cannes Film Festival. In its 64th edition, the non-public festival, founded in 1946, opens today May 11th to May 22nd 2011 to showcase films, producers and stars as Cannes is a celebrated venue with more media than there are carats of diamonds and yards of red carpet.
This year’s President of the Jury for feature films is Robert DeNiro (also the founder of another film festival, the Tribeca Film Festival) who with several fellow jury members including Jude Law and Uma Thurman will award the festival’s highest prize, the Palm d’Or (the Golden Palm). The Palm d’Or is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Green Hornet) is President of the Jury for cinéfondation and short films, Emir Kusturica (Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream) is President of the Jury for Un Certain Regard, and Joon Ho Bong (The Host, Tokyo!) is President of the Jury for Camera d’Or. The opening film is Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and the closing film will be Christophe Honoré’s Les Bien-aimés (The Beloved).
Here are two films screening at the Cannes Film Festival that we have our eyes on:
Trabalhar Cansa (Hard Labor) Directed by Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas (Brazil). It is the first feature film for the pair and is categorized under Un Certain Regard.
Synopsis: Young housewife Helena (Helena Albergaria) decides to open her first business: a grocery store. She hires Paula (Naloana Lima) as a maid to take care of her home and daughter. When Otávio (Marat Descartes), her husband, is suddenly fired, work relations between these three characters change, and disturbing occurrences start to threaten Helena’s business.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXeHv0oYbGA
Melancholia Directed by Lars Von Trier (Denmark). A contender for the Palm d’Or, this film is under the In Competition category for the Dogville and Manderlay director.
Synopsis: Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) are celebrating their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law (Kiefer Sutherland). Meanwhile, the planet, Melancholia, is heading towards Earth…
Trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi188456217/
We’ll just have to book our first class ticket for the Cannes Film Festival next year. As for this year, we’ll just sit and dream about walking the red carpet with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz for the screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (released in theaters on May 20th right before the end of the festival).
Feed me at sharon@horrorhaven.com
