Mike Leigh, the Salford-born doyen of English cinema at its grittiest, will return to the red carpet of the Croisette next month as the only British director in competition for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival.
Another Year, a comedy drama starring Imelda Staunton, Jim Broadbent and Lesley Manville, will be making its debut alongside 15 other works whose names were unveiled on Thursday last week by the organizers in Paris.
Speaking amid the gilt mirrors and marble walls of Paris’s Grand hotel, festival chief Thierry Fremaux told the world’s media that this year’s selection process had been rather difficult and lengthy. But he added that, with entries from 13 countries including Chad and Ukraine, the finished lineup reflected a growing desire to broaden the festival’s horizons.
“Our selection shows the fact that great filmmaking is alive in every country,” said Fremaux. “It’s not just a dialogue between Europe and the US but a global dialogue.”
Among the films vying for the prestigious Palme d’Or are works by world cinematic heavyweights including Tokyo-born Takeshi Kitano and Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, whose Copie Conforme is his first work filmed outside his home country and stars Juliette Binoche.
And, while Cannes 2010 is shaping up promisingly for the host nation, with three French films vying for the Palme d’Or and another by Nouvelle Vague hero Jean-Luc Godard, Socialisme, appearing in the Un Certain Regard category, it looks likely to be another modest year for the US.
Only one US director, Doug Liman, is in the running for the Palme d’Or. His spy thriller Fair Game is based on the true story of ex-CIA officer Valerie Plame and stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn as the outed spook and her diplomat husband.
Despite months of speculation, a question mark still hangs over the eventual screening of fellow US filmmaker Terrence Malick’s latest creation, which some had predicted would make it into the lineup. Fremaux said yesterday that the The Tree of Life, starring the Hollywood power duo of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, “is not ready.” But he left open the possibility that it might still be added to the program before the festival opens on May 12.
This year’s jury — to be headed by Tim Burton and made up of film figures including Kate Beckinsale and the Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro — will have much to chew through with the 16 Palme d’Or contenders. But it is away from the coveted group that many of the big names will be in the eye of publicity storms. Oliver Stone, whose Wall Street sequel, Money Never Sleeps, will be getting its premiere out of competition along with Frears’ take on a feisty journalist’s exploits in rural England.
Allen, who is notoriously averse to showing his films in the official Cannes competition, will also be showing on the sidelines of the festival — although his London-filmed movie, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, is bound to attract intense excitement on the Croisette. “We tried to ask him to be in the competition for once and the answer was ‘no,’” said Fremaux.
Gilles Jacob, the festival chairman, added that another invitation — this one largely symbolic — had been extended to the Iranian director Jafar Panahi to be guest of honor at the 2010 festival. Panahi, an outspoken critic of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime, has been in prison since his arrest in Tehran last month. The decision had been taken for Panahi’s “professional competencies,” Jacob said, but added: “From a human point of view, I believe that having him at the festival would be very good for artistic freedom.”
For those critics hungry for a dash of drama ahead of the opening night, the press conference provided an opportunity to delve into an ongoing battle over the event’s media coverage.
Angry at moves to restrict the amount of time they will be permitted to report on the festival, news agencies including Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France Presse boycotted the press conference. “There is obviously no question of not doing our utmost to ensure this boycott is no longer in place when we’re in Cannes,” said Fremaux. “We will do everything to find a solution.”
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