Monday, May 14, 2012

Cannes Film Festival kicks off tomorrow

Moonrise Kingdom will be the opening film premiering at Cannes tomorrow and the festival lasts til May 27th. I had always given brief run downs of the news coming from Cannes. This time, I'm gonna have more news about the films coming out and what critics at Cannes have been saying.

Remember, last year's Cannes was where Nicolas Refn's "Drive' came out to rave reviews, as well as Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" and Malick's "The Tree of Life" both confused and enthralled the critics (and wound up winning the Palme D'or). Cannes is a make-or-break festival. It can ruin films, or it can give films life it never thought it could have like this past year's Best Picture winner at the Oscars, The Artist. Last year, The Artist got rave reviews from across the board, who knew that this little silent French film would wind up being an Oscar juggernaut?

There can be some Oscar faves coming out this year or there could be none. Either way, there'll be great films and usually a handful of clunkers. I'm really holding out hope that Moonrise Kingdom from Wes Anderson will go over well with critics. I dig the trailer and a lot of the promotional material coming from the film is just adorable. I'm glad Wes went with Focus Features on this one as his films could use more promotions. I feel like Fox Searchlight and its parent studio kinda dropped the ball on both The Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox. I hope Moonrise Kingdom can wind up becoming the indie hit of the summer.

Down below are a handful of films premiering at Cannes that I'm really looking forward to hearing about and then below that are some mini-featurettes for Moonrise Kingdom.

"Rust & Bone" (dir. Jacques Audiard)

Audiard's follow-up to "A Prophet" which was easily one of the best films of 2009.

"On The Road" (dir. Walter Salles)

This is a film that's been in the making for almost 40 years. Francis Ford Coppola had wanted to tackle this for a long time, but never got the chance. Walter Salles was an inspired choice for this though as proven by 2004's Motorcycle Diaries which he also directed.

"Lawless" (dir. John Hillcoat)

One of two Weinstein Company films that I'm interested in for this festival. You may have seen the trailer for the film before. I think I posted it late last month. *checks* Yup, I did. Good word from Cannes will help this film out tons which has to deal with a rather lame August 31st release date in the States. 

"Killing Them Softly" (dir. Andrew Dominik)

The second Weinstein Company film that I'm interesting in hearing about. Dominik's long-awaited follow-up to Assassination of Jess James also stars Brad Pitt and he ventures into more modern day crime-drama territory (like with 2000's Chopper). It will be interesting to see his approach with this film and hopefully it'll get more love upon release unlike Assassination which people kinda dismissed at first as being overlong. Of course that film turned out to be one of the best of the decade.

"Cosmopolis" (dir. David Cronenberg)

This film looks like Cronenberg at his vintage best judging by the trailers. Robert Pattinson actually looks good for the role and hopefully, if it's good enough, it will finally give Cronenberg some box office clout. We'll see how the critics and French audience take to the film first though. I don't even think the film has an American release date yet.

"Amour" (dir. Michael Haneke)

Another interesting follow-up from the director of "The White Ribbon." That film won the Palme D'or in 2009, can Haneke do it again?

Moonrise Kingdom featurettes:







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