Voilà Cannes 2017!
Update on May the 10th – Since 2018, movies in the official selection and competition at the Cannes Film Festival will have to have an initial destination for theatrical distribution in France. Festival managers say so after the bitter controversy over Noah Baumbach and Bong Joon Ho, two films produced by Netflix: Cannes invited “in vain Netflix to accept that these two films” can reach French cinemas, and not the subscribers to the platform only. No agreement has been reached, the Festival says, hence the decision. Cannes “is pleased to welcome a new operator who has decided to invest in cinema, but wants to reiterate its support for the traditional way of displaying cinema In France and in the world.” In the recent days, the rumor of a possible exclusion of the two films was widespread, officially denied by the festival.
Update on May the 4th: the restored version of Michelangelo Antonioni ‘Blow Up’ will be screened during the Festival, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Grand Prix (now called the Golden Palm). The restoration was done by the ‘Cineteca di Bologna’, Luce-Cinecittà Institute and Criterion, in collaboration with Warner Bros and Park Circus. The restoration was carried out in the Criterion laboratories in New York and ‘L’immagine ritrovata’ of the ‘Cineteca di Bologna’, under the supervision of the director of photography Luca Bigazzi. The ‘Cineteca di Bologna’ will be in Cannes with other restorations too: ‘Soleil O’, made in 1970 by Franco-Mauritanian director Med Hondo, ‘Lucía’, 1968 by the Cuban Humberto Solas, and ‘L’Atlante’ by Jean Vigo (1934), curated at the ‘Cineteca di Bologna’ new headquarters in Paris.
Updates on April 27 and 28: Official Selection is definitely completed with the following films: in competition ‘The Square’, directed by the Swedish Ruben Östlund, out of competition Roman Polanski ‘D’après une histoire vraie’; as for ‘Certain Regard’: ‘La Cordillera’, dir. by Santiago Mitre, ‘Walking past the Future’, by Li Ruijun; among the special screenings ‘Le Vénérable W.’, by Barbet Schroeder, ‘Carré 35’, directed by Éric Caravaca; among the kids screenings ‘Zombillénium’, directed by Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord. Among the celebrations, Cannes 70 foresees a homage to André Téchiné, with the presentation of his new film ‘Nos années folles’, and ‘Djam’, a Tony Gatlif film -concert, for the Cinéma de la Plage. Nicole Kidman, Jessica Chastain, Dustin and Lisa Hoffman, Diane Kruger, Milla Jovovich, Eva Longoria, Carine Roitfeld, Harvey Weinstein, Pedro Almodóvar, David Lynch, Vanessa Redgrave, Kenneth Cole (amfAR Chairman of the Board) and Milutin Gatsby (amfAR Global Fundraising Chairman) will be some of the supporters of the 24th amFAR Gala Cannes, which will take place on May 25. One of the most important charity events in the world, amFAR Gala Cannes is focused on the fundraising for the search on Aids.
Update on April 25: as for the Jury, director Pedro Almodóvar will be the president; the jurors will be Jessica Chastain, Will Smith, the German director Maren Ade, the Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, the Chinese actress Fan Bingbing; the French actress and singer Agnès Jaoui; the Korean director Park Chan-wook; and the French composer Gabriel Yared.
Updates on April 21:
* absent from the main competition, Italy conquers the opening of the Semaine de la Critique, the prestigious event taking place on the same days as the Cannes Film Festival (18-26 May) with ‘Sicilian Ghost Story’, directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, an Italian-Franco-Swiss co-production put at the opening the first time for an Italian film.
* Uma Thurman will chair the jury of Un Certain Regard; already a member of the jury directed by Robert De Niro in the 2011 festival, the actress recently joined the cast of Lars von Trier’s new project ‘The House that Jack Built’, next to Matt Dillon and Bruno Ganz.
Update on April 20: as for the Directors’ Fortnight (in French ‘Quinzaine des Réalisateurs’), the separately organised selection that usually runs parallel to the official festival from 18-28 May in Cannes, these are the feature films: (altro…)