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I will be attending Cannes this year, which also means we will be speculating a little bit more this year on what might be premiering at la Croisette. This post will concentrate more on the American films that might be presented at the film festival. Just like every speculative year you have Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time being a possibility, as I've previously written, it is a "Documentary/ficition mix about the beginning of time, narrated by Brad Pitt no less. Its been rumored completed for the last 5 years now. Every year when the Cannes lineup gets revealed we cross our fingers it's there, maybe this year?"
Steven Spielberg's The BFG is now the latest rumored Hollywood film that might be slotted as the Opening Night film or, maybe even in competition? It's a CGI-based film that is adapted from a children's book - could be interesting, especially now that it stars recently Oscar heralded Mark Rylance, who seems to have turned into Spileberg's newest muse. Any complaints? I doubt it.
There's already been much rumored news of Warren Beatty finally unveiling his Untitled Howard Hughes passion project. Beatty is not a film festival kind of guy though, he actually is a genuinely shy man that doesn't like to watch his films in public, the whole pressure of being judged seems to be pretty frightening to him. He could, I guess, just not show up, but having this film at Cannes will be a long shot IMHO
Martin Scorsese's Silence is the film everybody really wants to be at Cannes. A passion project of over three decades, it stars Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson and is set in 18th century Japan where the Samurai are basically dying and jesuits are coming to convert them. Bad idea. Wouldnt it be something to have Scorsese come to Cannes and have his film in Official competition? The greeting he would get from the French, where auteur cinema is like the bible, would be IMMENSE!
Woody Allen's Cafe Society is a romantic comedy that stars Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, and Ken Stott was acquired by Amazon earlier this year and has no details as of now about its plot. Woody Allen and France have a rich friendship together, and Im even counting his Oscar-nominated love-letter Midnight In Paris, this is a no-brainer.
Woody Allen's Cafe Society is a romantic comedy that stars Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, and Ken Stott was acquired by Amazon earlier this year and has no details as of now about its plot. Woody Allen and France have a rich friendship together, and Im even counting his Oscar-nominated love-letter Midnight In Paris, this is a no-brainer.
Damien Chazelle has really made a name for himself with Whiplash and then this year's inventive screenplay 10 Cloverfield Lane. Thatr's why even though the idea of his latest, La-La Land might be risky and bound to fail, I'm betting it will actually be one of the key titles of the year for Awards contention. That's how much I trust the guy. As Jeffrey Wells puts it, "this is an homage to old-fashioned movie musicals, but shot in a modern-day mode". Th kicker to all of this? It stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, who couldn't have had better chemistry in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special isn't even a day old in release time and we're already talking about his next movie Loving. This one steers away from the sci-fi of his last film and goes more towards historical conetent as a forbidden interracial relationship gets condemned in the 1958 bible belt as being an "illicit and politically provocative partnership". Yikes. Get ready for fireworks of highest political degree. This could finally be Nichols' ticket to Awards season.
American Honey is Andrea Arnold's follow-up to Wuthering Heights, but really this is the woman that ghave us Fish Tank,. an incredible movie, and it looks like she's back in modern-day territory here in a film that has Shia LaBeouf leading a gang of tearaway teens who sell magazine subscriptions by day and party all through the night.
Sean Penn's latest The Last Face is almost certainly making it according to Variety. Set in Africa this film was a little more known as the film set where Penn and co-star Charlize Theron feel in love in their doomed-to-fail romance ... Penn has proven himself to be a formidable director with The Pledge and Into The Wild, this could be a great movie.