Devilish Cannes Film Festival hails 'Inglourious Basterds' and 'Antichrist'
Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock," Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" and Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces" are among the 20 films that will compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13 to 24. Tarantino -- who won the festival's Golden Palm in 1994 for "Pulp Fiction" -- is the only U.S. filmmaker in competition.
Lee's "Woodstock," starring Liev Schreiber and Emile Hirsch, is about the bohemian rock festival in upstate New York in 1969. "Basterds" features Brad Pitt among a squad of Jewish-American soldiers battling Nazis in World War II. Recent Oscar champ Penelope Cruz transforms herself into a blond bombshell for Almodovar's thriller.
Past Palme d'Or winner Lars von Trier returns to the Cannes Film Festival with "Antichrist," a dark drama about a couple (Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg) who flee to an isolated cabin in the woods to cope with grief after their son dies.
Another top fest champ Jane Campion ("The Piano," 1993) will now unspool "Bright Star," about a love affair of 19th century British poet John Keats. Campion also won the Golden Palm for the fest's best short film of 1982 -- "An Exercise in Discipline -- Peel."
Here's the list of festival entries:
OPENING FILM
"Up"
Director: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (U.S.)
CLOSING FILM
"Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky"
Director: Jan Kounen (France)
FILMS IN COMPETITION
"Bright Star"
Director: Jane Campion (Australia, U.K., France)
"Spring Fever"
Director: Lou Ye (China, France)
"Antichrist"
Director: Lars von Trier (Denmark, Sweden, France, Italy)
"Enter the Void"
Director: Gaspar Noe (France)
"Face"
Director: Tsai Ming-liang (France, Taiwan, Netherlands, Belgium)
"Les herbes folles"
Director: Alain Resnais (France, Italy)
"In the Beginning"
Director: Xavier Giannoli (France)
"A Prophet"
Director: Jacques Audiard (France)
"The White Ribbon"
Director: Michael Haneke (Germany, Austria, France)
"Vengeance"
Director: Johnnie To (Hong Kong, France, U.S.)
"The Time That Remains"
Director: Elia Suleiman (Israel, France, Belgium, Italy)
"Vincere"
Director: Marco Bellocchio (Italy, France)
"Kinatay"
Director: Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)
"Thirst"
Director: Park Chan-wook (South Korea, U.S.)
"Broken Embraces"
Director: Pedro Almodovar (Spain)
"Map of the Sounds of Tokyo"
Director: Isabel Coixet (Spain)
"Fish Tank"
Director: Andrea Arnold (U.K., Netherlands)
"Looking for Eric"
Director: Ken Loach (U.K., France, Belgium, Italy)
"Inglourious Basterds"
Director: Quentin Tarantino (U.S.)
"Taking Woodstock"
Director: Ang Lee (U.S.)
FILMS SHOWN OUT OF COMPETITION
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"
Director: Terry Gilliam (Canada, France)
"The Army of Crime"
Director: Robert Guediguian (France)
"Agora"
Director: Alejandro Amenabar (Spain)
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
"A Town Called Panic"
Director: Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar (Belgium)
"Ne te retourne pas"
Director: Marina de Van (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy)
"Drag Me to Hell"
Director: Sam Raimi (U.S.)
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
"Petition"
Director: Zhao Liang (China)
"L'epine dans le coeur"
Director: Michel Gondry (France)
"Min ye"
Director: Souleyumane Cisse (France, Mali)
"Jaffa"
Director: Keren Yedaya (Israel, France, Germany)
"Manila"
Director: Adolfo Alix Jr., Raya Martin (Philippines)
"My Neighbor, My Killer"
Director: Anne Aghion (U.S.)
UNCERTAIN REGARD
"Samson & Delilah"
Director: Warwick Thornton (Australia)
"Adrift"
Director: Heitor Dhalia (Brazil)
"The Wind Journeys"
Director: Ciro Guerra (Colombia)
"Demain des l'aube"
Director: Denis Dercourt (France)
"Irene"
Director: Alain Cavalier (France)
"Independence"
Director: Raya Martin (Philippines, France, Germany)
"Le Pere de mes enfants"
Director: Mia Hansen-Love (France-Germany)
"Dogtooth"
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece)
"Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats"
Director: Bahman Ghobadi (Iran)
Eyes Wide Open"
Director: Haim Tabakman (Israel)
"Mother"
Director: Bong Joon-ho (South Korea)
"The Silent Army"
Director: Jean van de Velde (Netherlands)
"To Die Like a Man"
Director: Joao Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal)
"Police, Adjective"
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania)
"Tales from the Golden Age"
Directors: Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, Ioana Uricaru (Romania)
"Tale in the Darkness"
Director: Nikolay Khomeriki (Russia)
"Tzar"
Director: Pavel Lounguine (Russia, France)
"Nymph"
Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Thailand)
"Precious"
Lee Daniels (U.S.)
FEATURE FILM JURY
Isabelle Huppert (president), actress (France)
Asia Argento, actress, director, screenwriter (Italy)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director, screenwriter, actor (Turkey)
Lee Chang-dong, director, author, screenwriter (South Korea)
James Gray, director, screenwriter (U.S.)
Hanif Kureishi, author, screenwriter (U.K.)
Shu Qi, actress (Taiwan)
Robin Wright Penn, actress (U.S.)
CINEFONDATION AND SHORT FILM JURY
John Boorman (president), director, author, producer (U.K.)
Bertrand Bonello, director (France)
Ferid Boughedir, director (Tunisia)
Leonor Silveira, actress (Portugal)
Zhang Ziyi, actress (China)
Photo: Brad Pitt in "Inglourious Basterds." Credit: Weinstein Co.
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Hi Tom, Thanks for keeping us up to date on the happenings in Cannes. You write that there's only one American competing. However, I think there is another: Ang Lee. Cheers!
Posted by: Oranges | April 23, 2009 at 10:17 AM