Regulars and newcomers, including a number of women, share the billing for the 67th Cannes Festival's official competition. With droves of stars set to throng the red carpet as usual!
At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival press conference, the artistic delegate of the world's most media-covered event after the Olympic Games reminded us that the only criteria for aspiring to figure in its official selection is to submit a film of at least one hour and one minute. No more complicated than that! This year Thierry Frémaux and his young team watched 1800 films from 28 countries and finally chose 50. And of those 50, note that 15 are directed by women.
"Actors' films"
In the official competition, two female directors are competing with 16 men. The Italian Alice Rohrwacher has brought her sister Alba and Monica Bellucci together in Le Meraviglie while the Japanese Naomi Kawase, member of the 2013 jury, brings her suspense film Still the Water. The somewhat better served Un Certain Regard section announces some interesting viewing including Party Girl, the first film by French directors Marie Amachoukeli and Claire Burger, and the fifth film by the too-rarely-seen Pascale Ferran, presenting Bird People with Anaïs Demoustier and American actor Josh Charles who was seen and appreciated in the sitcom The Good Wife. Rarely seen too, and elusive, the Italian actress Asia Argento chose Charlotte Gainsbourg to play the title role in her first feature film, Incompresa. Two other "actors' films" to watch out for are Ryan Gosling's Lost River and Mathieu Amalric's La Chambre bleue.
Stars galore
Although shorter by a day because of the European elections, this year's Festival is no less exciting for hard-core movie fans and celebrity spotters alike, with Ryan Reynolds, Channing Tatum, Robert Pattinson, Mads Mikkelsen, Jessica Chastain, Meryl Streep, Eva Mendes and Léa Seydoux scheduled to attend, among many others. 2014 marks the return of Jean-Luc Godard – his cinema at least, the man is always unpredictable – as well as David Cronenberg (with Julianne Moore), the Dardenne brothers (with Marion Cotillard) hoping for a third Palme d’Or, and Michel Hazanavicius tackling the painful subject of the Chechen war. Then there's Bertrand Bonello's second, controversial, biopic of Yves Saint Laurent, and opening the Festival on 14 May, Olivier Dahan's take on Grace of Monaco (alias Nicole Kidman), which has singularly displeased its producer and Monaco's royal family.
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