If the equation that the past can only improve in the present is valid, the program of the Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27) is full of quality. Well-known names, sometimes very well-known, flank talents discovered and valued by the review in previous editions in sections parallel to the international competition. And if the president of the jury, the Swede Ruben Ostlund, is artistically the son of the Croisette where he won two Palme d’Or with The Square and a year ago with Triangle of Sadness, in the competition there are calibers such as Ken Loach, Aki Kaurismaki, Wes Anderson, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti, Wim Wenders, Todd Haynes alongside “discoveries” of the festival such as the Austrian Jessica Hausner who had impressed with Little Joe and now presents Club Zero, a psychological drama of a teacher who forms dangerous relationships with five students. Or the Algerian-Brazilian Karim Aïnouz who won the «Un certain regard» section with The invisible life by Euridice Gusmao and this year will propose Firebrand, on the last wife of Henry VIII with Alicia Vikander, Jude Law and Michelle Williams.
Just “Un certain regard” has now become the forge from which come the names that Cannes then tends to enhance. It is no coincidence that this year mainly emerging cinemas are represented, offering cross-sections of the Middle East, Latin America, Korea and Mongolia. In short, the directions of tomorrow that for now surround the stars.
The opening is reserved for Jean du Barry by Maïwenn who plays the countess alongside King Louis XV, a Johnny Depp returning to the big screen after years that are complicated to say the least. He’s not in the race, as are Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with Harrison Ford and Mads Mikkelsen, who follow in the footsteps of popular characters seen in new adventures, like a year ago for Top Gun Maverick. Or Killers of the flower moon by Martin Scorsese, awaited on the Croisette with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Brendan Fraser, fresh from an Oscar.
Entering the territory of more serious competition, it must be said immediately that Italy will be represented by a respectable trio formed by Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti and Alice Rohrwacher. The first will compete with Rapito which tells the story of Edgardo Mortara, the Jewish boy who in 1858 was taken away from his family to be raised as a Catholic under the tutelage of Pius IX. Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi and Barbara Ronchi are among the performers chosen by Bellocchio who last year brought them to the French Riviera with External Night.
Nanni Moretti takes a step forward on his path as director, author and performer with Il Sol dell’avvenire, in Italian cinemas from 20 April and subsequently in Cannes. A more unique than rare privilege, granted by the festival to one of his most beloved guests. It is a musical set in the world of the circus between the 50s and 70s. A delicate theme that had in Fellini and Chaplin two of the names that let themselves be inspired and influenced by this community with its rules and ambitions. Also in the cast are Silvio Orlando and Barbora Bobulova.
With La chimera, Alice Rohrwacher delves into the world of grave robbers through the story of a young English archaeologist enmeshed in a traffic of artifacts. Among the performers Isabella Rossellini, Carol Duarte and her sister Alba Rohrwacher.
Still long list of stars. Wes Anderson, who in 2020 was to open the festival with The french dispatch, arrives with an exceptional team – Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Edward Norton – to present Asteroid city, surreal reflections on life during a convention in an imaginary desert city. Ken Loach instead focuses on social issues and this time The old oak shows the benefits received by a community with the arrival of migrants. Todd Haynes brings to the Croisette May December, with Natalie Portman and Juliane Moore, the first in the role of an actress who visits the second, a mother of a family, whose life she has to interpret. The comparison will prove destructive because the artist will tickle hidden nerves in the woman he has to imitate. Pedro Almodóvar will present Strange way of life, a western starring Ethan Hawke.
A hint of the special midnight screenings with the Chinese Man in black by Wang Bing, Occupied city by Steve McQueen, also a recurring presence in Cannes, Anselm by Wim Wenders and Pictures of ghosts by Kleber Mendonça Filho, made famous by the festival with the ‘applauded Bacurau.