Yes We Cannes

Couldn’t book a plane ticket to the Côte d'Azur in time for the 64^th Annual Cannes Film Festival (or, like me, did you not even try because you were pretty sure they cost more than $50)?  No worries.  While Bobby D., Jude Law, Uma Thurman, and the other heavyweights on this year’s jury are deliberating which film will win the coveted Palme d’Or when the festival concludes tomorrow (past winners include Taxi Driver, Apocalypse, Now, Pulp Fiction), here are five films that have generated the most buzz (and, since I’m stranded several thousand miles away from the French Riviera, the films that look good based on their easily accessible trailers!). 

The Tree of Life (U.S. Release Date: May 27, 2011 (limited))

If you’ve never seen a Terrence Malick film, you can’t credibly say you like movies.  This enigmatic director, who studied philosophy at Harvard and was a Rhodes Scholar, has only directed four films (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and The New World) in the past thirty-eight years (yes, you read that correctly)—each of them were visually stunning, were instantly memorable, and were exercises in pushing the limits of film-making beyond such constraining concepts as scripts or dialog.  After several years in editing, his fifth film has finally premiered.  The trailer features all the trademarks of the Malickian cinematic experience: deeply expository voiceovers, wistful nature shots lit only by the sun at magic hour, and... wait, what’s this?...astral screensaver shots of planets in orbit?  That last inclusion famously instigated a boos vs. cheers shouting match after its screening concluded at Cannes, but, when Tree hits the U.S. next week, I'll be first in line to choose a side.

Restless (U.S. Release Date: September 16, 2011)

Gus Van Sant snagged the Palme d’Or in 2003 for Elephant, his film about a Columbine-esque school shooting.  Restless looks like regular, run-of-the-mill, quirky indie fare, but since it stars Mia Wasikowska, current "It" indie princess (think Scarlett Johansson five years ago before she started screwing Sean Penn), it might be one to watch. 

Melancholia (U.S. Release Date: November 4, 2011)

By now, controversial Danish director Lars von Trier (winner of the Palme d’Or in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark) is known primarily for his terrible attempt to make a joke about sympathizing with Nazis at a Cannes press conference following the screening of Melancholia (Kirsten Dunst hasn’t looked this uncomfortable since she was in Elizabethtown!).  Too bad, because this trailer looks incredibly intriguing: who else but von Trier could effectively combine a wedding film with an apocalyptic-disaster film?  Early reviews say it’s a masterpiece despite von Trier being officially declared persona non grata by the festival runners.  (Sidenote: I’ve been declared persona non grata once or twice myself at Chipotle for requesting triple meat.)

La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In) (U.S. Release Date: November 18, 2011)

Dear God, WHAT is going on in this teaser-trailer?  That violin music!  That Phantom of the Opera mask!  That heinous décor!  Antonio Banderas reunites with Pedro Almodóvar, the director who made him a star twenty-five years ago in Matador, for this thriller said to be replete with grotesque sex and violence (isn't that what film festivals are for, people?).

Sleeping Beauty (no U.S. Release Date yet)

The previous four films were all directed by veteran male directors, many of whom have seen great success at Cannes before.  My final pick for buzzworthy Cannes film is by a newcomer: Sleeping Beauty is the directorial debut by Australian novelist Julia Leigh (she also wrote it).  This looks like Eyes Wide Shut meets Secret Diary of a Call Girl.  If that doesn’t sound like the best time you can possibly have at the movies, there's something wrong with you.