Cannes 2015: the films to look forward to

Carol (2015)

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Often, when the titles are announced for the competition at the Cannes Film Festival, regulars hazard a guess at which films are likely to be among the frontrunners for the prizes. When Michael Haneke won the Palme d’Or with The White Ribbon (2009), or when Nuri Bilge Ceylan did the same with last year’s Winter Sleep, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise; both directors had won major prizes at previous editions of the festival, and both were felt to be on a roll, so it seemed only a question of time till they notched up the big one.

This year’s line-up, however, has me completely stumped. Yes, there are big-name regulars among the contestants, but some of them have made films not in their first language – which can be risky – and some haven’t made a film for quite a while. Then there are others who haven’t really made enough movies yet to establish any visible form. So I’m not making any predictions here.

Dheepan (2015)

As often, there is a pretty substantial French contingent. Best known of the bunch is surely Jacques Audiard, whose Dheepan is about a Tamil who leaves Sri Lanka for a new life in France. Stéphane Brizé, who had a couple of minor hits with Not Here to Be Loved (2005) and Mademoiselle Chambon (2009), will be fielding The Measure of a Man, with Vincent Lindon. Maïwenn, whose Polisse competed a few years ago, is back with My King, starring Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Bercot (director of the out-of-competition opening film Standing Tall). Valley of Love, by Guillaume Nicloux (whose track record is a tad uneven), intriguingly pairs Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu; and Valérie Donzelli – perhaps better known as an actress in France – completes the French contestants with Marguerite & Julien. (Love, by eternal enfant terrible Gaspar Noé, is playing out of competition in a midnight screening slot.)

Italy weighs in with three big names – Nanni Moretti (My Mother), Paolo Sorrentino (Youth) and Matteo Garrone (Tale of Tales) – though the last two titles are actually in English. Between them they boast some pretty impressive star power for the red carpet.

Other Europeans competing include Norwegian Joachim Trier (Louder than Bombs) and Greek Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) – again both English-language features; the latter, from the man who gave us Dogtooth and Alps, sounds predictably bizarre and was part-funded by BFI lottery money.

The Lobster (2015)

Then there is Son of Saul, by Hungary’s László Nemes; it’s the only first feature in competition, and all most of us know about the writer-director is that he worked on the second unit of Béla Tarr’s The Man from London. That, along with the film’s Auschwitz setting, at least suggests that it may be one of the darker films competing for the favours of the Coen brothers and their jury.

Three top-grade Asian directors could be strong contenders for a first Palme d’Or. Our Little Sister, by Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda, sees him working again with children; Mountains May Depart, by China’s Jia Zhangke, finds him working again with wife and muse Zhao Tao on another film that sounds like it involves quite a bit of travelling around; whereas Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien returns to the Croisette with The Assassin, his first ever martial arts movie. Since his previous work has not exactly been fast-paced or action-packed, this is surely one of the hotter tickets, both for curiosity value and because Hou is one of the greats.

Which leaves more English-language fare, sometimes by directors working away from home. Australia’s Justin Kurzel (who made something of a bloody splash with 2011’s Snowtown) weighs in with a version of Macbeth. With a cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, David Thewlis and Paddy Considine, the performances, at least, should be worth seeing.