Cannes film festival 2013 promises joy and surprises
With only a few weeks to go before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, the event’s director Thierry Frémaux promised a festival of joy and some surprises when announcing the films vying for the Golden Palm awards and the Certain regard competition.
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While the first entries came in just after the end of the festival in June, more than 10 months ago, some of the films in the competitions were chosen two days ago.
A festival of joy, some surprises, some sure-fire bets and a sprinkling of stars – Frémaux says the Cannes Film Festival selection is all of that in 2013.
Joy at the prospect of welcoming US film stars, such as Michael Douglas or Matt Damon, who’ll be in Steven Soderbergh’s latest - and perhaps last-ever - offering, Behind the Candelabra, on the fascinating US showman pianist and singer of the 1960s and 70s, Liberace.
Some may be surprised at the homosexual nuances in that one.
One that obviously surprised those making the selection is in the line-up for the Un Certain regard section, Anonymous by Mohammad Rasoulof.
It’s a film that landed on the festival desk two days ago after being shot secretly in Iran.
Among the first-timers in the main competition is another Iranian, Asghar Farhadi, with his latest movie, Le Passé (The Past), made in France. Farhadi wowed French cinema-goers with A Separation of 2010.
That a Coen brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, should join the films in competition is anything but a surprise.
That Franco-Polish director Roman Polanski’s film Vénus à la Fourrure (Venus in furs) should be in competition, neither.
Instead, as Frémaux put it, it’s reassuring that there are directors around who keep coming up with great movies.
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