India has come empty-handed from the 64th Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection this year. The festival runs from May 11-22, 2011.
India has come empty-handed from the 64th Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection this year. The festival runs from May 11-22, 2011.
After Vikramaditya Motwane’s splendid debut feature Udaan was in the official selection last year, India’s hopes were raised — but prematurely, it seems. However, the parallel sections Directors’ Fortnight and International Critics’ Week are yet to announce their selections, so there’s still a silver lining of hope. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has directed a documentary on the history of Bollywood, produced by Shekhar Kapur, that they expect will be showcased at Cannes.
Cannes has a strong programme lined up this year. The opening film is Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, a romantic-comedy featuring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard and, the French president’s wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
"Midnight in Paris is a wonderful love letter to Paris," said festival director Thierry Frémaux. "Woody Allen takes a deeper look at our relationship with history, art, pleasure and life." The film will simultaneously be theatrically released in 400 theatres in France on the opening day. This underlies the close connection between festival films and the box office.
The official selection includes Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon A Time in Anatolia, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Boy with a Bike, Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre, Naomi Kawase’s Hanezu No Tsuki, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, Takashi Miike’s Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam, Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Gus Van Sant’s Restless, Andreas Dresen’s Halt Auf Freier Strecke, Bruno Dumont’s Hors Satan, Kim Ki-Duk’s Arirang, Hong Sangsoo’s The Day He Arrives, Eric Khoo’s Tatsumi, Nadine Labaki’s Et maintenant on va ou? And Gerardo Naranjo’s intriguingly titled Miss Bala, which we’re willing to bet, is not on your neighbourhood Malayali or Tamilian beauty.
Robert de Niro is president of the Cannes jury.
Meenakshi Shedde is India consultant to the Berlin and Locarno Film Festivals and curator to international festivals worldwide. She can be contacted at meenakshishedde@gmail.com
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