Cannes 2019: The complete list of movies includes usual suspects like Pedro Almodovar and Ken Loach, India draws a blank

It is popularly said that the French loved loyalty and continuity. Maybe, they do, and the Cannes Film Festival is no exception to this. We have seen Gilles Jacob as the head of the festival for about 25 years, and now, Thierry Fremaux leads Cannes, and he has been at the helm of affairs for many years.

Similarly, Cannes has its pet directors, who keep returning to the French Riviera every time they have a new movie. This May – with the 12-day festival starting on the 14 – loyalty and continuity are clearly visible in the selections that were announced in Paris on Thursday.

Regulars like Marco Bellocchio will be back for the seventh time in Competition with The Traitor. Cannes’s all-time favourite, Spanish master Pedro Almodovar has his Pain and Glory vying for the Palm ‘d Ór, and so too Ken Loach’s 13th title at the festival, Sorry We Missed You.

There are the other usual suspects: Jim Jarmusch’s opening-night zombie comedy, The Dead Don’t Die, Arnaud Desplechin’s Oh Mercy and Xavier Dolan (just 30, but a member of this elite club) with his Matthias and Maxime. There is also Terrence Malik with his A Hidden Life, a World War II drama centring on religion.

The selections will also have four women directors in Competition: Austrian Jessica Hausner with the English-language sci-fi drama Little Joe, about genetic engineering; Celine Sciamma’s Portrtait of a Lady on Fire, about a woman who leaves a convent for romance; Mati Diop, whose Atlantique makes her the first black woman auteur in Competition, and the French psychological thriller Sybil from Justine Triet.

If one were to take into account A Certain Regard, there are 13 movies by women helmers. A couple of years ago, Fremaux was criticised for not including enough women directors.

Unfortunately, there is no entry from India, although several films were sent up. Or, so one is told. Cannes ceased to have any special interest in India many years ago.

Here is a complete list of movies that will play at Cannes running from May 14 to 25. However some additions may happen before the Festival begins.

Competition:
Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodovar
The Traitor, Marco Bellocchio
Wild Goose Lake, Yinan Diao
Parasite, Bong Joon-ho
Young Ahmed, The Dardenne Brothers
Oh Mercy!, Arnaud Desplechin
Atlantique, Mati Diop
Matthias and Maxime, Xavier Dolan
Little Joe, Jessica Hausner
Sorry We Missed You, Ken Loach
Les Miserables, Ladj Ly
A Hidden Life (previously known as Radegund), Terrence Malik
Nighthawk, Kleber Mendonca Filho, Juliano Dornelles
The Whistlers, Corneliu Porumboiu
Frankie, Ira Sachs
The Dead Don’t Die, Jim Jarmusch
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Celine Sciamma
It Must Be Heaven, Elia Suleiman
Sybil, Justine Triet

Out of Competition:
Rocketman, Dexter Fletcher
The Best Years of Life, Claude Lelouch
Maradona, Asif Kapadia
La Belle Epoque, Nicolas Bedos
Too Old to Die Young, Nicolas Winding Refn (TV series screening two episodes)

Special Screenings:
Share, Pippa Bianco
Family Romance LLC, Werner Herzog
Tommaso, Abel Ferrara
To Be Alive and Know It, Alain Cavalier
For Sama, Waad Al Kateab and Edward Watts

Midnight Screenings:
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil, Lee Won-Tae

A Certain Regard:
Invisible Life, Karim Aïnouz
Beanpole, Kantemir Balagov
The Swallows of Kabul, Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec
A Brother’s Love, Monia Chokri
The Climb, Michael Covino
Joan of Arc, Bruno Dumont
A Sun That Never Sets, Olivier Laxe
Chambre 212, Christophe Honoré
Port Authority, Danielle Lessovitz
Papicha, Mounia Meddour
Adam, Maryam Touzani
Zhuo Ren Mi Mi, Midi Z
Liberte, Albert Serra
Bull, Annie Silverstein
Summer of Changsha, Zu Feng
EVGE, Nariman Aliev

(Gautaman Bhaskaran has covered Cannes for 28 years)

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First Published: Apr 19, 2019 16:13 IST