Cannes lineup a sign of great things to come

Though I'm not headed to the Cannes Film Festival and probably never will, I am off to the Atlanta Film Festival 365 for the second year in a row beginning Friday (for me, though the opening night movie, "Freedom Riders," is tonight), and you can count me as thoroughly geeked up for it.

Unlike the star-studded froggy festival, Atlanta's gathering is a much more homespun and genuinely Southern affair, heavy on documentaries, this year with an accent on comedians and musicians. Two highlights are sure to be James Franco's "Saturday Night," which goes behind the scenes of "Saturday Night Live" (which I admittedly haven't actually watched live in at least five years), and the closing night movie, "The Secret to a Happy Ending," a doco about the Drive-By Truckers which will be followed by an "intimate" concert by the band. Yeah, that's gonna rock, and I'll be there.

If you're anywhere near Atlanta, I can't recommend an event higher than this one. The opening night movie is being shown tonight at The Carter Center and the grand finale is at the 14th Street Playhouse next Friday, April 23, but in between all the action takes place at the Landmark Midtown Cinema. To see the schedule and purchase tickets, click here.

But for the rest of the world, I suppose the biggest news out there today is that the Cannes Film Festival, returning in mid-May (without me), has unveiled its nearly full lineup, so far featuring 16 films in competition, three screening out of competition, 18 films in the Un Certain Regard slate and two midnight movies. Add to that the opening night flick, Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" (3-D comes to Cannes - sheesh) and a special screening of "Abel," directed by "Y Tu Mama Tambien" star Diego Luna, and you've got just about everything.

And I say just about because up to seven movies could still be added to the lineup, and at least two marquee titles are as yet missing. I had really been hoping for the return of director Bruce Robinson with "The Rum Diary," based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson and starring Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard and Reel Fanatic fave Richard Jenkins. If you haven't seen Robinson's sublime "Withnail and I" from way back in the day, I implore you once again, please do so. He is truly a lost master.

Another movie expected to be announced but absent was Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life," set to star Brad Pitt. Malick, of course, wasn't snubbed - his movie, not shockingly at all, simply isn't finished yet. There's still hope that it will be by the time the festival rolls around.

The full list is at the bottom of the post, and it contains plenty of movies by directors that better-educated movie buffs may be more familiar with than me, so if you recognize any you like please let me know. Today, I'll simply stick to what I'm looking forward to most, which would have to start with the return of "Babel" director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu with something called "Biutiful," screening in competition.

All I know about the movie so far is that it is about a policeman who is forced to confront a childhood friend who is now involved in drug dealing, and that Javier Bardem stars in this somehow, most likely as the cop, I'd imagine. Definitely sounds like one I want to see as soon as possible.

Screening out of competition will be movies from three big-name directors, Oliver Stone's "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps," Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" and Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe."

Fox must really think it has something good in the Stone sequel starring Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan, because the studio pushed it from a release next week until September so that it could screen at Cannes. The Frears movie, however, is the one I'm really jazzed for. It's apparently based on a Guardian comic strip by Posy Simmonds which is a modern reworking of Thomas Hardy's "Far from the Madding Crowd." Nothing but fun there.

And back in competition, there's at least one movie that might actually make it out to my little corner of the world, Doug Liman's "Fair Game." Liman, you might remember, made his debut way back when with the sublimely silly "Swingers," but he's certainly on to much more serious material here with the story of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, to be played by Naomi Watts.

But best of all in my book will be a new flick by Mike Leigh, "Another Year," which will be screening in competition. And yes, I say that knowing nothing at all about this except that it stars Jim Broadbent and Imelda Staunton. Leigh is just one of those directors whose work I take on faith, and if you want proof of why, look no further than his last movie, "Happy Go Lucky," which starred a radiant Sally Hawkins as the irrepressibly and thoroughly annoyingly cheerful title character. I love that flick.

OK, before we get to the full movie slate, as promised, anyone who makes it this far deserves a reward, so here goes. The folks over at EgoTV have come up with a series of Team Leno posters using the Team CoCo fonts, and they're all pretty damn funny. And I really have nothing at all against old people, just Jay Leno, who is dead to me. Enjoy this sample poster, stick around for the full Cannes lineup after that, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.



Cannes 2010: IN COMPETITION
"Another Year," U.K., Mike Leigh
"Biutiful," Spain-Mexico, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
"Burnt by the Sun 2," Germany-France-Russia, Nikita Mikhalkov
"Certified Copy," France-Italy-Iran, Abbas Kiarostami
"Fair Game," U.S., Doug Liman
"Hors-la-loi," France-Belgium-Algeria, Rachid Bouchareb
"The Housemaid," South Korea, Im Sang-soo
"La nostra vita," Italy-France, Daniele Luchetti
"La Princesse de Montpensier," France, Bertrand Tavernier
"Of Gods and Men," France, Xavier Beauvois
"Outrage," Japan, Takeshi Kitano
"Poetry," South Korea, Lee Chang-dong
"A Screaming Man," France-Belgium-Chad, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
"Tournee," France, Mathieu Amalric
"Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," Spain-Thailand-Germany-U.K.-France, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
"You, My Joy," Ukraine-Germany, Sergey Loznitsa

Out Of Competition
"Tamara Drewe," U.K., Stephen Frears
"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," U.S., Oliver Stone
"You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," U.K.-Spain, Woody Allen

Un Certain Regard
"Adrienn Pal," Hungary-Netherlands-France-Austria, Agnes Kocsis
"Aurora," Romania, Cristi Puiu
"Blue Valentine," U.S., Derek Cianfrance
"Chatroom," U.K., Hideo Nakata
"Chongqing Blues," China, Wang Xiaoshuai
"The City Below," Germany-France, Christoph Hochhausler
"Film Socialisme," Switzerland-France, Jean-Luc Godard
"Ha Ha Ha," South Korea, Hong Sang-soo
"Les Amours imaginaires," Canada, Xavier Dolan
"Life Above All," France, Oliver Schmitz
" Los labios," Argentina, Ivan Fund, Santiago Loza
"Octubre," Peru, Daniel Vega
"Qu'est-il arrive a Simon Werner?," France, Fabrice Gobert
"Rebecca H.," France, Lodge Kerrigan
"R U There," Taiwan, David Verbeek
"The Strange Case of Angelica," Portugal, Manoel de Oliveira
"Tuesday, After Christmas," Romania, Radu Muntean
"Udaan," India, Vikramaditya Motwane

Special Screening
Diego Luna - "Abel"

Midnight Screening
Gregg Araki: "Kaboom"
Gustavo Hernandez: "The Mute House"

Cannes lineup: Clash of the Titans + the opening of "The Brothers Bloom" "

Though I've thoroughly enjoyed the Atlanta Film Festival 365 and look forward to returning to it tomorrow, there's really just nothing better for daydreaming than imagining spending two weeks or so sunning in the south of France and just watching movies.

Well, I can't deliver you that, of course, but here to perhaps set your mind reeling to far-flung locales are the highlights (as I see it) of the just-announced lineup for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival (the "L'Avventura"-themed poster for which is at right), which kicks off May 13 with the opening night screening of Pixar's "Up" (not too shabby a starting point.)

In the competition, I can't imagine it will win, but the big, loud dog in the room who will attract the most attention will almost certainly be Quentin Tarantino's World War II flick "Inglourious Basterds," assuming he finishes it on time, of course. I don't think he's gonna get hissed like poor Sofia Coppola did a few years ago with "Marie Antoinette," but the reaction to any movie in which Eli Roth is decapitating Nazis with a baseball bat should be fascinating.

Also on the domestic front, Ang Lee will be in competition with "Taking Woodstock," a biographical comedy starring Comedy Central's Demetri Martin as Elliot Tiber, who played a key role in launching the hippie fest. I have a feeling this one will just be goofy as hell but, assuming its get any of proper distribution, I could also easily see it becoming the sleeper hit of the summer.

If I were on the jury or even somehow just in attendance, though, the single competition movie I'd most be looking forward to is Park Chan-wook's vampire movie, "Thirst" Among other crazy things, as far as I can tell, it's about a priest who goes to Africa to participate in a medical experiment but instead, of course, finds himself turned into a bloodsucker. Bring it on! In the same vein (get it?), Sam Raimi will be screening his return to "real horror," "Drag Me to Hell," as a midnight movie, and one I'd certainly stay up well past my school night bed time for.

Joining Tarantino, Lee and Chan-wook will be a lot of heavy hitters, starting with Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces." I know his movies are, well, often extremely gay, but I've always just loved them, and this one - apparently an homage to filmmaking with a puzzling plot and, thankfully, Penelope Cruz - just sounds like a real winner.

Michael Haneke will begin his path of atonement for that "Funny Games" trailer that I must have had the misfortune of seeing 150 times (or at least it certainly felt like it) with his new feature film, "The White Ribbon," about which I know nothing more than that. Also on the prestige front will be the U.K.'s Angry-but-not-so-young-man Ken Loach with "Looking for Eric," which sounds like a surprising amount of fun. Described as a movie about "football fanatics and life," it's apparently about a football-mad postman who gets life advice from Eric Cantona. Wild.

Jane Campion will return with "Bright Star," a suitably high-minded tale about the poet John Keats and his affair with the girl next door, and I can only imagine Lars von Trier will be stirring up all kinds of trouble with something simply called "Antichrist."

And though this has probably gone on well long enough, it's certainly worth mentioning one last oddity, Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," which is screening out of competition and still, rather amazingly, looking for a U.S. distributor. If you've got a movie you can market as Heath Ledger's last that also just happens to star Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell but you still can't get any real distribution, you've either got to have something simply awful or just extremely bizarre. My guess? A mix of the two, tilted to the latter, but either way I can't wait to see this one if I ever get the chance.

The first seven minutes of "The Brothers Bloom"

Anyone who sat through all that certainly deserves a reward, and anyone who's been here before (there are amazingly at least a few of you) knows that I've already christened Rian Johnson's con-men flick "The Brothers Bloom" as the single movie I'm most looking forward to for all of 2009 (nothing like a little hyperbole to start the day, but I'm serious here.)

Knowing it comes from the creator of "Brick" (rent that one already!) and stars Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi in a good, old-fashioned con game was enough to get me hooked, and now the first seven minutes - which you can watch below courtesy of the glorious Hulu - just have me salivating for when this finally opens (hopefully very wide!) May 29 against the aforementioned "Drag Me to Hell" and "Up." As expected, the opening sequence, narrated by Ricky Jay, is just a treat to watch, and in spirit it reminds me a lot of Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket," never a bad reference point in my book. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Thursday. Peace out.