The world’s most important film festival is about to start in Cannes with a mix of starpower, art house cinema, Hollywood blockbusters and everything in between. There will be plenty of familiar faces at the festival this year, with the feature film jury being presided by Joel and Ethan Coen.
The City of Cannes
The 2012 jury president, Nanni Moretti, is in competition with “Mia Madre” as well as Palme d’Or laureate Gus van Sant (“The Sea of Trees”) and Todd Haynes (“Carol”). Hollywood is pitching in by holding the world premiere for “Mad Max: Fury Road” on Thursday (May 14), and there will be plenty of other Hollywood and world stars on the red carpet. Variety critic Jay Weissberg said the most anticipated film could well be a new version of Shakespeare’s much-filmed “Macbeth”, starring French actress Marion Cotillard and Germany’s Michael Fassbender.
Other films in the various festival strands deal with heavy topics of prostitution and poverty in Latin America, but Weissberg said the lineup still had what it takes to put Cannes on the world media map and in the pages of the glossy fanzines.
“Cannes has to be a combination of glamour combined with kitsch combined with a sort of cheap glamour, sexy glamour as well as the more meaty part of the festival which is why most of us are here,” said Weissberg.
The 68th Cannes Film Festival will start on Wednesday (May 13) and run through May 24 when the top prize, the Palme d’Or, will be awarded.
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