10 Most Anticipated Films at Cannes 2015
If you’re a film buff, you’ve got to check out 10 of the most anticipated films at the 68th Cannes Film Festival!
The Mecca of cinema kick starts today, much to the delight of both attendees and drooling film buffs. Below are ten of the most significant films premiering at the fest:
SEA OF TREES
Dir: Gus Van Sant
A man (Matthew McConaughey) pays a visit to the legendary ‘Suicide Forest’ in China to rethink his life, only to find company in another man (Ken Watanabe) who has arrived there with similar existentialist angst. The combo of McConaughey, Van Sant and the suicide forest seems like the perfect setting to explore the elements of loss, death and detachment.
MASAAN (aka Fly Away Solo)
Dir: Neeraj Ghaywan
One of the two Indian films to ascend to Cannes this year, Masaan chronicles four lives intersecting along the Ganges – a lower-caste boy in hopeless love, a daughter ridden with guilt of a sexual encounter ending in a tragedy, a hapless father with a fading morality, and a spirited child yearning for a family, longing to escape the moral constructs of a small-town. The film stars Richa Chadda, Vicky Kaushal, Sanjay Mishra and Shweta Tripathi and is co-produced by Anurag Kashyap.
CHAUTHI KOOT
Dir: Gurvinder Singh
The other Indian film at Cannes, Chauthi Koot is Gurvinder Singh’s second movie after the acclaimed Anhe Ghore Da Daan. The film is based on two short stories by Punjabi writer Waryam Singh Sandhu and explores state-sponsored crimes of the 1980s and the resistance movement it spawned. The trailer is reminiscent of the works of Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART
Dir: Jia Zhangke
Zhangke wowed us a couple of years ago with A Touch of Sin, an episodic takedown of contemporary China. He’s back with a similar format of three interlinked short stories, one of which is set in a futuristic Australia.
GREEN ROOM
Dir: Jeremy Saulnier
Saulnier’s previous film Blue Ruin was a gorgeous subversion of the revenge thriller and also a triumph for indie filmmaking. This time he’s rounded up a more recognizable cast with Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin in a story of a punk rock band stuck in a confined space after witnessing a murder and being chased by murderous junkies.
TALE OF TALES
Dir: Matteo Garrone
Garrone tore apart the gangster genre with the stunning Gomorrah a few years ago, and took a giant pot shot at TV with Reality. His latest is based on 17th century fairy tales, and seems batshit crazy to say the least, with ogres, fairies and sorcerers. Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, John C. Reilly and Toby Jones star in various intersecting fantastical stories. Watch the trailer here:
THE LOBSTER
Dir: Yargos Lanthimos
Anyone who is familiar with Lanthimos’ work (Dogtooth) will agree that it is deeply upsetting, but also something you can’t look away from. It seems like he took it as a challenge to outdo himself, and his latest stars Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, Léa Seydoux and John C. Reilly in an insane story where single people are arrested and ordered to find a matching mate in 45 days, failing which they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into the jungle.
THE LITTLE PRINCE
Dir: Mark Orbourne
Boasting a stunningly beautiful trailer, The Little Prince chronicles the bond between an eccentric pilot who crashes in a desert and a young boy who claims to be from the future. With its gorgeous visuals and the theme of lost friendship this seems like the tearjerker of the year. Check out the trailer here:
SICARIO
Dir: Denis Villeneuve
Every Villeneuve film, be it Enemy, or Incendies, or Polytechnique, or Prisoners, has proved to be a masterclass in high order filmmaking. He claims this film to be his best, and it chronicles an elite FBI agent crossing over to Mexico to extract a dangerous drug lord, but wading too deep in the waters. Villeneuve has reteamed with Roger Deakins, and he famously retained Emily Blunt as the protagonist when the studio wanted him to change the character to a man. The film also stars Benocio del Toro and Josh Brolin.
LOVE
Dir: Gaspar Noe
A woman goes missing, and when a man gains knowledge of her disappearance he’s thrown back into his incredibly sensual history with her. Watching a Gaspar Noe film is the closest you’ll come to experience the hallucinatory effects of LSD, and his latest seems an amped up dosage, along with a gratuitous shot of sex and violence. According to Noe himself, this film will give guys a hard-on and make girls cry, and it’s in brain melting 3D.
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