A little disappointing to Chinese fans of the festival is the news that no Chinese films from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan will be screened this year.
Calling it "the gloomiest absence this century," Chinese website thepaper.cn pointed out that Chinese filmmakers favored by Cannes tend to be the same familiar faces over and over again.
"However, in recent years, veteran European festivals have been criticized for being too conservative," it said, giving a possible reason for the change.
Although it's rare for the three major European film festivals - Cannes, Venice and Berlin - to not feature any Chinese films, the snub would probably not hurt as much if it had happened a few years ago. However, considering the growing importance of the Chinese film market and increasing desire among mainland filmmakers to see their films be accepted by foreign audiences, this absence comes as quite the blow.
Yet, this disappointment will only last for a short while, and soon enough people's attention will turn to which stars are expected to walk the red carpet this year.
This lack of concern is easy to understand. Since Cannes, as well as Venice and Berlin, prefer to feature more artistic films and commercial blockbusters have a much wider market in China, even when a Chinese film stands out at Cannes, the buzz it creates at home is often limited to news reports rather than cinemas.
Screening calendar
For those who care more about watching a quality film than focusing on where a film was made, Cannes has a few films worth recommending.
First of all, Woody Allen's Café Society will be the opening film for the 69th Cannes International
Film Festival. Set during 1930s Hollywood, the film focuses on a young man looking to make a name for himself in Hollywood and stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell.
The second day of the festival will see two in-competition films: Staying Vertical (directed by Alain Guiraudie) and Sieranevada (directed by Cristi Puiu). French director Guiraudie won Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes as well as the Queer Palm three years ago with Stranger by the Lake, while Romanian director Puiu took the Un Certain Regard Award for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu in 2005 at the Cannes.
Slack Bay, a new work from French director Bruno Dumont, will be shown on May 13. It is the third time Dumont, who holds two Grand Prix awards, has been nominated at Cannes. A black comedy that takes place in a French northern coastal city in 1910, the film tells the story of several tourists who vanished while on holiday at the beach.
A strong group from South Korea led by Park Chan-wook and his The Handmaiden will be seen at this year's Cannes. Following Park's Oldboy (2003) and Thirst (2009), The Handmaiden has attracted quite a bit of attention since it was first announced because it is an adaptation of the British novel
Fingersmith and has a strong LGBT theme. Having received awards for his last two nominations, it is very likely that Park will not go home empty-handed. The film is set for May 14.
Though not a film for the final competition, The Nice Guys is sure to be an eye-catcher when it debuts on May 15 because it is led by Hollywood stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, who are also expected to appear on the Cannes red carpet. The newest work from Shane Black after Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys is a detective story that takes place in 1970s LA. With a Chinese film company listed as part of the production team, the film is very likely to reach Chinese audiences this year.
Following a young doctor's attempts to uncover the identity of a female patient who died after refusing surgery, The Unknown Girl is the latest work by Belgian filmmaking duo Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. The Dardenne brothers are two of Cannes' favorite directors. With six films, they have won two Golden Palms plus several other awards at the film festival. The Unknown Girl will be shown on May 18.
On May 20, audiences will be able to see Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's horror thriller The Neon Demon. The Neon Demon is another thriller after his Only God Forgives that focuses on a female character. Starring Elle Fanning as a young model, the film recounts how she discovers her vitality and youth being sapped after moving to LA.
The Salesman, the last in-competition film showing at the festival, was directed by Iran's Asghar Farhadi. With his A Separation, which won the Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 2012, Farhadi made a name for himself worldwide. This is Farhadi's second nomination for the Cannes competition section after The Past in 2013. The Salesman focuses on the moral dilemma facing today's middle-class in Iran.
Source: Global Times