With the line-up for this year’s Cannes Film Festival announced this past week, we’re going to take a look at a couple of films set to premiere at the festival that haven’t been covered yet on this page. We already reported about three films that are competing at the festival taking place from May 11 to May 22. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life with music by Alexandre Desplat already has a soundtrack scheduled to come out next month a couple days before the film’s domestic opening. Also, Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin That I Inhabit (La Piel que habito) features music by Alberto Iglesias and is set for a release this fall by Sony Pictures Classics. And the indie drama We Need to Talk About Kevin starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly and scored by Jonny Greenwood is still awaiting a domestic release date.
As for the other films in competition, Stephen Warbeck has recently scored the French social satire Polisse, which originally had Gabriel Yared attached to compose the music. The movie is directed by and starring Maïwenn Le Besco who is best known as an actress in such films as The Professional and The Fifth Element where she played the Diva. According to Variety, Le Besco plays a journalist working on a story about the lives of cops assigned to a Paris juvenile division. She starts an affair with a tough, loud-mouthed officer, who’s the opposite of her husband, a wealthy but boring man. The film is produced by Alain Attal (The Concert) and co-stars Riccardo Scamarcio, Marina Fois, Karin Viard and Joey Starr. No word yet on if the film will get a domestic release.
One of the more high profile titles in competition is the crime thriller This Must Be the Place. The film directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo) stars Sean Penn, Eve Hewson, Frances McDormand and Judd Hirsch. Responsible for the music are David Byrne and Will Oldham. Byrne (frontman of hip new wavers Talking Heads) is best known as a film composer for having scored the Academy Award-winning The Last Emperor and he also wrote the music for numerous other movies including Young Adam and his own directorial debut True Stories. Oldham, better known by the stage name Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, is a singer/songwriter and actor who also has a couple of previous credits as a film composer. In This Must Be the Place, Penn plays a wealthy rock star who becomes bored in his retirement and takes on the quest of finding his father’s executioner, an ex-Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the U.S. No domestic release date has been announced for the movie, but a release later this year is expected. Check out the video below for a teaser trailer, which includes a song and music video performed by Penn’s character.
Also competing in Cannes is the Japanese martial arts drama Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai. The film is directed by Takashi Miike, best known for directing such films as Ichi the Killer, Audition, 13 Assassins and the original Japanese version of One Missed Call. The music is written by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor, Little Buddha, Snake Eyes, Femme Fatale). The project is based on a 1962 Masaki Kobayashi period classic and will be the first 3D movie to compete at the film festival. No information is available yet on the movie’s domestic release plan. For the official Hara-Kiri synopsis, visit Twitch Film.
Another highly anticipated movie is the Australian drama Sleeping Beauty. The film is being described as a haunting erotic fairytale about Lucy, a young University student who is drawn into a mysterious hidden world of beauty and desire. The movie marks the directorial debut of Australian novelist Julia Leigh and is based on one of her novels. Sleeping Beauty stars Emily Browning and Michael Dorman. The film’s music is composed by Ben Frost and marks the first major film scoring assignment for the musician, composer and producer who is best known for his experimental music (visit his website to find out more about Frost’s accomplishments). The composer is also attached to score another film based on a novel by Julia Leigh called The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor. An announcement about Sleeping Beauty‘s release plan is expected closer to the movie’s premiere.
Another competitor at the festival is Lars von Trier’s sci-fi drama Melancholia. The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard and Udo Kier. Dunst and Gainsbourg play sisters whose lives are drifting apart as the world is on the brink of Armageddon. The movie’s music and sound design is by Kristian Eidnes Andersen who has been working on the sound and music of most of von Trier’s projects including Antichrist, Manderlay, Dogville and Dancer of the Dark. Magnolia Pictures has bought North American rights for Melancholia and will most likely release it later this year.
Composer Armand Amar who is best known for his score for the Oscar-nominated Algerian film Days of Glory and last year’s The Concert has written the music for the competing comedy drama The Source (La source des femmes). The film is directed by Radu Mihaileanu (Train of Life, Live and Become, The Concert) and centers on a battle of the sexes, where women threaten to withhold sexual favors if their men refuse to fetch water from a remote well.
A number of other films are set to be shown out-of-competition at the festival, including Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Music by Hans Zimmer), Kung Fu Panda 2 (Hans Zimmer & John Powell) and The Beaver (Marcelo Zarvos).
Premiering as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the festival is Gus van Sant’s drama Restless. As previously reported, Danny Elfman has written the music for the film starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hooper and produced by Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard. Sony Pictures Classics has recently announced to release the movie this fall in the United States. For updates on the project, visit the official movie webpage.
Finally, Woody Allen’s comedy Midnight in Paris has been selected as the festival’s opening night film. As with most movies directed by Allen, the film doesn’t have an original score, but will most likely feature a number of songs. The movie about a family traveling to the French capital for business stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cottilard and Michael Sheen. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the film stateside on May 20, 2011. Check out the trailer below and visit the official movie webpage for more information.
