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Looking over the lineup for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, I have but one word: brutal.
Though the shindig promises to get off to a fairly sunny, if somewhat bittersweet, start with Pete Docter's UP, it looks like festival-goers are in for some serious cinematic punishment thereafter. There's a new horror film from Lars von Trier (ANTICHRIST), a vampire flick from Park Chan-wook (THIRST), a period drama about "ritual punishment" at a rural German school from Smilin' Michael Haneke (THE WHITE RIBBON), a "psychodrama" from IN MY SKIN's Marina de Van (NE TE RETOURNE PAS), and a movie about near-death experiences from Gaspar Noe (ENTER THE VOID).
Someone want to give me an over-under on walkouts for Noe's follow-up to IRREVERSIBLE? According to Noe, here's what his audience is in for:
The visions described in the script are inspired partly by the accounts of people who have had near-death experiences, who describe a tunnel of light, seeing their lives flashing past them and "astral" visions, and partly by similar hallucinatory experiences obtained by consuming DMT, the molecule which the brain sometimes secretes at the moment of death and which, in small doses, enables us to dream at night. The film should sometimes scare the audience, make it cry and, as much as possible, hypnotise it.
Yikes. And just in case you think this talk of "astral visions" means Noe's gone all soft on us, consider this disclaimer which was attached to a poster at the Berlin Film Festival: "Viewers are advised that this film contains scenes of heavy drug use, graphic sex and extreme violence." As someone who's probably going to list IRREVERSIBLE as one of the ten best films of the decade... I'm fucking terrified by this thing.
So where's the relief from this onslaught of (presumed) unpleasantness? There's Ang Lee's TAKING WOODSTOCK, Tsai Ming-liang's FACE (a "comedy" about a filmmaker exploring the Salome myth), and LES HERBES FOLLES, a new movie from eight-five-year-old master Alain Resnais. Here's the full list of entries. See anything that inflames your loins?
Opening
UP U.S., Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Closing
COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY, France, Jan Kounen
In Competition
BRIGHT STAR, Australia-U.K.-France, Jane Campion
SPRING FEVER, China-France, Lou Ye
ANTICHRIST, Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy, Lars von Trier
ENTER THE VOID, France, Gaspar Noe
FACE, France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium, Tsai Ming-liang
LES HERBES FOLLES, France-Italy, Alain Resnais
IN THE BEGINNING France, Xavier Giannoli
A PROPHET, France, Jacques Audiard
THE WHITE RIBBON, Germany-Austria-France, Michael Haneke
VENGEANCE, Hong Kong-France-U.S., Johnnie To
THE TIME THAT REMAINS, Israel-France-Belgium-Italy, Elia Suleiman
VINCERE, Italy-France, Marco Bellocchio
KINATAY, Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
THIRST, South Korea-U.S., Park Chan-wook
BROKEN EMBRACES, Spain, Pedro Almodovar
MAP OF THE SOUNDS OF TOKYO, Spain, Isabel Coixet
FISH TANK, U.K.-Netherlands, Andrea Arnold
LOOKING FOR ERIC, U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy, Ken Loach
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, U.S., Quentin Tarantino
TAKING WOODSTOCK, U.S., Ang Lee
Out of Competition
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS, Canada-France, Terry Gilliam
THE ARMY OF CRIME, France, Robert Guediguian
AGORA, Spain, Alejandro Amenabar
Midnight Screenings
A TOWN CALLED PANIC, Belgium, Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar
NE TE RETOURNE PAS, France-Belgium-Luxembourg-Italy, Marina de Van
DRAG ME TO HELL, U.S., Sam Raimi
Special Screenings
PETITION, China, Zhao Liang
L'EPINE DANS LE COEUR, France, Michel Gondry
MIN YE, France-Mali, Souleyumane Cisse
JAFFA, Israel-France-Germany, Keren Yedaya
MANILA, Philippines, Adolfo Alix Jr., Raya Martin
MY NEIGHBOR, MY KILLER, U.S., Anne Aghion
Un Certain Regard
SAMSON & DELILAH, Australia, Warwick Thornton
ADRIFT, Brazil, Heitor Dhalia
THE WIND JOURNEYS, Colombia, Ciro Guerra
DEMAIN DES L'AUBE, France, Denis Dercourt
IRENE, France, Alain Cavalier
AIR DOLL, Japan, Hirokazu Kore-eda
INDEPENDENCE, Philippines-France-Germany, Raya Martin
LE PERE DE MES ENFANTS, France-Germany, Mia Hansen-Love
DOGTOOTH, Greece, Yorgos Lanthimos
NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT THE PERSIAN CATS, Iran, Bahman Ghobadi
EYES WIDE OPEN, Israel, Haim Tabakman
MOTHER, South Korea, Bong Joon-ho
THE SILENT ARMY, Netherlands, Jean van de Velde
TO DIE LIKE A MAN, Portugal, Joao Pedro Rodrigues
POLICE, ADJECTIVE, Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu
TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE, Romania, Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, Ioana Uricaru
TALE IN THE DARKNESS Russia, Nikolay Khomeriki
TZAR, Russia-France, Pavel Lounguine
NYMPH Thailand, Pen-ek Ratanaruang
PRECIOUS, U.S., Lee Daniels
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