Competitive program:

“Asteroid City” by Wes Anderson

The main American storyteller of our time returns to the Cote d’Azur with a new work. Anderson traditionally twists the color correction of his film to the maximum and collects the already familiar acting skit in the frame: from Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton to Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston.

The events of “Asteroid City” unfold in 1955 in a fictional town located next to an asteroid crater. Every year the city hosts a group of young astronomers and their parents who want to see the trail of a celestial body with their own eyes. But another rally is interrupted by sudden events that can change the life of not only the city, but the whole world.

“Club Zero” by Jessica Hausner

This year, another of his frequent guests will return to Cannes – the Austrian director Jessica Hausner, who has a close and long relationship with the festival. Hausner once actually launched her career precisely thanks to her participation in the competition of student films at the Cannes Film Festival (the film “Interview” took a special prize), and after that she returned to the French resort four more times with the films “Sweet Rita”, “Hotel”, “Mad Love” and “Little Joe”.

Her new work “Club Zero” tells about the micro-device of a secret club that arose on the territory of a closed private school. The main role of the teacher in the film was played by Mia Wasikowski, who recently threatened to quit cinema.

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Still from the film The Zero Club (2023)

BBC Film

The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glaser

The participation in the show of Jonathan Glaser, who is not the most prolific, adds tension to the Cannes program in 2023 (The Zone of Interest is only the fourth picture of the director, who has been in the profession for more than 20 years), but one of the most unusual authors of modern cinema. Glaser began his journey with the crime film Sexual Beast, and continued with the philosophical parable Birth with Nicole Kidman and the drama Stay in My Skin, in which he turned the beautiful Scarlett Johansson into a disfigured alien creature.

“Zone of Interest” is based on the novel of the same name by writer Martin Amis, the events of which develop during the Second World War. The main characters of the film are the commandant of Auschwitz, a German officer in love with his wife, and a Jewish prisoner. There are no other details about the film, but knowing Glaser’s creative style, it is obvious that the film will not be limited to a melodramatic love triangle. A24

“Monster” (“Kaibutsu”) Hirokazu Kore-eda

Cannes 2018 winner with the drama “Shoplifters” Kore-eda returns to the show with his new work. “Monster” is a kind of homage to Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”, a cult film that inscribed Kuleshov’s visual montage effect into the very canvas of the script. The film showed how the same dramatic event can be described by its different participants, based on their personality and life experience.

“Monster” is also built around one key event – the conflict between teacher and student . The boy’s mother, noticing something wrong in her son’s behavior, calls the latter to a frank conversation and finds out that the teacher offended him. An angry parent breaks into the school to deal with her son’s offender, but suddenly learns a different version of events – and now she is forced to get to the bottom of the truth on her own.

“May December” by Todd Haynes

Multiple participant of the French show Todd Haynes (previously the festival hosted the world premieres of his paintings “Velvet Goldmine”, “Carol” and “The World, full of wonders”) is ready to surprise the audience with his new work.

“May, December”, like “Monster”, tells a story that arose on the basis of the relationship between a teacher and a student. In the center of the plot are the spouses Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton from Pokerface), whose romance originated within the walls of the school. Many years later, a teacher and her student decide to make a film about a high-profile love story. In order to better understand the prototype of her character, the actress playing Gracie (Natalie Portman) comes to the couple and becomes a part of their lives, breaking personal boundaries and digging into the mistakes of a painful past.

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Still from the film “May, December” (2023)

Gloria Sanchez Productions

“The Old Oak” by Ken Loach

Ken Loach is almost the main regular of the French review, who travels to Cannes as to his home. The director participated in the main French show 17 (!!) times and almost as many became the winner in all conceivable categories.

His new film tells the story of the Welsh pub “Old Oak”. If Martin McDonagh filmed this story, then old friends could quarrel in a pub, rethinking the value of their friendship. But Loach is interested in the interpersonal relationships of the characters on the scale of their national differences. The quiet, familiar life of the town where the bar is located changes when Syrian refugees arrive to replace the laid-off miners.

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Still from The Old Oak (2023)

BBC Films

“Perfect Days” by Wim Wenders

The German classic and author of the incorruptible “Sky over Berlin” returns to Cannes with his new work. In the center of the story is the routine life of an ordinary Tokyo toilet cleaner who manages, in all the hopelessness and dirt surrounding him, not only to find something beautiful, but also to share this beauty with others.

“Beautiful days ” in the best traditions of Wenders’ signature style, should become a poetic and life-affirming film by the director, who has already won eight Cannes awards.

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Still from the film Beautiful Days (2023)

Wenders Images

“About Dry Grass” (“Kuru Otlar Üstüne”) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

And another story that takes place in dark school corridors and locked classrooms. In the center of the plot is a school teacher from Eastern Anatolia, who is accused of pedophilia. The Turkish stage director is a multiple winner of the review. In 2002, the Grand Prix of the festival was won by his drama Alienation; in 2006, his next work, The Four Seasons, won the FIPRESCI award; two years later, “Three Monkeys” brought Ceylan a director’s prize; in 2011, he was among the winners of the review thanks to the film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia; and in 2014, a free film adaptation of Chekhov’s “Wife” “Winter Sleep” helped him win the “Palme d’Or” (Ceylan shared the award with his wife Ebru, with whom he worked on the tape).

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Still from the movie “About Dry Grass” (2023)

ARTE

“Chimera” (“La chimera”) by Alice Rohrwacher

The film takes place in the 80s in Italy. A young British archaeologist (Josh O’Connor) unwittingly discovers a criminal underworld selling ancient artifacts. In addition to O’Connor, the main role in the film was played by Isabella Rossellini.

Chimera director and screenwriter Alice Rohrwacher deservedly ranks among the most interesting authors of this year’s show. The director has won two Cannes awards: Best Screenplay for Lucky Lazarus, which also received an Oscar nomination, and the Grand Prix of the Jury for Miracles.

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Frame from the film “Chimera” (2023)

ARTE

“Firebrand” by Karim Ainuz

In 2022 Cannes was delighted by the drama “Corsage” about the Austrian Empress, and this year a new film by Brazilian Karim Ainuz (Cannes award) in the program Un Certain Regard for the film The Invisible Life of Eurydice) starring Alicia Vikander. VIII (Jude Law). In addition to Vikander and Lowe, Sam Riley and Guy Ritchie’s pet Eddie Marsan starred in the film.

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Still from The Instigator (2023)

Brouhaha Entertainment

Special screenings:

Occupied City by Steve McQueen

The Oscar-winning British director returns to Cannes after 15 years. Back in 2008, the director made his debut in a feature film with his drama “Hunger”, which tells about the struggle of prisoners from the IRA for recognition of the status of political prisoners (Michael Fassbender starred in the title role).

” The Occupied City” also tells about real events. This is a documentary based on Bianca Stigter’s book Atlas of the Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945. The picture gives voices and enlivens on the screen the witnesses of the everyday life of the inhabitants of the capital of the Netherlands during the Second World War.

Outside the program:

“Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese

Despite the massive interest in the new (and very long-awaited) project of the legendary director, his next work will not be presented in the main competition program . The film was pre-purchased by the Apple TV+ streaming service, which does not cancel the possible limited rental of the tape before the online premiere.

The Flower Moon Killers is a detective neo-western based on the David Grann novel The Flower Moon Killers. Oil. Money. Blood”. The events of both the book and the film (by the way, three hours long) unfold in 1920 on the Osage Indian Reservation.

An oil field is discovered there, which enriched local residents who later died under mysterious circumstances. The FBI sends undercover agents to solve a series of mysterious crimes. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons and Brendan Fraser, who returned to the Hollywood A-list this year.

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Killers of the Flower Moon”)

Appian Way

James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Logan and the upcoming Star Wars prequel director Mangold is joining the Indiana Jones universe. The adventurous and exciting world of the archaeologist, who has embarked on every conceivable adventure for the past 40 years, has replenished with new faces (Harrison Ford, of course, is in place): the star of “Fleabag” Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as well as Mads Mikkelsen.

The events of the new part of the franchise will take place in the midst of the space race between the USA and the USSR.

Peter Sono’s “Elemental”

The new Disney and Pixar cartoon will close this year’s Cannes show. The project tells about the fabulous City of the Elements, in which water, fire, earth and air coexist peacefully.

The main character, hot-tempered and active Amber, approaches the more relaxed and adrift Wade. This strange friendship affects both of them and changes their perception of the world around them.

The series “The Idol” by Sam Levinson

The long-suffering project of the author of “Euphoria” even before its premiere managed to be at the center of a scandal – some members of the film crew accused the director and producers of toxic attitude, violation shooting schedule and psychological abuse of the actors.

It is known that the series will tell about the strange relationship between the leader of the cult (he is played by one of the main singers of our time The Weeknd) and the rising pop star played by Lily-Rose Depp. Following the Cannes premiere, the series will be released online in early June.

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Still from the series “Idol” (2023)

A24

“The Neck” (“Kubi”) by Takeshi Kitano

Historical drama of the Japanese master with Ken Watanabe (“The Beginning”, “The Last Samurai”) in the title role. The plot of the film is partly based on the screenplay for the film “Seven Samurai” by Akira Kurosawa. The action of “The Neck” takes place in 1582 in Japan and tells about the events that shook the country after the death of its leader, Oda Nobunaga.

“Strange Way of Life” by Pedro Almodovar

As if intentionally grotesque and mocking in style, a short film by the Spaniard Almodovar about two cowboys (So Hawk and Pedro Pascal), who meet after a long time years in the Wild West. 20 years ago, they both earned their living as bounty hunters.

Although there are no great details about the film, it is known that the title of the film is associated with the lyrical romance of the Portuguese singer Amalia Rodrigues “Estranha Forma de Vida (Strange Way of Life).

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Still from the movie Strange Way of Life (2023)

Saint Laurent