The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing, and we are getting in on the action with our own lineup of specially selected highlights covering over 50 years of history on the Croisette. Here are five titles to get started. Check in on Keyframe over the next two weeks, as we’ll be announcing more Cannes titles available on Fandor.
Anchoress
dir. Chris Newby
1993 Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard
“Hypnotic.” – Roger Ebert
“Visually striking… The period ambiance seems flawless… An intelligent take on the Middle Ages.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader
In a 14th century British village an illiterate young peasant girl becomes obsessed with Virgin Mary and, supported by the local priest, claims special powers to communicate with her. According to custom, and much to the dismay of her skeptical and often profane mother, she is enclosed in the wall of the local church, becoming an “Anchoress” in the life-long service of God.
Back to Normandy
dir. Nicolas Philibert
2007 Cannes Film Festival
“A refreshing variation on the behind-the-scenes documentary.” – Notcoming.com
“…An extraordinary journey through time, memory and the repercussions of a baffling, bygone crime.” – New York Times
“Richly rewarding… Philibert goes much deeper than a mere foray into how lives have changed: this is also a film about history…about memory, madness and motivation, and about various kinds and levels of documentation.” – Sight and Sound
In 1976, French director René Allio made Moi, Pierre Rivière, a film based on a 19th-century countryside murder, using farmers from the region of Normandy, where the crime occurred. 24-year-old Nicolas Philibert, the assistant director, was tasked with scouting locations and finding a cast among the locals. Thirty years later, Philibert returns to the region to catch up with the earlier film’s players, to revisit a page from his own history, and to tell the stories of this strange murder and the film that recreated it.
Read an exclusive article on Back to Normandy
Con Man
dir. Richard Martini
Filmed at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival
Film producer Sy Lerner (expertly played by the great Seymour Cassel) makes a bet with a fellow film executive that he can turn any nobody into a star at the Cannes Film Festival. A cabby who is visiting the festival is chosen as the test subject to settle the bet and Sy uses his skills of hype and manipulation to try and turn the cabby named Frank into a genius scriptwriter and the talk of the town. Loaded with celebrity appearances (including Jim Jarmusch and Johnny Depp) along with independent film legends (such as Lloyd Kaufman, founder of Troma Entertainment), the film takes you on a surreal trip thru the world of Cannes.
Carcasses
dir. Denis Cote
2009 Cannes Film Festival, Director’s Fortnight
“Enjoyably Eccentric” —Variety
One Of The Top Ten Canadian Films of the Year—Toronto International Film Festival
“Carcasses indicates the revival of the Quebec Auteur Cinema” —Premiere Magazine
“Born somewhere in the confines of the cinema of Werner Herzog and Lisandro Alonso” —Cahiers du Cinema
Jean-Paul Colmor is 74 years old. After an accident early in his life he took a retreat in collecting cars, wrecks and junk, for the last 40 years. Living among tons and tons of debris, he quietly works each day on his unimaginable property, furnishing and dealing car parts to mechanics and other iron afficionados. One day… four intruders visit Colmor in search of a corner of twisted paradise. The old man proves to be a lot more than they expected. Critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, for style and substance, Carcasses uses documentary and fictitious elements in trying to get at the soul of an unthinkable place.
Read an exclusive article on Denise Cote and Carcasses
Two in the Wave
dir. Emmanuel Laurent
Featuring footage of the 1959 and 1968 Cannes Film Festivals
“CRITICS’ PICK! A powerful reminder of just how exciting that work remains. The films of Truffaut and Mr. Godard stand or fall by themselves, but together they made history.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times.
“A tangy array of printed documents and archival footage. Smartly selected clips from films by Godard and Truffaut reveal surprising parallels in their work.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“Fascinating. This incisive doc will prove to be catnip to film buffs. Shrewdly engineered, providing a wealth of history. Eye-opening revelations.”
– Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter
“Director Emmanuel Laurent has unearthed captivating coverage of THE 400 BLOWS star Jean-Pierre Léaud at the Cannes train station, Truffaut on the Croisette and the excited opening-night crowd at the old Palais.”
– Todd McCarthy, Variety
French New Wave pioneers Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut were best friends and intense rivals who changed cinema forever. Watch this film to learn how Cannes ’59 put Truffaut on the map, paving the way for Godard’s breakthrough a year later… and how the turbulent upheaval of Cannes ’68 brought an end to their friendship.
