Pedro Almodovar’s story of a plastic surgeon bent on exacting vigilante justice and Terrence Malick’s period piece about three Midwestern brothers, starring Brad Pitt, are among 19 movies vying for the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The lineup announced Thursday for the 64th edition of the festival is exceptionally strong, with much-anticipated new films by the creme de la creme of auteur filmmakers.
They include Denmark’s Lars von Trier, with “Melancholia,” Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan, with “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” and Belgium’s Dardenne brothers, with “Set Me Free.” Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s “Le Havre,” Italian Nanni Moretti’s “Habemus Papam” and French-Romanian filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu’s “La source des femmes” also looked like early strong contenders for the coveted Palme d’Or.
Festival managing director Thierry Fremaux told a news conference Thursday he expected this year to be “quite a rich and fruitful edition” of the famed festival. Submissions for the festival, which fell last year to 1,665 films, were back up to 1,715 this year, he added.
Gilles Jacob, the festival’s president, said this edition aimed to explore the future of filmmaking in the age of the i-Pod, the i-Pad and other mobile devices.
It’s about “asking questions about cinema’s future — particularly the future of movie theaters — at this time when people are consuming more and more images on small screens, computer screens, laptops,” he told Thursday’s news conference, held at a gilded Paris hotel. With the new technology, “we’re going to have an ever-increasing need for content.”
Rumor has it that Malick’s “The Tree of Life” was initially meant to premiere at last year’s edition of the festival but that it wasn’t finished in time. The latest film by the acclaimed “The Thin Red Line” director is billed as a story of the loss of innocence, and also stars Sean Penn. Malick won Cannes best director prize in 1979 for “Days of Heaven.”
Festival regular Almodovar’s “The Skin I Live In,” starring Antonio Banderas as the plastic surgeon, follows on the director’s 2009 melodrama “Broken Embraces,” which screened at the Riviera festival. The salt-and-pepper haired director won Cannes’ best director award in 1999 for “All About My Mother” and took best screenplay in 2006 for “Volver.”
Jodie Foster’s “The Beaver” is to be screened out of competition, as will the latest installment in the blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, and Rob Marshall’s “On Stranger Tides.”
The festival’s opening film, “Midnight in Paris,” is also showing out of competition. Set in the City of Light, the latest Woody Allen movie includes French first lady and former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in a bit part. Hopes are high that Bruni-Sarkozy and her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will turn out for the inaugural screening to add an extra dollop of glamor to the high-wattage festivities.
American actor Robert De Niro presides the jury for this year’s main competition, with other jury members to be announced shortly, organizers said.
Serbian director Emir Kusterica has been appointed to preside the “Un Certain Regard” jury, which showcases lesser-known filmmakers than the main competition. Gus Van Sant’s “Restless” is the selection’s opening film. Other top entries include Frenchman Robert Guediguian’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and South Korea’s Hong Sangsoo, with “The Day He Arrives.” Hong’s “Hahaha” took the “Un Certain Regard” selection’s top prize last year.
Michel Gondry, the French director of 2004 hit “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” is to preside over the short film competition.
The Riviera festival runs May 11-22.
Last year, the hypnotic Thai film “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” won Palme d’Or, while Academy Award winners Juliette Binoche and Javier Bardem earned acting honors.
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Associated Press writers Camille Rustici in Paris and Jenny Barchfield in Vienna contributed to this report.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More