Cannes

Alex Deleon <filmfestivals.com>

There are so many films on view at Cannes in dozens of  screening rooms on the main festival grounds and scattered about town -- in the Marché du Cinéma film market as well as the official selection -- and so much to do beside film watching -- that it is simply impossible to see all the films, or even half of the films, one would rush out to see under normal circumstances.

Cannes is not normal. Cannes is the ultimate embodiment of the French bon mot "l'embarras du choix" -- way way too much to choose from.

However the upside of this overwhelming load of offerings to pick over is that many of the titles missed here will turn up at other festivals down the line. Any festival later in the year worth its salt will inevitably have a sampling of Cannes reruns, not only prize winners but more obscure entries as well, depending, of course, on the taste and whims of the programers in question.

Without further ado here is a short list of Films we never got to on the Croisette but hope to catch up with sooner or later on the festival circuit:

Top priorities:

"Patterson"   by Jim Jarmush ~ if only because it stars until now underseen Iranian exile actress Goldshifte Farahani -- who is persona non grata in Teheran because she revealed too much flesh in a French magazine spread among other actions the Mullas deemed as unpardonable. A fantastic actress by any standards, now a luscious ripening 33.

"Loving" by Jeff Nichols ~ his followup to "Midnight Special" which featured Kirsten Durst and got high marks at Berlin in February. This director from the southern American boondocks is steadily building a reputation as an independent auteur.

"Julieta" with top Spanish actress  Emna Suarez -- because it's an Almodóvar film -- isn't that enough?

"The Last Face" directed by Sean Penn. Got negative reviews here but the peculiar pairing of Spanish star Javier Bardem (No country for Old Men) with South African beauty Charlize Theron has got to be worth a look -- (if nothing else) --

"Money Monster" -- mainstreamer with George Clooney and Julia Roberts, directed by Jodie Foster, no less...on general release everywhere.  That's gotta be Entertainment if nothing else.

"American Honey" by Andrea Arnold. With Hollywood bad boy Shia Laboeuf, who seems to be trying to modify his obstreperous image --Ms. Arnold is apparently a new distaff directorial force to reckon with.

"The Death of Louis XIV" -- must see French film starring one time teenage star Jean-Pierre Léaud (The 400 Blows, 1959) as France's greatest king -- can't pass that up.... Léaud is now 72 -- Louis died at age 76. Léaud received  a lifetime career award at the festival this year.

"Adieu Bonaparte" a 1984 film by Egyptian grand master Youssef Chahine, with mixed French and Egyptian cast. Restored classic.

"Close Encounters with Vilmos Zsigmond" -- a new documentary on the great Hungarian cinematographer who died on January 1, 2016.   Vilmos lensed Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" which earned him an Oscar in 1978. 

"Voyage à travers le Cinema Français" 2016 ~ A new overview of French cinema by one of its outstanding auteurs and connaisseurs, Bernard Tavernier.

"Leslie Howard ~ The Man Who Gave a Damn" -- new documentary on the supremely suave elegant British actor who was miscast in GWTW and got shot down by the Nazis in WWII as a dangerous voice  of Anti-Nazi propaganda. Title is both a reference to Gable's closing line in the film; "Frankly Scarlett, I don't give a damn" -- and Howard's decision to leave Hollywood and go back to England during the war to 'do his part' --because he gave more of a damn about England's survival than he did about being a star in Tinseltown. Well chosen title!

Plus numerous other movies from the Market...