By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
CANNES, France (AP) --The Cannes Film Festival unrolled its red carpet with a socially minded French drama, striking a more serious tone than the high dose of glamour the festival often opens with.
"Standing Tall," a film about a juvenile delinquent co-starring Catherine Deneuve, screened Wednesday ahead of its evening premiere as the festival got underway beneath sunny French Riviera skies.
Directed by French actress-filmmaker Emmanuelle Bercot, "Standing Tall" is only the second film directed by a woman to open Cannes, which has sometimes been chided for having a dearth of female filmmakers.
"For the selection we pick films, artists — not men and women, young and old," said Thierry Fremaux, the festival's director. "But I don't want to say that it's not a problem. It is a problem. We need more women, more female directors, in world cinema."
"Standing Tall," which tracks an angry youth (Rod Paradot) through rehabilitation programs, received a lukewarm response from critics. But even a general shrug was an improvement over last year's immediately panned "Grace of Monaco," a Grace Kelly drama starring Nicole Kidman.
Joel and Ethan Coen are presiding over the jury that will decide Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or top prize this year. The Coens (who took the Palme in 1991 for "Barton Fink") were to introduce their jury, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Guillermo del Toro and Sienna Miller, later in the day.
A splash of movie-inspired ballet was also added to the opening festivities. Benjamin Millepied choreographed an ode to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" to be performed ahead of the premiere of "Standing Tall." Millepied's wife, actress Natalie Portman, will later in the festival make her directorial debut with "A Tale of Love and Darkness," an Israeli drama.
There will, of course, be plenty of star wattage parading through Cannes over the next 12 days.
Thursday will bring George Miller's sequel "Mad Max: Fury Road" along with stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. Woody Allen will premiere his latest, "Irrational Man," starring Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix. And the Pixar animation film "Inside Out" will take a bow on red carpet.
Among the most anticipated films are "Carol," a '50s lesbian drama starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and "Macbeth," a Shakespeare adaptation with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.
The first few days of the festival may be marked by art house entries that tend toward the bizarre. Matteo Garrone's "Tale of Tales," loosely adapted from 17th century fairy tales, promises the sight of Salma Hayek eating the heart of a beast. Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Lobster," with Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, is about a dystopian future where those who fail to find a mate are turned into an animal.
Cannes, already a media circus, may well turn into a zoo.
Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More