11/05/2005 - The Cannes competition starts today. The World most renown Authors will compete to win this 58th Golden Palm

In order to make up one of the worst editions we had since a few years - the 2004 one - the Cannes Film Festival's 58th edition gathers the most prestigious and stimulating authors in competition, many of them we discovered in Cannes and who became regulars of the festival: David Cronenberg, the Dardenne Brothers, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Michael Haneke, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Dominik Moll, Jim Jarmush, Gus van Sant, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, the "tarantinian" Robert Rodriguez. This is for sure the reason why the French manager, Thierry Fremaux, entitled the event "the festival of Authors". In an alternation game, Wenders, who is today competing, awarded the Palme d'or, as president of the jury to Kusturica for The Time of the Gypsies. Kusturica is today presiding over the jury and his cheerful nature will certainly weigh on the competition.

Fremaux said that last year, the festival "wanted to show how much documentaries are important (Fahrenheit 9/11 won and Mondovino was also competing) as well as animated films. This year is marked by a return to classics and to big brand names. Many of these directors have already been awarded here in the past."

Even out of competition, there are plenty of names: George Lucas with his latest episode of Star Wars and Woody Allen who betrayed the Venice festival and brings his latest work with him in Cannes, Matchpoint. One must not forget the latest novelty, an American one however produced by Luc Besson: the actor Tommy Lee Jones' first appearance as a director with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

The French presence is rich in the parallel sessions and with co-productions, but the competition include Haneke and Moll, non French directors, and Peindre ou faire l’amour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu
interview: Philippe Martin
film profile] by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu. They are likely to win back the Golden Palm, which the French have not been able to land since 1987.

In competition
Lars Von Trier - Manderlay (DK)
Gus van Sant - Last Days (USA)
Wim Wenders - Don’t Come Knockin’ (DE)
Marco Tullio Giordana - Quando sei nato non puoi più nasconderti (IT)
David Cronenberg - A History of Violence(USA)
Michael Haneke - Caché (FR)
Dominik Moll - Lemming (FR)
Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne - L’Enfant (BEL)
Arnaud et Jean-Marie Larrieu - Peindre ou faire l’amour (FR)
Jim Jarmusch - Broken flowers (USA)
Roberto Rodriguez et Frank Miller - Sin City (USA)
Atom Egoyan - Where The Truth Lies (CDN)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien - The Best Of Our Times (TW)
Johnny To - Election (KR)
Wang Xiaoshuai - Shanghai Dreams (RC)
Amos Gitai - Free Zone (IL)
Kobayashi Masahiro - Bashing (JPN)
Carlos Reygadas - Batalla En El Cielo (MEX)
Tommy Lee Jones - The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (USA)
Hiner Saleem - Kilometre Zero (Irak/FR)

Out of competition

Final film: Martha Fiennes - Chromophobia ()
Special screenings:
George Lucas - Star Wars: Episode III.Revenge of the Sith
Woody Allen - Matchpoint
Christian Carion - Joyeux Noël (FR)
Shane Black - Kiss, kiss, bang, bang (US)
Kim Jee-won - Dal kom han in-saeng (KR)
Stuart Samuels - Midnight movies: from the margin to the mainstream (CA)
Fatih Akin - Crossing the bridge (DE)
Adam Curtis - The power of nightmares (GB)
Avi Mograbi - Pour un seul de mes yeux (IL/FR)
Rithy Panh - Les artistes du théâtre brûlé (KH/FR)
Seijun Suzuki - Princess Raccoon (JP)
Michel Piccoli - C'est pas tout à fait la vie dont j'avais rêvé (FR)
Bertrand Bonello - Cindy (FR)

(Translated from Italian)