At the Cannes Oscars 2019: a review, from "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" to Isabelle Huppert

As usual, the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival is a mix of authors of intelligent competitions, stars and some lucky players who could – if everything went as planned – return to North America as Oscar contenders . You know that if "Once upon a time in Hollywood" is particularly absent from the official announcement of the selection of the director of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Fremaux, he wants nothing more (especially with a list of players to red) that having Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and the festival's favorite filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino, go up to the Grand Palais.

But for studio executives, whose priority is to hedge their financial bets, the risks of going to Cannes often outweigh the gains. Last year, A24 entrusted to the discovery of Cannes the desire of David Robert Mitchell to be included in the prestigious Cannes competition and to meet with "Under the Silver Lake", not only marked by a mediocre 57 metascore, but also by a filmmaker the editing room. (The film will finally be available tomorrow, April 19th.)

Sony's Sony president, Tom Rothman, will send an unfinished film of $ 95 million to Cannes with the risk that Tarantino's great hopes – working for the first time in a studio, far from his former patron Harvey Weinstein – are they collapsing? The filmmaker is eager to return in 10 years. "Inglourious Basterds" was a hit in Cannes in 2009 and brought in $ 321 million worldwide, eight Oscar nominations and one win at Christoph Waltz, but that may not be Tarantino's decision.

See the full range here.

In this case, Hollywood insiders say that DiCaprio and Tarantino plan to attend the festival (not to mention the rest of the sprawling and starry cast, including several Oscar veterans). He spent a night celebrating the film with the 25th anniversary of "Pulp Fiction," which won the Palme d'Or in 1994 and propelled Tarantino into the ranks of a world-class filmmaker. The festival probably gives Tarantino a little respite so that the worried author can finish his film. For "Once upon a time in Hollywood", the net gains of the Cannes show should outweigh any worries. Its power in megastars will wreak havoc on all media outlets around the world. Sony may want to increase the release date for July 26 to maximize the explosion in Cannes.

Studios tend to present their films in Cannes as a launching pad for an international release. This is the case of "Rocketman" (May 31, Paramount), followed by Dexter Fletcher's $ 900 million booth "Bohemian Rhapsody". It stars Taron Egerton, Richard Madden and Jamie Bell – but more importantly, the subject of the film, global pop star Elton John will also be on the carpet.

It is for this reason that the rumor that Greta Gerwig's "little women" (Sony) were en route to the Riviera made no sense. No question that a studio sends a Christmas movie to Cannes. It would be a waste of money. (In any case, Gerwig did not finish the film.) In March, she and her partner Noah Baumbach gave birth to their first child. The final film will not be ready for the studio until the summer, after which it will probably be presented at film festivals in the fall before December 25th.

"The dead do not die"

Characteristics of the focus

Among the three American directors of the Cannes competition, Jim Jarmusch's "The Dead Do not Die" (Focus Features) will open the festival on May 14 (in competition) and open a month later. Cannes is the perfect start for a zombie comedy with a large international cast led by Bill Murray, who starred in "Broken Flowers" by Jarmusch in 2005, and Adam Driver, recently nominated for the Oscars, who attended Cannes with "Paterson" by Jarmusch in 2016 They play the role of two policemen in small towns with an attack of the undead, while Tilda Swinton ("Only Lovers Left Alive" of Jarmusch), regular of Cannes, will put glamor on the red carpet from the opening night. Will she chase a second Oscar? This is where an unlikely genre entry for rewards could get a credibility boost from Cannes.

Ira Sachs, a New York independent director who has never played in Cannes, is gaining momentum in the competition with "Frankie", starring Isabelle Huppert, the leading French actress. Costars Marisa Tomei and Brendan Gleeson also offer Oscar credits, while North American distributors encircle the title, a generational family saga shot in Portugal.

And then, there is the return of Terrence Malick, whose "Tree of Life" won the Palme d'Or in 2011 and won three Oscar nominations. After having presented a series of spin-offs "Tree of Life", this time Malick chooses "A hidden life" with the Austrian conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, who would not fight on behalf of the Nazis during the Second World War. Could this be the role that pushes Matthias Schoenaerts, a Belgian star still very good, to win a prize? Distributors will discover it in Cannes.

Photocall For "Wild at Heart", Golden Palm winner: Isabella Rossellini, David Lynch, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd and Willem Dafoe

Alan Davidson / Silverhub / REX / Shutterstock

Willem Dafoe, a Cannes regular, has been nominated four times at the Oscars, including two consecutive nods, for "Florida Project", launched at Cannes 2017, and "At Eternity's Gate" by Julian Schnabel, funded in Cannes. Dafoe plays in a role vaguely inspired by his mad and crazy director, Abel Ferrara, in "Tommaso", a semi-autobiographical film essay playing as a special screening, which is also looking for a distributor.

Although the festival is more and more likely to leave big documentaries out of the competition, Cannes also plays an important role in raising titles in documentaries and Oscars in foreign languages. British director Asif Kapadia made his debut with "Amy" in Cannes, who then won the Oscar. Kapadia's "Maradona" about the famous football player (who will participate in the festival) will be out of competition because he is looking for a world-class cast.

Of course, Pedro Almodovar's autobiographical film "Pain & Glory" (22 November), starring Oscar-winning stars Antonio Banderas (long-awaited for an Oscar nomination), as a long-time Spanish director based on Almodovar and awarded an Oscar, Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") as a mother, is inevitably an event. Sony Pictures Classics will perform at fall festivals, as a likely Spanish Oscar nominee this year.

Korean Bong Joon-Ho ("Okja") returns with "Parasite" (Neon), while Chinese detective story Diao Yi'nan "Goose Wild Lake" also joins the competition. After many contrary protests from the filmmaker, "Mattias & Maxime" makes the prodigal son Xavier Dolan to the faithful of Cannes and, if he plays well, could put him in the running for a Canadian Oscar.

The promising French selection includes one of four entries to the women directors contest, Celine Sciamma's promising 18th-century drama, entitled "Portrait of a Lady on Fire", as a result of the film. feat of Asghar Farhadi "Everybody knows" to make a film in a completely foreign language, Werner. Herzog's "Family Romance, LLC" Japanese plays out of competition as a special selection. Does it belong to Japan or Germany?

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14th to May 25th.

S & # 39; register: Stay on top of the latest news from film and television! Sign up for our electronic newsletters here.