suddenly
Japanese Ryosuke Hamaguchi dazzled the Cannes Festival in 2021 with his symphonic meditations on grief, regret, and human connection. Driving my carWhich received four Academy Award nominations, and won Best International Film. His French-language debut features Virginie Evera as the director of a nursing home in the suburbs of Paris, who adopts a “humanistic”, compassionate treatment approach to her patients despite discord among her team. Her life changes when she meets a terminally ill Japanese playwright (played by Tao Okamoto). The two women develop a spiritual connection as they fight together to overcome systemic restrictions and transform the care facility into a symbol of resistance.
coward
After starting his career with Girl and Closestwo intimate contemporary stories that won awards at Cannes, Lucas Daunt takes on his first period drama and his most ambitious project to date. The Belgian director described it as “a film about love and death, creation and destruction,” set on the front lines of World War I. A newly arrived soldier eager to prove his bravery meets a comrade who decides to boost company morale by putting on a theatrical performance behind the trenches. In an atmosphere of violence and brutality, the two men find ways to escape, even if only for a moment. Newcomers Emanuele Macchia and Valentin Campani head up the cast.
Homeland
In what has turned out to be a big year for Sandra Holler – a huge hit Hail Mary project; She won the Best Actress award in Berlin for her gender-swapped role rose; Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu led by Tom Cruise digger Coming in the fall – the gorgeous German actress joins Hans Zischler and August Diehl in Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski’s continuing exploration of post-World War II Europe. the next Ida and cold warFilmed once again in black and white, the new drama accompanies Thomas Mann and his daughter on a road trip through devastated Germany, the first time the Nobel Prize-winning author has returned home since fleeing to safety in the United States during the war.
Fjord
One of the key figures to emerge from the Roman New Wave of the mid-2000s, Christian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for his breathtaking abortion drama, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. His new film promises to be another provocative piece of social realism in the director’s usual strict style. Sebastian Stan and Renate Rainsef play a Romanian-Norwegian couple who move with their children to their mother’s hometown in remote Norway. They form close friendships with a neighboring family but face intense scrutiny and legal entanglement when suspicions of child abuse arise. Mungiu was reportedly inspired by real-life stories related to Norway’s controversial child protection system and family investigations.
He hopes
Ten years after the release of the famous horror film Wailing In Cannes, Na Hong Jin returns with a large-scale sci-fi thriller, said to be the most expensive Korean film ever made. The film takes place in the remote village of Hope Harbour, near the demilitarized zone, where terrified locals alert the precinct police chief to a sighting of a tiger on the outskirts of the city. When the village erupts into widespread panic, the emergency develops into an even darker mystery, forcing the policeman to confront a seemingly impossible reality. Along with the Korean directors, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender also appear.
paper tiger
A sore point among many admirers of James Gray’s work is that despite five previous entries in the competition, the writer-director has never won a major prize at Cannes. Perhaps his sixth competitor will change that. Miles Teller, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver star in this gritty 1980s drama about two brothers chasing the American dream, who find their mutual loyalty at stake as they navigate a dangerous world of corruption and violence, leading to their family being terrorized by the Russian mob. While the film isn’t quite a sequel, it is a continuation of sorts from Gray’s last entry in the competition, the insanely underrated 2022 drama. Armageddon time.
Parallel stories
Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi assembles a lavish cast for his second French-language film (following the 2013 film). the past), including Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, Adam Bessa, and Catherine Deneuve. Loosely based on the sixth chapter of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s novel Decalogue String, which is extended to include length as A short film about loveThe film is set in Paris and revolves around a novelist searching for inspiration for her new book. She begins spying on her neighbors across the street, which has predictable consequences when fiction draws from real life but also begins to influence reality.
Sheep in the box
Winner of the Palme d’Or 2018 for ThievesHirokazu Kore-eda returns to the competition with a distinctive look at the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence in this sci-fi drama. The Japanese author reflects on fatherhood and childhood, loss and grief, and the meaning of life and death through the story of a couple who mourn the loss of their son when a mysterious package arrives, inviting them to participate in a new program designed to resurrect their deceased loved ones as robotic clones. While the wife cradles their animated offspring, her husband keeps a wary distance, unconvinced that the robot has any connection to their boy.
The unknown
Arthur Harary shares the 2024 Original Screenplay Oscar with director and co-writer Justine Tritt Anatomy of a fall. His new film depicts Niels Schneider as a man approaching forty, who keeps his life and pursuits as a photographer to himself. When he is reluctantly dragged by friends to a rowdy party, he is unable to take his eyes off a woman in the crowd, and eventually follows her. A few hours later, he wakes up in the body of the unknown woman. The role is played by actress Léa Seydoux, who also stars in Mary Kreutzer’s competition, Gentle monster.
