Cannes: Directors’ Fortnight Unveils Lineup
Robert Eggers’ anticipated “The Lighthouse” with Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, Luca Guadagnino’s medium-length film “The Staggering Girl” and Japanese helmer Takashi Miike’s “First Love” are set to unspool at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight under the new leadership of Paolo Moretti.
Described by Moretti as a “hypnotic two-hander” powered by Pattinson and Dafoe, “The Lighthouse” is a fantasy horror film set in a mysterious island in New England at the end of the 19th century. Eggers previously directed “The Witch.”
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As with Cannes’ official selection, Directors’ Fortnight will showcase a wide range of genre movies. Besides “The Lighthouse,” the other anticipated genre films set for Directors’ Fortnight include Bertrand Bonello’s “Zombi Child,” about the Haitian Clairvius Narcisse, victim of a voodoo; Miike’s “First Love”; Babak Anvari’s “Wounds,” with Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson; and Tunisian helmer Ala Eddine Slim’s “Tlamess.”
Moretti, who took over from Edouard Waintrop after the previous edition, said this year’s lineup will showcase 16 films from directors who have never presented a film at Cannes before. “That’s what Directors’ Fortnight is meant to be doing — be a launchpad for new auteurs who are making fresh, bold choices.”
The lineup also includes Nicolas Pariser’s (“The Great Game”) French political drama “Alice et le maire”; Rebecca Zlotowski’s (“Planetarium”) “Une fille facile” with Zahia Dehar; Lech Kowalski’s (“East of Paradise”) “Blow It to Beats”; Swedish helmer Levan Akin’s (“Real Humans”) “And Then We Danced”; Kirill Mikhanovsky’s (“Gabriel and the Mountain”) Milwaukee-set comedy-drama “Give Me Liberty”; Filipino director Lav Diaz’s (“Season of the Devil”) “The Halt”; Finnish director J-P Valkeapää’s (“The Have Escaped”) “Dogs Don’t Wear Pants”; Melina León’s Peruvian politician drama “Canción sin nombre”; and Belgian director Bas Devos’ “Ghost Tropic.”
Other films set to play at Directors’ Fortnight include Austrian helmer Andreas Horwath’s “Lillian”; Latvian director Juris Kursietis’s (“Morris”) “Oleg”; Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “The Orphanage”; French-Swiss helmer Blaise Harrison’s “Les Particules”; French director Erwan Le Duc’s “Perdrix”; Argentinan director Alejo Moguillansky’s (“Castro”) “For the Money”; Alice Furtado’s (“The Human Surge”) “Sick Sick Sick”; and Chinese-born Canadian director Johnny Ma’s (“Perished”) “To Live to Sing.”
Starring Julianne Moore, Mia Goth, KiKi Layne, Kyle MacLachlan and Alba Rohrwacher, “The Staggering Girl” will have its world premiere in the special screenings section of Directors’ Fortnight, along with the international premiere of Robert Rodriguez’s “Red 11.”
Directors’ Fortnight will wrap with Benoît Forgeard’s “Yves,” a comedy centering on a young man whose modest life is turned upside down by a “smart” refrigerator, which becomes his ghost writer.
As previously announced, Directors’ Fortnight will open with Quentin Dupieux’s “Deerskin,” an offbeat French comedy with Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) and Adèle Haenel (“BPM”).
Directors’ Fortnight will take place May 15-25.
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