Two Australian directors with American films will feature in a competition line-up
full of leading art-house names at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Andrew Dominik, who emerged in this country with Chopper before shooting The
Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford in the US, has been
selected with the American mobster story Killing Them Softly, which stars Brad
Pitt , Ray Liotta and Ben Mendelsohn.
The drama, set in New Orleans, follows a professional enforcer (Pitt) who
investigates a heist during a mob-protected poker game. The impressive cast also
includes Sam Rockwell, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard and Australian Bella
Heathcote.
John Hillcoat, who left Australia after The Proposition to makeThe Road, will also
feature in the prestigous competition with Lawless, a Prohibition-era drama that
stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce.
Fellow Australian actors Mia Wasikowska and Jason Clarke also feature in the story
of two bootlegging brothers who take their moonshine operation into the big leagues.
Their films will premiere alongside new work from such well-known art-
house directors as David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis), Ken Loach (The Angels’ Share),
Michael Haneke (Love), Abbas Kairostami (Like Someone In Love), Walter Salles
(On The Road), Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone) and Lee Daniels (The Paperboy).
French veteran Alain Resnais who is approaching 90, will also be part of the
competition with You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet.
Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom will open the 65th festival, which runs on the
French Riviera from May 16 to 27.
Festival president Gilles Jacob and artistic director Thierry Fremaux announced the
official selection at a press conference in Paris.
An Australian short film, director Michael Spiccia’s Yardbird, about a young girl who
takes on the local bullies who torment her father, has already been announced as
the country’s first selection in competition.
The festival will also pay homage to the late French director Claude Miller, who died
earlier this month, with a special screening of his last film, Therese Desqueyroux, on
closing night.
Screening out of competition will be another film from a filmmaking veteran,
Bernardo Bertolucci’s Me And You.
The Un Certain Regard section of the festival includes films from David Cronenberg’s
son Brandon (Antiviral) and former Sydney Film Festival competition winner Xavier
Dolan (Laurence Anyways).
The Cannes selection committee saw 1779 films from 26 countries this year.
Selections for Critics Week are still to be announced.
Garry Maddox – SMH – April 19, 2012