This year’s Cannes Film Festival is getting under way with, as always, a French movie opening proceedings and celebrities lining the red carpet.
Lea Seydoux is among the stars in The Second Act, which tells the story of actors working on a doomed movie production – a delightfully wicked way to kick off the world’s most famous film festival.
Away from opening night, here are five more films playing at Cannes that are worth keeping an eye on.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Pic: Warner Bros/ Domain Pictures
A post-apocalyptic action adventure, this is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road – which won six Oscars and is largely regarded as one of the best action films ever. Furiosa is by the same director, George Miller, and early reviews suggest it’s somewhat different to its predecessor but equally brilliant. With stars including Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hardy, it should be a great way to kick off summer blockbuster season – in cinemas from 24 May, so audiences who aren’t on the French Riviera don’t have long to wait too long.
Megalopolis
Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in Megalopolis. Pic: American Zoetrope
Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola‘s self-financed passion project is playing in competition at the festival. The filmmaker is reported to have spent several decades and more than a million dollars of his own money making the sci-fi, which is described as a Roman epic fable set in an imagined modern America. The ensemble cast includes Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman – and as Coppola’s first film to be released since 2011, expectations are high for this one.
The Apprentice
Jeremy Strong (lawyer Roy Cohn) and Sebastian Stan (Donald Trump) in The Apprentice. Pic: Apprentice Productions Ontario / Profile Productions/ Tailored Films
As Donald Trump continues to grab headlines in the US, this film looks at the former president’s life before politics, his career in real estate in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, but little else is known about the drama ahead of its world premiere at Cannes. Promoters say it tackles themes of power, corruption and deception – so now it’s a watch and wait to see if the billionaire has anything to say about his life becoming fodder for the big screen.
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Horizon: An American Saga
Kevin Costner in Horizon: An American Saga. Pic: Warner Bros
Another passion project making its way to the south of France is the first half of this two-parter Western co-written, starring and directed by Kevin Costner. The actor first pitched a version of this movie back in 1988 so it’s been brewing since long before the Western drama series Yellowstone that he’s been busy with during recent years. Audiences will be going in knowing they won’t get the whole story, and with a 181 minute running time it’s quite the commitment – but perhaps not as big as Costner’s himself; he’s personally financed the films, which currently have a budget of almost $100m.
Kinds Of Kindness
Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe in Kinds Of Kindness. Pic: Searchlight Pictures
Mere months after Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things won four Oscars, the director has got the gang back together for a new film premiering at Cannes, also starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley. Described as a “triptych fable”, the film tells three stories that are loosely connected. Known for his strange tales and specific vison, while Lanthimos’s movies aren’t for everyone they certainly can’t be accused of being dull. However, with little to be gleaned from the teaser trailer that’s been released so far, it will be all eyes on Cannes to see what audiences make of this one.
