Film: Melancholia

Director: Lars von Trier

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland

USP: The founder-champion of Dogma cinema returns to his favourite playground with his follow-up to that screamer of a movie, Antichrist. This one’s about two sisters who find their bonds shaken as a planet threatens to crash into Earth. Von Trier reunites with his Antichrist lady Gainsbourg and works for the first time with Dunst. Melancholia has been made with the director’s usual rules — no rehearsals, only instructions between takes.

Film: Sleeping Beauty

Director: Julia Leigh

Cast: Emily Browning, Michael Dorman, Rachael Blake, Tammy McIntosh

USP: The directorial debut of Australian novelist Leigh, the film has Browning (Sucker Punch) as a young university student drawn into a hidden world of beauty and desire. Leigh’s script made it to the 2008 Black List — a list of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.

Film: Midnight in Paris

Director: Woody Allen

Cast: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Carla Bruni, Adrien Brody

USP: The 75-year-old funnyman continues making people laugh and this one’s opening the festival this year. And while Woody has again got a great cast for this rom com about a family travelling to Paris, we all want to see the Carla cameo, don’t we?

Film: Restless

Director: Gus Van Sant

Cast: Henry Hopper, Mia Wasikowska,

Schuyler Fisk, Jane Adams

USP: Directed by the man who made Milk, Restless is produced by the father-daughter duo of Ron Howard (director of A Beautiful Mind) and Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village actress). Adapted from a play by Jason Lew, the film is about young love and mortality.

Film: Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Director: Takashi Miike

Cast: Ichikawa Ebizo XI, Eita, Koji Yakusho

USP: The first 3-D film in the history of the Cannes film festival to compete for the Palme d’Or, this is the latest from the original action guru (he made Ichi the Killer), with a score by pop star Ryuichi Sakamoto.

 

Film: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Director: Rob Marshall

Cast: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey Rush

USP: The fourth film happened after the Jack Sparrow trilogy was a resounding success. With Cruz on board for this one, how we want to ride those stranger tides!

Film: The Beaver

Director: Jodie Foster

Cast: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin

USP: The Kyle Killen script topped the 2008 Black List of best unproduced screenplays, which Foster picked up for her return to direction after 16 years. Plus, Gibson’s attempt to start afresh.

Film: The Skin I Live In

Director: Pedro Almodovar

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes

USP: The Spanish auteur returns, but no Penelope Cruz this time. Antonio Banderas is there though, as a surgeon who tries to save the life of his wife by creating a new skin. Horror film without screams, says Pedro.

Film: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Cast: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller

USP: Don’t go by the surname of the director. This one deserves a watch for Swinton’s powerful act as a mother recounting the events leading up to her son’s massacre of students and teachers at his high school.

Film: The Tree of Life

Director: Terrence Malick

Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Kari Matchett

USP: From the man who gave us The Thin Red Line and Days of Heaven comes this spiritual trip about a “lost soul in the modern world”. Pitt slipped into the shoes of Heath Ledger.

Which of these films do you think will win the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year? Tell t2@abp.in