 A scene from Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.”“Enter the Void” by Gaspar Noe (France)
Starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Noe describes the film as “The universal melodrama of a young man who, after the brutal death of his parents, promises that he will protect his little sister no matter what… Sensing that he himself is dying, he fights desperately to keep his promise.”
“Face” (Visages) by Tsai Ming-Liang (Taiwan)
Apparently commissioned by the Louvre Museum, according to Wildgrounds.com is described as “a variation of St John the Baptist and Oscar Wilde’s Salome. Starring Laetitia Casta, Jean-Pierre Léaud… Sounds very French Nouvelle Vague!”
View on-set footage in French.
“Fish Tank” by Andrea Arnold (U.K.)
Starring Michael Fassbender, Harry Treadaway, Jason Maza and Charlotte Collins. 15 year-old Mia’s world is turned upside down when her mother brings home a new boyfriend.
“Forgiveness” (aka “Life During Wartime”), by Todd Solondz (U.S.)
Solondz once described the film as a “companion piece to ‘Happiness’ and ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse.’” It is also described in a quote in Wikipedia as a “dark comedy of sexual obsession.” The film stars Allison Janney, Chane’t Johnson, Paul Reubens, Michael K. Williams, Ally Sheedy and Paul Dano.
“Hadewijch” by Bruno Dumont (France)
A quick search about the film did not turn up much information other then it’s a drama with Julie Sokolowski. The foreign sales agent is Pyramide International, according to French films promotion group, UniFrance.
“Herbes Folles” by Alain Resnais (France)
Starring Sabine Azema, Andre Dussolier and Emmanuelle Devos, the drama/thriller centers on the chance meeting “between a dentist and amateur pilot whose bag is snatched and its contents thrown across a car park, and a solitary man with a troubled past who retrieves her wallet. The unlikely chance meeting of the two leads to a certain romantic dithering that unfolds in eight phases, corresponding to the rules of flying, and in particular the safety procedures before take-off,” according to Yahoo Movies.
“Humpday” by Lynn Shelton (US)
Starring Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard. From Eric Kohn’s review for indieWIRE: “Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard) abhor the idea of sleeping together, which paradoxically drives them to give it a shot… The carefree yin to Ben’s mellow yang, Andrew’s aimless lifestyle clashes with his friend’s settled ideals. He presents the [concept of making an amateur porn] during a late night drinking session, which sets up a serious discussion about it the next day. While initially attracted to fornicating as an ‘art project,’ they eventually turn it into a mutual challenge. Andrew, whose slapdash sex life involves trysts with an easygoing lesbian (Shelton), suggests that Ben’s ‘white picket fence’ reality prevents him from exploring new experiences. Ben takes a combative stance, insisting Andrew’s Jack Kerouac routine has worn thin. Both men think the other won’t go through with it, and the challenge begins.”
“The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” by Terry Gilliam (U.S.)
Set in the present day, and telling the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary ‘Imaginarium’, a travelling show - where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Heath Ledger died in the middle of production, and Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law assumed his role in a curious restructuring of the film.
View the trailer
“Inglourious Basterds” by Quentin Tarantino (U.S.)
“The Basterds,” a group of Jewish-American soldiers are chosen to spread fear througout Nazi occupied Europe by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The group crosses paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a Parisian cinema, which the soldiers target. Starring Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Kruger, Cloris Leachman, Mike Myers, Samm Levine, Maggie Cheung, Daniel Bruhl.
View the trailer
“The Informant” by Steven Soderbergh (U.S.)
Starring Matt Damon, Scott Bakula adn Joel McHale, the dark comedy thriller follows the story of Ivy League Ph.D. Mark Whitacre, a rising star at Decatur, Illinois based Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s who wound up blowing the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics.
“The Illusionist” by Sylvain Chomet (U.K., France)
In French and English, the animated film, according to IMDb is the story of a dying breed of stage entertainer whose thunder is being stolen by emerging rock stars. Forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theaters, garden parties and bars, he meets a young fan who changes his life forever. The film is based on an unproduced Jacques Tati script.
 A scene from Isabel Coixet’s “Map of the Sounds of Tokyo.”“Looking For Eric” by Ken Loach (U.K.). This comic film from Palme d’Or winner Loach follows a depressed Mancunian postman, obsessed with football, whose life is descending in to crisis. That is, until he receives some life coaching from the famously philosophical football legend Eric Cantona (playing himself).
View the trailer
“Map of the Sounds of Tokyo” by Isabel Coixet (Spain).
Coixet follows up “Elegy” with this dual-identity dramatic thriller that centers on a fish-market employee who doubles as a contract killer. Rinko Kikuchi and Sergi López star (official website in Spanish).
“Micmacs à tire-larigot” (“Micmacs,” US Title) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (France).
The film centers on a man named Bazil (Dany Boon), the son of a bomb disposal expert who died in in the middle of the desert as a result of an explosion. Years later Bazil is in a club and receives a stray bullet in the head. He survives but must live with the bullet wedged in his head. This causes some strange side effects. He loses his job and soon gathers a rag-tag group and sets out to take down the weapons manufacturers, which caused the The film is described as a satirical comedy on the world of weapons merchants and is said to be in the same vein as “Amelie” and “Delicatessen.”
“Mother” by Bong Joon-Ho (Korea)
“The Host” director Bong’s latest dramatic thriller is the case of a mom who frantically searches for the killer that framed her son for a gruesome murder.
View the trailer
“Mr. Nobody” by Jaco van Dormael (Canada/Belgium/France).
Starring Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley and Rhys Ifans, this fantasy film from van Dormael (winner of 1991 Golden Camera for “Toto le héros”) follows Nemo Nobody (Leto), who leads a normal life with his wife and three children until he wakes up to find himself in the year 2092. Aged 120, Mr. Nobody is now the oldest man in the world and the last mortal of a new mankind where nobody dies anymore.
“Non Ma Fille” (“Making Plans For Lena,” US Title) by Christophe Honore (France).
This drama stars Chiara Mastroianni as Lena, who valiantly overcomes many obstacles when her husband Nigel keaves her two kids. However, she still has to contend with her overwhelming family of do-gooders who will stop at nothing to make her happy. The film also stars Marina Fois, Jean-Marc Barr and Louis Garrel.
“Ne te retourne pas” by Marina de Van (France)
Starring Monica Bellucci, Sophie Marceau, Andrea Di Stefano. According to Baseline StudioSystems: “Jeanne, a married writer with two children, starts to see unsettling changes in her home. Her body is beginning to change but no one around her seems to notice. Her family dismisses these fears as the result of the stress of having to finish her next book, but Jeanne realizes that something far deeper, far more disturbing is taking place. A photograph at her mother’s house sends her in search of a woman in Italy. Here, transformed into another woman, RosaMaria, she will discover the strange secret of her true identity.”
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By Eugene Hernandez, Brian Brooks, Peter Knegt, and Andy Lauer (April 3, 2009)
I like films. Wish the good films come out soon.
Just noticed that Hong Sang-soo’s YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW comes out in Korea on May 14th. I doubt that date is a coincidence…
Some sources were tipping Bela Tarr’s TURIN HORSE, but it seems that’s just entered production. A more likely contender (not on the iW list) is THE TIME THAT REMAINS, the new film from Elia Suleiman.
And supposedly SOCIALISME isn’t finished yet, but reports are sketchy.
CERTIFIED COPY hasn’t even started shooting yet. Screen Daily gave a June 8th start date, which puts it over a year behind schedule.
Might Godard’s SOCIALISME be a possibility? It’s been in the works for awhile now and some production stills popped up about six months ago.
Thanks for the list. There are a couple of French titles here that I had overlooked, but with an April release in France, I doubt that Anne Fontaine’s Coco film will be part of the line-up. Humpday will definitely not be part of the main comp and/or UCR….leaving only the Director’s Fortnight as a host.