SÉLECTION CANNES 2014 - An invitation to travel

“Each film will be a journey in itself and taken together, the films will amount to a single, magnificent and great odyssey through today’s cinema world.” With these words, Thierry Frémaux invites you to embark on this year’s expedition through 105 films, stopping off to discover the highest pinnacles of filmmaking, explore the uncharted territories from which tomorrow’s masterpieces will emerge and immerse yourself in the sheer magic of cinema.

All aboard for the 67th Festival de Cannes! From Mauritania to South Korea and from Syria to Argentina, 28 directors from all four corners of the world will be taking the pulse of all the films around them. The Selection will be dominated by the North Americans and Europeans, who are sure to steer the Festival towards their own lands.

Photo from the film Timbuktu © RR

To be at Cannes is also to travel through time and the people who have left their mark. With Olivier Dahan, we head for the Monaco of the 1960s. Grace of Monaco will open the Festival with a look back at the life of the Princess, torn between her life as a monarch and her acting career. The Official Selection will also present a portrait of the most difficult years in the life of haute couture legend (Yves) Saint-Laurent, and will even whisk us back to the 18th century with Mr. Turner, a portrait of the British artist who painted 20,000 pictures.

In addition to the new crop of films reflecting on the past, the masterpieces of yesteryear will also feature in Cannes Classics, with restored versions of eight feature films. This year, the selection will be taking a detour via Italy to celebrate the birth of the Spaghetti Western and pay tribute to the stellar Sophia Loren.

The Competition will wind its way through the 18 selected feature films, ably assisted by the most experienced of guides: Tommy Lee Jones, Mike Leigh, the Dardenne brothers and, this year’s elder statesman, Jean-Luc Godard. They will be joined by a host of new talents such as the Italian Alice Rohrwacher, discovered in 2011 in the Directors’ Fortnight, Damian Szifron, all the way from Argentina for his first Selection at Cannes, and Xavier Dolan, who at the age of just 25 has already notched up five feature films and two selections for Un Certain Regard.

The journey will culminate at 6.55 p.m. on 24th May with the announcement of the winners. After the prize-giving, the Festival will close with one final exceptional screening: a homage to Sergio Leone in the form of a restored copy of A Fistful of Dollars, presented by one of his greatest admirers, and a master in his own right, Quentin Tarantino.

Tarik Khaldi