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16 Films Everyone Will Be Talking About at Cannes

Everyone at Cannes will be talking about Greece, the volcano, the Weinstens, Bob Berney, 3-D, digital distribution, what Charlotte Gainsbourg is wearing — and also films. Which ones are we most excited to start in on? And what questions will everyone be asking about them? We take a look at sixteen movies and the discussions they should inspire.

This year’s Che — or the terrorism film we’ve all been waiting for? In a five-hour-and-thirty-minute narrative intended for television, Olivier Assayas (Demonlover, Summer Hours) tackles the wild life of terrorist Carlos the Jackal, whose story encapsulates many political issues that we face today. As such, it seems like a natural winner — but Assayas has never attempted anything like this before. And the recent glut of ripped-from-the-headlines terrorism tales will make it hard for this one to find an audience.
Is this the fi-cri doc people will actually want to see? Charles Ferguson’s No End in Sight may be the finest film made on the war in Iraq. With stellar access, he managed to document the dizzying complexity of our administration’s bungling without oversimplifying it. But can he do the same with the financial crisis? If there’s any way to make credit-default swaps intelligible, Ferguson’s the one to pull it off.
Can Iñárritu stage a comeback? In producer Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest film, Javier Bardem stars as a petty crook who’s confronted by a childhood friend. It doesn’t sound much less grim than the much-hyped and eventually disappointing miserablia of Babel or 21 Grams. Still, it is his first Spanish-language film since his breakthrough Amores Perros — and Bardem has been on a roll.
Will this be the great Iraq film? One of these Iraq-war dramas has to click, right? This last-minute addition to the competition lineup follows a private-security contractor who investigates the cover-up of a friend’s death. It has this going for it: it was directed by Cannes king Ken Loach, whose 2006 film Wind That Shakes the Barley took home the Palmes d’Or.
Nikita Mikhalkov’s folly? Or misunderstood genius? Nikita Mikhalkov’s epic, $55 million Russian war film already appears to be flopping in Russia, with tepid reviews and a lack of popular enthusiasm. A great reception here could save Mikhalkov’s good name — but will critics buy it?
Is Jean Luc-Godard the hippest guy in town? Plenty of young directors are tackling technology and globalization at this year’s festival, but the 79-year-old Jean-Luc Godard has already delivered the fest’s most creative, web-friendly trailer: a four-minute distillation of this film. The trailers (and his wildly poetic press kit) have some excitedly saying that Godard isn’t just aiming for a return to form, but a rebirth.
16 Films Everyone Will Be Talking About at Cannes