The Cannes film festival has added nine further films to its line-up, taking the total of films in competition to 19 – and meaning there is no British film competing for the Palme d’Or for the first time since 2008.
Gaspar Noé’s Love – described as “a sexual melodrama about a boy and a girl and another girl” – is the most high profile title; however, it has been given a non-competitive Midnight Screening slot, alongside Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse documentary.
The two films added to the official competition are Cronic, from Mexican director Michel Franco, and The Valley of Love by Guillaume Nicloux. The former stars Tim Roth in a story about a palliative care nurse attempting to reconnect with his family, while the latter features Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert as two actors who reunite after their son dies.
Five films have been added to the Un Certain Regard section: among them are former Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendour, a study of a lonely middle-aged woman who begins to hallucinate; Yared Zeleke’s Lamb, the first Ethiopian film selected for the Cannes line-up; and Taklub from Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, about the aftermath of the destructive typhoon Yolanda.
The veteran French director Robert Guédiguian has been given a special screening, out-of-competition slot, for Une Histoire de Fou (Don’t Tell Me the Boy was Mad), about an Armenian youth who blows up the Turkish ambassador to France.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux had hinted that British hopes High Rise and Sunset Song may be given a festival berth, but that has not proved to be the case as yet. The Cannes closing film is yet to be announced.
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