Archive Festivals

Cannes Film Festival

2011-05-11 10:31

What: Cannes Film Festival
When 11-22 May 2011
Where: Palais des Festivals and other venues

There was a time when Woody Allen’s particular neurosis was New York, but that time has passed, and now, in the latest of his recent films to be made on this side of the pond, it’s Paris that has its hooks in him: magical, romantic, compelling, alluring – all of that, seen through the eyes of a kind of junior version of himself – Owen Wilson’s Gil, who travels to the French capital with his fiancée and falls in love with a city.

And if that sounds a little too cloying, be prepared for this new film which is all set to open the Cannes Film Festival. For Woody Allen, love stories are never simple rom-com romps: there’s a pervasive tragic note which finds real depth in the cityscapes, the mood of the lighting and the soundtrack – as well as the human hesitancy and hopelessness which is his hallmark.

As so often in Allen's films it's art that forms the backdrop to human dilemmas, and here it does so literally, in the form of beautiful cinematography that deliberately evokes the legacy of the French Impressionists.




^{Starry, starry night. Owen Wilson in Woody Allen's new venture}

But whatever the human dimension, this latest in the director's astonishing output is above all a paean to the aesthetic and the romance of the French capital - and appropriately enough it has as one of its many stars Carla Bruni, the First Lady of the Republic, playing the director of the Rodin Museum.

Midnight in Paris will be shown at the Grand Théâtre Lumière on 11 May 2001



The Cannes Film Festival

Robert De Niro will be the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry will head the jury for the short film competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival. South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho has been announced as the head of the jury for the Caméra d'Or prize, which is awarded to the best first-time filmmaker.



_{On the set of Midnight in Paris}

For much more on the Festival itself, including the best of the films selected for competition visit the official website.  Or follow these links to read more about the 2010 winning film and two British movies shown at last year's Festival Mike Leigh's Another Year, and Stephen Freares's Tamara Drewe.