'Zodiac,' 'Death Proof' Lead Cannes Slate

The Coens, Michael Moore and Brad Pitt will all find their ways to Cannes

Zap2It.com

April 20, 2007

Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Zodiac'

American films dominate the competition slate for the 60th Cannes Film Festival.

Announced Thursday (April 19), the Cannes Film Festival will open with director Wong Kar Wai's first English-language feature, the star-studded "My Blueberry Nights," which features Jude Law and Norah Jones.

The rest of the 22-film competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or will feature a slew of high profile American films, including David Fincher's "Zodiac," which has mostly completed its domestic run, and an extended version of Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," the "Pulp Fiction" director's segment of the financially disappointing "Grindhouse" bill. Previous Palme d'Or winners Gus Van Sant ("Elephant") and the Coen Brothers ("Barton Fink") will unspool their latest offerings, "Paranoid Park" and "No Country for Old Men." James Gray's "We Own the Night" will also be in competition, along with Majane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Persepolis," which is a French-American co-production.

On the foreign side, competition entries include previous Palme D'Or winner Emir Kusturica's "Promise Me This," as well as Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Alexander Sokurov's "Alexandra," "Audrey Zvyagintsev's "The Banishment," Kim Ki-duk's "Breath," Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and Butterfly," Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven," Naomi Kawase's "The Forest of Mogari," Ulrich Seidl's "Import/Export," Christophe Honore's "Les Chansons d'amour," Bela Tarr's "The Man From London," Lee Chang-dong's "Secret Sunshine," Carlos Reygadas' "Silent Light," Raphael Nadjari's "Tahilim," and Catherine Breillat's "Une vielle maitresse."

The Festival has already set up a slew of midnight and out-of-competition screenings to boost the overall starpower. Gala screenings of Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Thirteen," Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart" and Michael Moore's long awaited "Sicko" will bring crowds to the red carpet. There will also be midnight screenings of "Boarding Gate" and "Go Go Tales" from Cannes favorites Olivier Assayas and Abel Ferrara, as well as the concert film "U2 3D" from Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington.

The 60th Anniversary Cannes Film Festival runs between May 16-27. The jury will be led this year by Stephen Frears.