Trailerama: Vengeance

The team-up of French icon Johnny Hallyday and HK workhorse Johnnie To is certainly inspired. Too bad the same can’t be said of Hallyday’s monotone line readings. He’s out in the East to avenge the death of daughter Sylvie Testud. The reaction to Hallyday’s claim that he’s a chef is pretty priceless and there looks to be at least one memorable To set piece.

Trailerama: Karaoke

Chris Chong Chan Fui’s film is the first Malaysian feature to play the Cannes Film Festival since 1995. It’s hard to tell what it’s about from the trailer, but the theme of a Malaysian paradise succumbing to industrialisation is certainly there and there’s a Weerasethakul vibe to it. Karaoke itself is usually a symbol for dreams that never make it out of the bar. We await with interest.

Trailerama: Carcasses

Quebecois filmmaker Denis Côté’s latest documentary looks at an unusual Steptoe-like figure. Jean-Paul Colmor runs a used car scrapheap. Light is shed on his situation when several people with developmental disabilities are introduced into Colmor’s world.

Blogger’s Imagination Fails at Un Certain Regard Line-Up

Here’s the complete line-up for the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. The list is taken from Screen International‘s coverage.

Bong Joon Ho – Mother

Alain Cavalier – Irene

Lee Daniels – Precious

Denis Dercourt- Demain Des L’Aube

Heitor Dhalia – Adrift

Bahman Ghobadi – Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats

Ciro Guerra – The Wind Journeys

Mia Hansen-Love – Le Pere De Mes Enfants

Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Propescu and Ioanna Uricaru – Tales From The Golden Age

Nikolay Khomeriki – Tale In The Darkness

Yorgos Lanthimos – Dogtooth

Pavel Lounguine – Tzar

Raya Martin – Independencia

Corneliu Porumboiu – Police, Adjective

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang – Nymph

Joao Pedro Rodrigues – To Die Like A Man

Haim Tabakman – Eyes Wide Open

Warwick Thornton – Samson & Delilah

Jean Van De Velde – The Silent Army

Hirokazu Kore-Eda – Air Doll

Blogger Unable to Put Funny Spin on Cannes Line-up

Here’s the line-up for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, cribbed from Screen International. The festival runs from May 13 to May 24.

• Pedro Almodovar – Broken Embraces
• Andrea Arnold – Fish Tank
• Jacques Audiard – Un Prophete
• Marco Bellocchio – Vincere
• Jane Campion – Bright Star
• Xavier Giannoli – A L’Origine
• Isabel Coixet – Map of the Sounds of Tokyo
• Michael Haneke – The White Ribbon
• Ang Lee – Taking Woodstock
• Ken Loach – Looking for Eric
• Lou Ye – Spring Fever
• Brillante Mendoza – Kinatay
• Gaspar Noe – Enter The Void
• Park Chan-Wook – Thirst
• Alain Resnais – Les Herbes Folles
• Elia Suleiman – The Time That Remains
• Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
• Johnnie To – Vengeance
• Tsai Ming-liang – Face
• Lars Von Trier – Antichrist

Trailerama: Chaque jour est une fete (Every Day is a Holiday)

Three women with very different backgrounds set out to visit their imprisoned husbands. The jailbound bus breaks down after being hit by a strange bullet. With its journey framework and setting in the Lebanese desert (during Independence Day) no less, this could be another jerry-rigged issues lecture like Babel. What redeems Dima El-Horr’s debut feature is the sudden expressionistic turn it appears to take. El-Horr co-wrote the script with Rabih Mroue, an actor who has appeared in films like Ramad and Autour de la maison rose. With Manal Khader, Hiam Abbass, Raïa Haïdar.

Trailerama: Independencia

In 24-year-old director Raya Martin’s new film, a Filipino family bristle beneath the colonial yoke, so they make their way from city to country. Trouble comes mostly in the form of American oppression. It’s hard to shake. The tale is rendered in the style of a silent melodrama, with patently artificial sets, make-up and theatrical acting challenging official modes of representation. Due to screen at the Cannes Film Festival.

Trailerama: Singularidades de Uma Rapariga Loura (Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl)

It’s love at first sight for the young man who sees the blonde across the way. Does that mean their love can work? Now 100, Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira takes the long view. Based on a short story by Eca de Queiroz.

Adventures in Auteurism: Shot in the Back of the Head

The good news is David Lynch directed this animated music video for Moby. The bad news is Moby is a cock.

Trailerama: C’est déja l’été

Start your day off wrong with this trailer from Dutch filmmaker Martijn Maria Smits. The unrelentingly grim portrait of life in the Low Countries takes the Dardennes on at their own handheld camera game. Squally wonders whether these kind of films celebrate their subjets or are just terrified of them, but there’s no doubt that the grubby stunt is carried off with panache.