Everyone is waiting for Martin Scorsese, lord of a weekend in which Cannes celebrates itself: here he won the Palme d'Or for Taxi Driver in '76, here he returned as a winner of the directing award 10 years later with After Hours. But the program of the day sees, symbolically in the race, the only debutant of the competition and the return of a master of American cinema like Todd Haynes.
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Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Lily Gladstone, Jason Isbell. Out of competition. Flurry of suspicious deaths in Oklahoma in the '20s in full hunt for black gold. Oil is tempting to too many and the dead are all landowners. Interweaving history and noir, on the tracks of David Grann's novel and with Erich Roth to script with him, Scorsese finds his favorite themes with two protagonists who mark his career.
-May December by Todd Haynes with Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton. In competition. Two women in comparison, two lives and two eras. The youngest is the actress who will have to play the other in a film based on the scandalous life of the woman who left behind the past. Todd Haynes embroiders on two solitudes, on life and fiction, on memory and stardom.
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Banel and Adama of Ramata-Toulaie Sy with Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy. In competition. This love story comes from the depths of Senegal destined to clash with the prejudices and iron laws of the community. It is the only first feature in competition and raises the attention for an African cinema that is now knocking on the door.
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Retratos Fantasmas by Kleber Mendonça Filho. Out of competition. Imaginary and real cartography of a city, Recife, told through the filter of cinema, the idea of the cinema as a place of encounter and memory, the place where memories, archive films, places and objects that link past and present are confused.
-Only the River Flows by Wei Sujun with Yilong Zhu, Zeng Meihuizi, Tianlai Hou. Un Certain Regard. The police chief of the town of Banpo in China in the 90s investigates three suspicious murders that no one can come up with. Between confused testimonies, feelings of guilt and unspeakable discoveries, the investigation becomes for the investigator Ma a personal fact.
-Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani with Siran Riak, Ger Duany, Eiman Yousif. Un Certain Regard. It is not evident to see a film that reproduces the recent history and current affairs of Sudan split into two now independent nations. And this is what this story shows instead centered on the guilt complex of a popular singer from the North who unintentionally caused the death of a man from the South. To find peace, he hires the widow as a servant...
-Riddle of Fire by Weston Razoli with Lio Tipton, Charles Halford, Charlie Stover. Directors' Fortnight. A black fairy tale set in the forests of Wyoming with kids as protagonists. While the children experience an unexpected freedom, poachers do not stop cheating the forest ranger and there is even an unusual elven presence. First work destined to surprise.
-Creature of and with Elena Martin Gimeno and with Clàudia Dalmau, Clàudia Borràs. Directors' Fortnight. Mila disembarks at her family's beach house with her partner. But the scent of the Costa Brava, the landscapes of her adolescence make Mila's memories explode and lay bare her ghosts.
-Le Ravissement by Iris Kaltenbäck with Hafsia Herzi, Alexis Manenti, Nina Meurisse. Semaine de la Critique. On the verge of a romantic crisis with her partner, Lydia is asked by her best friend to assist her with the birth of her baby. The blow to the heart, however, will come to Lydia when she finds Milos, the love of an evening, with Salome's baby in his arms. From that moment on, Lydia gets into a series of lies that will make her risk losing everything and everyone.