Festivals

In Lamb, a supernatural folktale from first-time director Valdimar Jóhannsson, Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snaer Gudnason star as a childless couple who discover a mysterious newborn creature. A24 picked up the rights for the film's release in the U.

What a year this was! A rich crop with some of the best filmmakers came to the Croisette: Antonioni (L'avventura), Fellini (La Dolce Vita), Carlos Saura (Los golfos), Minelli (Home From the Hill), Jules Dassin (Never on Sunday), Buñuel (The Young One), Bergman (The Virgin Spring), Roberto Farias (A cidade ameaçada) - and Peter Brook, with Seven Days.

Actor-director Sean Penn, a multiple Golden Globe nominee and winner (Mystic River), returns to the Cannes Film Festival this year with his latest directorial effort, Flag Day, starring his daughter, Dylan Penn, and Josh Brolin, among others. The movie played in the Main Competition, where several of Penn's previous films had appeared, including The Pledge in 2001 and The Last Face in 2016.

Paul Verhoeven, the octogenarian (he’s 82) Dutch-born director, remains one of world cinema’s most controversial filmmakers, a status reconfirmed by his latest feature, Benedetta, the most audacious movie to be seen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. As an auteur, he is known for blending ultra-graphic violence and bold sexual contents, laced with a darkly humorous social satire.

Considering the frisson that Paul Verhoeven created with his 2021 Cannes entry, the erotic/religious drama Benedetta, it would be appropriate to recall another shock by the Dutch enfant terrible - Basic Instinct, in competition in 1992. The film had already stirred controversy in the US - it had opened in March -, with critics panning the picture -according to Roger Ebert, "just a worthless scrap with the spaces filled in"- and gay activists loudly protesting the movie with signs saying "Hollywood Promotes Anti-Gay Violence".