David Cronenberg deconstructs Hollywood, Tommy Lee Jones goes Western, and reclusive New Wave legend Jean-Luc Godard returns in 3D in films competing for top honours at next month's Cannes Film Festival.
Organisers of the ritzy Riviera festival, which is famed for its red-carpet glamour, announced the much-heralded line-up on Thursday for the May 14-25 event, including 18 that will films vie for the top prize, the Palme d'Or.
Cannes organisers insist the films are chosen based on the art. But some themes in this year's crop are unmistakable: based-on-real-life stories of Olympic wrestlers, fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and British painter J.M.W. Turner; themes of solitude, or the Old West; daily life in northern Mali under jihadist control or in today's Russia.
Aside from Godard and Cronenberg, several other Cannes veterans are back, including Britain's Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and Belgium's Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne - who will be angling for their third Palme d'Or. Michel Hazanavicius, the French director of the Oscar-winning silent film The Artist, also returns.
Films by two women - Naomi Kawase of Japan and Alice Rohrwacher of Italy - are also in the running. Event organisers have faced recent criticism for not selecting more films by female directors.
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But Cannes is about far more than just competition for the top award. Some 49 feature-length films from 28 countries - including 15 by female directors - and many short films will be shown at the 11-day cinema extravaganza.
"It is important for us that the Cannes selection is a voyage through cinema and the world," Director-General Thierry Fremaux said. "You can find in the official selection a lot of ... big names, but also young, new directors."
He noted that while some films have funny moments, no full-blown comedies are in the competition.
Director Jane Campion, the only woman to win the Palme d'Or, is leading this year's festival jury.
The festival will open with the out-of-competition biopic Grace of Monaco, starring Australia's Nicole Kidman and directed by Olivier Dahan.
In the Palme d'Or chase, Cronenberg's Maps To The Stars takes aim at today's media-crazed society, while Jones directs and acts in The Homesman alongside Hilary Swank. The film is about a man charged with escorting people through the Old West.
Famed Swiss director Godard, who has never won a Palme d'Or and last competed for it in 2001, will present Adieu Au Language (Goodbye To Language), a film described only cryptically by Cannes organisers.
"I'm not going to tell you much, but it's a film that's impossible to summarise. It's an act of cinema, it's a poem, it's a cry or it's a sigh," Fremaux told France-Info radio. "It is in relief, it's in 3D. Jean-Luc Godard doesn't stop being modern."
Canadian actor Ryan Gosling makes his directorial debut among 19 films competing for the Un Certain Regard prize, which is presented a day before the Palme d'Or to honour up-and-coming or innovative filmmakers.
Gosling's Lost River, starring Christina Hendricks, will be up against films from Italy's Asia Argento, France's Mathieu Amalric and Germany's Wim Wenders.
Adding to the international tilt, Chinese actress Gong Li returns to the Cannes red carpet in Zhang Yimou's Coming Home, screening out of competition.
This year's Cannes poster features a black-and-white photo of the late Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, a conscious choice of a male after criticism that past posters featuring women had unfairly objectified them, Fremaux said.
Last year, in a first, the Palme d'Or was shared by two actresses for Blue is the Warmest Colour along with its director.
