Fernando Meirelles‘
Blindness will open the
Cannes Film Festival and will join the Competition line-up, it was confirmed today.
The film, about a city hit with a plague causing most of the population to go blind, was adapted by
Don McKellar from the novel by
Jose Saramago.
The cast is led by
Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and
Gael Garcia Bernal.
Last week, when the official line up was announced, many industry observers questioned why ‘Blindness’ had not been included.
Cannes has added two other titles to the
Competition:
–
Laurent Cantet‘s ‘
Entre Les Murs‘, based on the book by
Francois Begaudeau, is the third French film in competition promised by Fremaux last Wednesday,
–
James Gray‘s ‘
Two Lovers‘, starring
Joaquin Phoenix and
Gwyneth Paltrow.
‘Two Lovers’ is NYC romantic drama toplines Joaquin Phoenix as an aspiring photographer and Gwyneth Paltrow as the attractive girl next door.
The main competition jury has added two members – French actress
Jeanne Balibar (“Va savoir”) and Iranian author-director
Marjane Satrapi – under the presidency of
Sean Penn.
Satrapi took the Jury Prize at Cannes last year for her ‘
Persepolis‘.
Finally, the festival announced that
Barry Levinson‘s ‘
What Just Happened?‘ will be the event’s closing night film.
Updated competition line-up (22 films)
Laurent Cantet –
Entre Les Murs (France)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan –
Three Monkeys (Turkey-France-Italy)
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne –
Le Silence De Lorna (Belgium-France-Italy-Germany)
Arnaud Desplechin –
A Christmas Story (France)
Clint Eastwood –
Changeling (US)
Atom Egoyan –
Adoration (Canada)
Ari Folman –
Waltz With Bashir ( Israel-France-Germany )
Philippe Garrel –
La Frontiere De L’Aube ( France )
Matteo Garrone –
Gomorra ( Italy )
James Gray –
Two Lovers (US)
Charlie Kaufman –
Synecdoche, New York (US)
Eric Khoo –
My Magic (Singapore)
Lucretia Martel –
La Mujer Sin Cabeza (Argentina-Spain)
Brillante Mendoza –
Serbis (The Philippines)
Fernando Meirelles –
Blindness (Brazil)
Kornel Mondruczo –
Delta (Hungary-Germany)
Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas –
Linha De Passe (Brazil)
Paolo Sorrentino –
Il Divo (Italy)
Pablo Trapero –
Leonera (Argentina-South Korea)
Wim Wenders –
The Palermo Shooting (Germany-Italy)
Jia Zhangke –
24 City (China )
Steven Soderbergh –
Che (US-Spain-France)
