The Five – Cannes Films To Keep An Eye On

If it’s mid-May, it means it Cannes Film Festival time. This year’s line-up includes entries from veteran auteurs like Terrance Malick, Pedro Almodovar and Takashi Miike as well as emerging talent like Nicolas Winding Refn and Lars von Trier.

Also screening Out of Competition are Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Jodie Foster’s The Beaver and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, which has been getting some good reviews.

Which movie will Jury President Robert de Niro announce as the winner of the Palme d’Ore (the equivalent of Best Picture) on May 22nd? The jury also includes Uma Thurman and Jude Law among notable names. We take a look at five movies that are in the hunt and will be hitting American theaters soon.

Drive – Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Refn follows up last year’s Valhalla Rising with the story of a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a robbery getaway car driver. Ryan Gosling stars as the driver who crosses paths with Carey Mulligan and things go awry from there. Co-starring Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and Albert Brooks, Drive is a tense, well-acted action movie. Check out the official Cannes clip below. Drive is in theaters September 23rd.

Ichimei (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) – Directed by Takashi Miike

Director of more than 80 films in the past 20 years, Miike follows up his recent 13 Assassins with Ichimei, an adaptation of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 drama about a samurai who kneels before the lord of a local house and recounts the twisted saga (this is a Takashi Miike film, after all) that led him to commit Hara-Kiri. This will also be Miike’s first venture into the 3D world and one can only imagine what the auteur is going to do with the technology. Check out the teaser trailer below. Ichimei releases in Japan on October 8th, so look for it to arrive in American theaters early 2012.

La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In) – Directed by Pedro Almodovar

The four-time nominated Almodovar reunites with Antonio Banderas in an adaptation of Theirry Jonquet’s novel Mygale. The revenge tale about a plastic surgeon on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter co-stars Elena Anaya. Skin comes to American theaters in limited release on November 18th.

Melancholia – Directed by Lars von Trier

A former Plame d’Or winner for Dancer in the Dark and a 9-time nominee, von Trier has to be considered the odds-on favorite. The Danish director returns with the story of two sisters who’s relationship is strained during Earth’s impending collision with another planet. Kirsten Dunst gives a stirring performance that is sure to leave Cannes audiences buzzing. Melancholia arrives in theaters November 4th.

The Tree of Life – Directed by Terrence Malick

Two-time Oscar winner Malick returns to Southern France for his first screening since 1979’s Days of Heaven (for which he won Best Director). Tree stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain in a haunting story of a family with three boys in the 1950s. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and looks back on what his parents taught him – his father encouraging him to be tough and competitive while his mother encouraged gentleness, love and compassion. The eldest son seems to struggle with which of these is the best way to live. Tree arrives in theaters May 27th in limited release.