It's Just Movies

— by RACHEL COYNE —

If you’re lucky enough to live in France and have an “in” with the movie biz, then May 12 to 23 will be a very exciting time for you. For the rest of us, we’ll have to be satisfied to check out the recently-released list of features playing at the Cannes Film Festival and start loading up our Netflix queues.

Cannes makes it a point to celebrate international filmmaking, and 2010 is no exception as there are few American movies playing and entries from two countries never before featured (Chad and the Ukraine, if you’re curious). Only one American movie is playing for competition — the political thriller “Fair Game” starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn — and the festival’s big opener will be the somewhat odd choice of Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” (starring Russell Crowe).

Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” and Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” will also screen at Cannes, as will “Blue Valentine,” which garnered a lot of positive feedback when it premiered at Sundance back in January. The Spanish drama “Biutiful,” starring Javier Bardem, will play for competition, as will the Juliette Binoche drama from Italy and France, “Certified Copy.”

For a full list of the Cannes Film Festival lineup, check out the list below. It’s like a foreign film nerd’s nirvana.

OPENER
“Robin Hood,” U.S.-U.K., Ridley Scott

COMPETITION
“Another Year,” U.K., Mike Leigh
“Biutiful,” Spain-Mexico, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
“Burnt by the Sun 2,” Germany-France-Russia, Nikita Mikhalkov
“Certified Copy,” France-Italy-Iran, Abbas Kiarostami
“Fair Game,” U.S., Doug Liman
“Hors-la-loi,” France-Belgium-Algeria, Rachid Bouchareb
“The Housemaid,” South Korea, Im Sang-soo
“La nostra vita,” Italy-France, Daniele Luchetti
“La Princesse de Montpensier,” France, Bertrand Tavernier
“Of Gods and Men,” France, Xavier Beauvois
“Outrage,” Japan, Takeshi Kitano
“Poetry,” South Korea, Lee Chang-dong
“A Screaming Man,” France-Belgium-Chad, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
“Tournee,” France, Mathieu Amalric
“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” Spain-Thailand-Germany-
U.K.-France, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
“You, My Joy,” Ukraine-Germany, Sergey Loznitsa

UN CERTAIN REGARD
“Adrienn Pal,” Hungary-Netherlands-France-Austria, Agnes Kocsis
“Aurora,” Romania, Cristi Puiu
“Blue Valentine,” U.S., Derek Cianfrance
“Chatroom,” U.K., Hideo Nakata
“Chongqing Blues,” China, Wang Xiaoshuai
“The City Below,” Germany-France, Christoph Hochhausler
“Film Socialisme,” Switzerland-France, Jean-Luc Godard
“Ha Ha Ha,” South Korea, Hong Sang-soo
“Les Amours imaginaires,” Canada, Xavier Dolan
“Life Above All,” France, Oliver Schmitz
“Los labios,” Argentina, Ivan Fund, Santiago Loza
“Octubre,” Peru, Daniel Vega
“Qu’est-il arrive a Simon Werner?,” France, Fabrice Gobert
“Rebecca H.,” France, Lodge Kerrigan
“R U There,” Taiwan, David Verbeek
“The Strange Case of Angelica,” Portugal, Manoel de Oliveira
“Tuesday, After Christmas,” Romania, Radu Muntean
“Udaan,” India, Vikramaditya Motwane

OUT OF COMPETITION
“Tamara Drewe,” U.K., Stephen Frears
“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” U.S., Oliver Stone
“You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” U.K.-Spain, Woody Allen

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
“Kaboom,” U.S.-France, Gregg Araki
“L’autre monde,” France, Gilles Marchand

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
“Abel,” Mexico, Diego Luna
“Chantrapas,” France, Otar Iosseliani
“Draquila — L’Italia che trema,” Italy, Sabina Guzzanti
“Inside Job,” U.S., Charles Ferguson
“Nostalgia de la luz,” France, Patricio Guzman
“Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow,” Netherlands, Sophie Fiennes

COMPETITION JURY
Tim Burton, president
Alberto Barbera
Kate Beckinsale
Emmanuel Carre
Benicio Del Toro
Victor Erice
Shekhar Kapur
Giovanna Mezzogiorno

. . .

Follow Rachel Coyne on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TheOpinionatedB.