Cannes has drawn its final curtain on this year’s festivities, but the stories from the world-renowned festival are still making it across the Atlantic. Today we’ve got details on new projects from two of the world’s most visually striking, contemporary filmmakers.
First off, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest feature The Skin I Live In, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Fest (an award that ultimately went to Terrence Malick’s long-awaited The Tree of Life), whetted appetites for many to hear what Almodóvar has lined up next. We’ve previously reported that the always-interesting auteur has a biopic of Italian pop star Mina in the works, but Almodóvar got tongues wagging by admitting to indieWire that he’s developing an English-language feature, saying:
“I have a few different projects right now and one of them is in English – for the first time,” he said. “It’s based on a story and it’s pretty far along actually, but I don’t want to talk about it too much right now because everyone will keep asking me about it…”
While some are shocked that the Spanish director would branch out into English, I feel he’s got a comfort zone there, in that several of his favorite collaborators have broken down the Spanish-English language barrier with great success (Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz for example.) Of course there are no details on this particular project at this time, so casting comments are utter speculation. Regardless, I’m curious to see what Almodóvar has in store for his English-language debut.
In other news, French director Michel Gondry, best-known Stateside for helming the bittersweet romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is looking to return to his native tongue to work with one of France’s brightest stars, Audrey Tautou. Gondry spoke with The New York Times while serving as a judge on the Cannes shorts jury. While most of the interview focuses on Gondry’s distaste for competition (and thereby the irony of him being a judge), the surrealist director confessed:
“I have a little Bolex camera,” he said. “You crank to rewind it, and you shoot film – 16 millimeter. I’m doing a lot of short film in different subject. When I wanted to convince an actress to be part of my next project, I did an animation of me asking her with flowers and things, and flying, and sky.”
The Times explains this actress was none other than Tautou, who has agreed to star in a Gondry’s “next big feature, a French-language movie.” No other details on the film are available at present, and it may stew for sometime as Gondry is currently working on an animated documentary about noted philosopher Noam Chomsky. In the meantime, audiences can look for Tautou in the French mystery Des vents contraires and La delicatesse, a romance based on David Foenkinos’ novel.
The Skin I Live In is likely to hit the U.S. this fall at the New York Film Festival, while Gondry’s Chomsky doc isn’t expected until 2013.
Are you intrigued by Almodóvar’s linguistic leap? What do you make of the proposed Tautou-Gondry collaboration?