2009 Cannes Out of Competition

These are the films listed by the official Cannes site as part of the Official Selection in the Out of Competition section.

Out of Competition

Opening Film: UP, Peter Docter and Bob Peterson, USA, 2009 IMDb
From Disney•Pixar comes UP, a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. From the Academy Award®-nominated director Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”), Disney•Pixar’s UP invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth.

Closing Film: Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, Jan Kounen, France, 2009 (oh! yes I’ve reading about the two French Coco films and this is the one that really calls my attention.) IMDb Movie Site English Info Scenes from Movie
Paris 1913, Coco Chanel is devoted to her work and madly in love with the handsome and very wealthy Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel. At the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Igor Stravinsky premieres his Rite of Spring. Coco attends the premiere and is mesmerised. But the revolutionary work is too modern, too radical: the enraged audience boos and jeers. A near-riot ensues. Stravinsky is inconsolable. 7 years later. Now rich, respected and successful, Coco is devastated by Boy Capel’s death. She meets Stravinsky again – now a penniless refugee living in exile in Paris after the Russian Revolution, The attraction between them is immediate and electric. Coco offers Stravinsky the use of her new villa in Garches, so that he will be able to work, and he moves in straight away, with his children and consumptive wife. And so a passionate, intense love affair between two creative giants begins…

Agora, Alejandro Amenábar, Spain, 2009 (yes is the epic film with Rachel Weisz as Hypatia) IMDb Movie Info
IV century… Egypt under the Roman Empire… Violent religious upheaval in the streets of Alexandria spills over into the city’s legendary Library. Trapped within its walls, the brilliant astronomer, Hypatia, fights, with the help of her disciples, to save the wisdom of the Ancient World… Among those disciples, the two men who are fighting for her heart: the witty, privileged Orestes and Davus, Hypatia’s young slave who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians.

L'Armée du Crime (The Army of Crime), Robert Guédiguian, France, 2009 (with Virginie Ledoyen, oui-oui!) IMDb
Paris, 1941. The poet Missak Manouchian leads a mixed bag of youngsters and émigrés in a clandestine battle against the Nazi occupation. Twenty-two men and one woman fighting for an ideal and for freedom. News of their daring attacks, including the assassination of an SS General, eventually reaches Berlin. Under the orders of the Gestapo, French police and collaborators hound Manouchian and his Résistants until, to escape torture, one of their associates denounces the whole group. After a show trial, the twenty-three heroes are brought to face a firing squad…

Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimini, USA, 2009 (no way I’ll see this one) IMDb
An original tale of a young woman’s desperate quest to escape an evil curse. Christine Brown is an ambitious L.A. loan officer with a charming boyfriend. Life is good until the mysterious Mrs. Ganush arrives at the bank to beg for an extension on her home loan. Should Christine follow her instincts and give the old woman a break? Or should she deny the extension to impress her boss and get a leg-up on a promotion? Christine chooses the later, dispossessing Mrs. Ganush of her home. In retaliation, the old woman places the curse of the Lamia upon Christine, transforming her life into a living nightmare. Haunted by an evil spirit and misunderstood by a skeptical boyfriend, she seeks the aid of seer Rham Jas to save her soul from eternal damnation. To help the shattered Christine, the psychic sets her on a frantic course to reverse the spell. As evil forces close in, Christine must face the unthinkable: how far will she go to break free of the curse?

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam, France and Canada, 2009 (A must be seen as Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law play Tony that was filmed with Heath Ledger until his death – wow!) IMDb Movie Blog Movie Site
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present-day. Dr. Parnassus with his extraordinary traveling show "The Imaginarium" offers to members of the audience an irresistible opportunity to enter their universe of imaginations and wonders, by passing through a magical mirror. But Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. An inveterate gambler, thousands of years ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, in which he won immortality. Centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his daughter reached her 16th birthday, she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Now it is time to pay the price... In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr. Parnassus must fight to save his daughter and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all!

Ne Te Retourne Pas, Marina de Van, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy, 2009 (Wow, with Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau!!! You have to check the pics in the movie site! ) IMDb allocine Movie Site Trailers
Jeanne (Sophie Marceau) - a writer, married, with two children - starts to see unsettling changes in her home. Her body is beginning to change. No one around her seems to notice. Her family dismisses these fears as the result of the stress of having to finish her next book, but Jeanne realizes that something far deeper, far more disturbing is taking place. A photograph at her mother’s house sends her in search of a woman in Italy. Here, transformed into another woman (Monica Belluci), Jeanne will discover the strange secret of her true identity.

Panique au Village (A Town Called Panic), Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, 2009 (1st film) (Animation and is a full feature, IMDb data is wrong) allocine Official Blog Movie Site
Animated plastic toys like Cowboy, Indian and Horse have problems, too. Cowboy and Indian's plan to surprise Horse with a homemade birthday gift backfires when they destroy his house instead. Surreal adventures take over as the trio travel to the center of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe where pointy-headed (and dishonest!) creatures live. Each speedy character is voiced -- and animated -- as if their very air contains both amphetamines and laughing gas. With panic a permanent feature of life in this papier mâché town, will Horse and his girlfriend ever be alone?


To read more about the films in this section please go here.