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The Traveler Has Come: Huppert Shines in Latest Collaboration with Sang-soo

There are few directors who seem to rightly channel the comic side of Isabelle Huppert’s unique strangeness than the perennial Hong Sang-soo. Having worked together on the lovely In Another Country (2012), in which she stars as a quartet of different foreign women in South Korea, and the slight lark Claire’s Camera (2017), they’ve united once again for an equally delicate venture, A Traveler’s Needs. Once again, Huppert is a stranger in a strange land as a woman who has her own unique way of teaching French to a growing clientele of Korean women and enjoys having a few drinks.…...

For his first feature of two features this year, Hongsangsoo made a long-awaited reunion with Isabelle Huppert. Following In Another Country and Claire’s Camera, the duo teamed up again for A Traveler’s Needs, one of the prolific director’s best in years. Winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlinale, Cinema Guild will now release the film on November 22 beginning at Film at Lincoln Center and the new trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “A comedy of improbable encounters and unlikely language lessons, A Traveler’s Needs marks the third collaboration between Hong and Huppert (following 2012’s In Another Country and 2017’s Claire’s Camera). This time Huppert plays Iris, a woman who finds herself adrift in Seoul and without any means to make ends meet, turns to teaching French via a très peculiar method. Through a series of encounters, as we grow to know more about Iris and her situation,...

The fizzy, milky Korean rice wine makgeolli is as much a main character as Isabelle Huppert in Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo‘s third collaboration with the iconic French actress. In fact, her character in “A Traveler’s Needs” can’t make it through the day without having at least a few glasses.

“A Traveler’s Needs” stars César winner Huppert as a tourist drifting through Seoul who, with no money of her own and only a few jaunty sunhats and colorful cardigans, takes to teaching French to the locals to pay her room and board. But her unorthodox approach both alienates and entrances those around her in the latest delicate comedy from Hong, where characters booze and smoke their way through their ennui without ever succumbing to soul-crushing misanthropy. Watch the trailer for “A Traveler’s Needs,” an IndieWire exclusive, below.

Here’s the official synopsis: “A comedy of improbable encounters and unlikely language lessons,...

Tilda Swinton facing life and death, Saoirse Ronan searching wartime London and Pablo Larraín retelling a grand diva’s last days are just a few of this year’s must-sees

It’s one of the most intriguing director-star pairings in world cinema: Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo and French icon Isabelle Huppert. This is their third film together, after In Another Country (from 2012) and Claire’s Camera, six years later; it is another witty, elusive, airy vignette, talky and musingly cerebral in the manner of Rohmer or Resnais. Huppert is a woman in Seoul making a living teaching French and perplexing her students (and the audience) with the question of who she is and what she is doing there.

Isabelle Huppert joked that the 13-day shoot of Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs was “a super-production” by the Korean filmmaker’s usual standards.

The actor and director’s two previous collaborations, Claire’s Camera and In Another Country, took six and nine days to shoot, respectively, she recalled. Huppert was speaking onstage at the New York Film Festival with fest Artistic Director Dennis Lim, about A Traveler’s Needs. The film, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize in Berlin last February, had its North American premiere in New York.

“I love doing it,” Huppert said of Sangsoo’s ultra-minimal productions, whose sets feature only a “tiny” camera, the director, his assistant and the actors. “It says so much about what it means to do a film. … It tells you how the cinema is flexible. It goes from the infinitely big – I was in Heaven’s Gate, for example – and it can be infinitely small.

South Korean sales agency Finecut has closed a raft of distribution deals on Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs, starring Isabelle Huppert, and upcoming horror-thriller Noise.

A Traveler’s Needs premiered in Competition at the Berlinale in February, winning the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, and was recently acquired for North America by Cinema Guild.

The film has now been picked up for Italy (Minerva Pictures), Spain (L’Atalante Cinema), Austria (Filmgarten), Cis (A-one Film), Greece and Cyprus (Ama Films), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Film Europe), Baltics (A-one Films Baltic). In Asia, it has been acquired for Japan (Mimosa Films), Taiwan...

Cinema Guild has acquired North American rights to Hong Sangsoo’s Berlin Silver Bear winner A Traveler’s Needs starring Isabelle Huppert.

‘A Traveler’s Needs’: Berlin Review

Cinema Guild will release the comedy theatrically following its North American festival premiere later this year.

A Traveler’s Needs marks the third collaboration between Hong and Huppert following 2012’s In Another Country and 2017’s Claire’s Camera.

Huppert plays Iris, a woman who finds herself adrift in Seoul and, without any means to make ends meet, turns to teaching French through a peculiar method. Through a series of encounters the mysteries of her circumstances deepen.

Hong Sansoo’s A Traveler’s Needs, starring Isabelle Huppert, has sold North American distribution rights to New York’s Cinema Guild.

The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, winning the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize.

A Traveler’s Needs will premiere in North America later in 2024, after which Cinema Guild will release in theaters. The pic is a comedy with a strong Korean connection, with Huppert playing Iris, a woman struggling in Seoul who turns to teaching French to make ends meet. Regular collaborators Lee Hyeyoung and Kwon Haehyo also feature as Huppert’s student and flirty husband respectively.

Sangsoo and Huppert have collaborated twice before, on 2012 comedy-drama In Another Country and 2017’s Claire’s Camera.

“A Traveler’s Needs hits like a meteorite from another galaxy,” said Cinema Guild President Peter Kelly. “Huppert delivers a beguiling and hilarious performance. Her Iris is a character that only Hong and Huppert,...

Dahomey, a documentary from French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, has won the Golden Bear for best film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.

The multifaceted docu-fictional essay explores the return, in November 2021, of plundered royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.

While taking the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, calling out, “I stand with Palestine!”

Jury president, the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury.

Dahomey is only the second African film to win the top prize at Berlin, following Mark Dornford-May’s...

The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlin International Film Festival kicks off Saturday night, where this year’s jury, headed by 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o, will hand out the coveted Gold and Silver Bears.

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...

Like makgeolli — Korea’s unique fizzy, fermented, cloudy-white rice wine — the films of director Hong Sang-soo are an acquired taste. Fortunately for him, many film programmers at repertory houses and festivals beyond South Korea love the peculiar handmade, improvisational flavor of his work, with its complicated emotional entanglements and near primitive levels of craftsmanship. The last feature of his to premiere at the Berlinale, In Water, wasn’t even in focus, although Hong insists that was deliberate, to reflect the fuzziness of its creatively blocked film director protagonist.

Thankfully, his latest, A Traveler’s Needs, a competitor for the Golden Bear this year, is not only in focus, it’s also rather watchable, even for diehard Hong-skeptics. Partly that’s thanks to the presence of Isabelle Huppert in the lead role (her third collaboration with Hong, after In Another Country and Claire’s Camera), playing Iris, a mysterious Frenchwoman with eccentric habits.

South Korean sales agency Finecut has secured international sales rights to Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs, which stars Isabelle Huppert and is set to premiere in Competition at the Berlinale.

It marks the third collaboration between French actress Huppert and Korean filmmaker Hong after In Another Country, which played in Competition at Cannes 2012, and Claire’s Camera, which was shown in the Special Screenings section of Cannes in 2017.

Announcing its selection for the Berlinale today, artistic director Carlo Chatrian described the film as a “light but piercing take on human relationships”.

It follows a woman, played by Huppert,...

Leading Korean rights sales firm Finecut is to handle the international distribution of “A Traveler’s Needs,” which on Monday was confirmed as debuting in the main competition section of next month’s Berlinale. Remarkably, it is director Hong Sang-soo’s sixth selection for Berlin since 2020.

The picture is also the third time that French acting icon Isabelle Huppert stars in a film by the Korean veteran director, following their previous joint efforts “Claire’s Camera” and “In Another Country.”

A synopsis provided reads: “She came from France. She was playing a child’s recorder in a park. With no means of supporting herself she was advised to teach French. She became a teacher to two women. She likes to lie down on rocks and rely on makkeolli [Korean rice wine] for comfort.” Dialog is a mix of Korean, English and French.

Hong is known for his micro-budget, minimalist drama films that are long on conversation,...

With two features under his belt this year thus far, Hong Sangsoo has embarked shooting his next project. While details are sparse, he’s reportedly reunited with Isabelle Huppert, marking their third collaboration after In Another Country and Claire’s Camera. Don’t be surprised to see it turn up as early as Berlinale next year.

We’re now less than two weeks from the Japanese release of Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live?, which is now confirmed to clock in at 2 hours and 4 minutes. Studio Ghibli has decided to take a marketing approach that only a director like Miyazaki could warrant: by not doing much of any marketing at all, with no images or trailers released in promotion. Miyazaki recently exclaimed some hesitation, revealing, “I wonder if it’ll be okay without publicity. I am beginning to worry […] I’m concerned, that’s all.” With a release on July 14 fast approaching,...

After teaming on In Another Country (2012) and Claire’s Camera (2017) we’ve learned via a key internet sleuth that the two workhorses of actress Isabelle Huppert and Hong Sang-soo are teaming again for their third collaboration. Hong Sang-soo hit Berlinale and Cannes this year with In Water and In Our Day, while Huppert has a load of works that’ll pepper feature A-list fests with the next being Venice/TIFF. It’s next to impossible to keep tabs on the filmmaker but we’ll try our best.

…...

It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.

Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...

Sean Gilman: I had a particularly Hongian experience as I readied myself to write this first dispatch to you, Evan, about Introduction. Right after finishing the movie, I took a brief nap. This is a regular part of my pre-writing process: the twenty minutes of calm and quiet help me organize my thoughts, and the dreaminess helps with my creativity. I had the whole thing planned and written out in my head. I assure you it was brilliant, funny and clever and insightful. Then when I woke up, I had forgotten all of it. Not just what I was going to write, but the movie itself was gone. I’ve been trying to piece it all back together over the past 24 hours, and in doing so I’ve been wondering if this is a bit like how Hong constructs his films in the first place. It’s well-documented that he...

If there was one director working today that can be said to have a distinctive style, then it would be Hong Sang-soo. The writer-director has a distinct flare for the drunken conversation, playful looks at alternative endings and non-linear narrative, as well as a drunken love affair, often between a filmmaker and a younger student, and laughing at both truth and lies.

“Claire’s Camera” is streaming on Mubi

With a Special Screening at Cannes, Hong moves the setting away from Korea to 2016 Cannes itself, though the cast remains largely Korean. Man-hee (Kim Min-hee), a film sales agent working at the festival, suddenly finds herself sacked by her boss, Yang-hye (Chang Mi-hee), for she no longer believes Man-hee to be honest. Left somewhat bewildered by this, we later discover that the probable real reason for her dismissal is her love affair with drunken director So (Jung Jin-young), Yang-hye’s lover.

The decision made,...

Echelon Studios has acquired North American rights to South Korea comedy “Maggie” which premiered at Busan International Film Festival. In “Maggie”, after a radiologist is snapped having sex in the X-ray room, the image swiftly circulates in the hospital. A nurse (Lee Ju-Yeong) fears that she might be one of the randy skeletons depicted. Together with her boss (Moon So-Ri), two woman embarks on a mission to determine whether human beings are ever really worth believing.

Up-and-coming director Yi Okseop previously directed short “Girls on Top” in 2017. “Maggie” is her debut feature. The film premiered at 2018 Busan International Film Festival and won four awards – Actress of the Year, Citizen Critics’ Award, Kbs Independent Film Award, and Cgv Art House Award. Later on, “Maggie” has been invited to several major film festivals including 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), 2019 São Paulo International Film Festival, 2019 BFI London Film Festival, 2019 Munich Film Festival, 2019 Taipei Film Festival,...

The Woman Who Ran, the title of Hong Sang-soo’s new picture, refers to a woman who disappeared from her family, especially leaving her daughter distraught. This mother is never referred to again, but its possibility—that of a woman leaving her life behind—gently haunts the entire picture. This is because this title could also refer to the film’s ostensible heroine, Gamhee (Kim Min-hee): In three separate episodes, she visits or meets female friends and claims to be away from her husband for the first time in five years. “He says that people in love should always stick together,” she says to each woman, in a repetition familiar to the work of this South Korean relationship surrealist. Stepping out of her marriage into the bubbles of other lives, she casually surveys the realm of a divorcee, a single thirty-something, and the woman who married Gamhee’s high school boyfriend.

Hong Sang-soo can be a very frustrating artist at times for some. He has developed a formula that he has stuck to so well for so long that audiences can pretty much guess several settings and situations off the bat, a quality that you either love or hate in the director’s works. The main thing that differs are the narrative choices he takes. His latest film, and his second of 2018, “Hotel by the River” however takes a simpler, more linear approach to the narrative. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won Best Actor for Gi Ju-bong.

“Hotel by the River” is screening at Five Flavours Festival

On the invitation of the owner, renowned poet Young-hwan has been living at a lovely riverside hotel for the past couple weeks, in the middle of winter. Though he seems hale and hearty, he seems to be under the...

Hong Sang-soo can be a very frustrating artist at times for some. He has developed a formula that he has stuck to so well for so long that audiences can pretty much guess several settings and situations off the bat, a quality that you either love or hate in the director’s works. The main thing that differs are the narrative choices he takes. His latest film, and his second of 2018, “Hotel by the River” however takes a simpler, more linear approach to the narrative. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won Best Actor for Gi Ju-bong.

Hotel by the River is screening at London Korean Film Festival

On the invitation of the owner, renowned poet Young-hwan has been living at a lovely riverside hotel for the past couple weeks, in the middle of winter. Though he seems hale and hearty, he seems to be under...

Long walks, meals, drinks, conversations and Kim Min-hee are all back in Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s latest monochrome offering “Hotel by the River”.

Synopsis

An old poet staying for free in a riverside hotel summons his two estranged sons. This is because he feels, for no apparent reason, like he is going to die. After being betrayed by the man she was living with, a young woman gets a room at the hotel. Seeking support, she summons a friend. The poet spends a day with his sons and tries to wrap up the loose ends in his life. But it’s not so easy to do that in one day. But then he sees the young woman and her friend, after a sudden, unbelievably heavy snowfall.

Apart from Hong Sang-soo’s muse Kim Min-hee, the film stars regular Hong Sang-soo collaborators Song Seon-mi, Kwon Hae-hyo, Yoo Jun-sang, who won...

Love him or hate him, Hong Sangsoo has been remarkably consistent with his films, which both offer viewers a familiar framework and new variations on his favorite themes. His 20th work Claire's Camera debuted last year at the Cannes Film Festival, after shooting at the festival the previous year. The brief (68 minutes) film reunites him with his In Another Country (2012) star Isabelle Huppert and muse Kim Min-hee for the third time (a fourth collaboration, The Day After, also premiered at Cannes in 2017). Kim Min-hee plays an employee of a Korean film sales agent who is suddenly fired by her boss for unclear reasons during the market at the Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile Huppert plays a Parisian artist who walks around town taking...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

“Taking a photo is something very important,” the eponymous Claire (Isabelle Huppert) tells a new friend in the opening of the latest trailer for Hong Sangsoo’s “Claire’s Camera,” setting the stage both for the film’s tone and the happy mystery that drives it. Huppert leads the feature as a woman who might be in possession of a magical camera, and who uses that wacky piece of machinery to possibly change the fortunes of her newest acquaintance.

In the film, “Huppert plays Claire, a school teacher with a camera (that might be magical) on her first visit to The Cannes Film Festival. She happens upon a film sales assistant, Manhee (Kim Minhee) recently laid off after a one-night stand with a film director (Jung Jinyoung). Together, this unlikely pair become detectives of sorts, as they wander around the seaside resort town, working to better understand the circumstances of...

Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling are at the top of their game in this compelling drama of lost love and missed opportunity

Superbly nuanced performances from Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay and exquisite direction by Andrew Haigh, who also co-wrote the film, turn an apparently everyday story of a marriage in quiet crisis into something rather extraordinary. A subtle examination of the persistence of the past and the fragile (in)stability of the present, this is a portrait of a rock-solid relationship facing a fissure that cuts to its very core in the runup to the titular wedding anniversary.

The source material is David Constantine’s enigmatic short story In Another Country, in which an ageing married man receives a letter telling him that the body of his previous girlfriend has been found, perfectly preserved in the ice of the Alps where she fell 50 years ago. This news gets a chilly reception from his wife,...

Many auteur filmmakers are accused of making the same film over and over again, though few live up to that accusation as much as Korean arthouse darling Hong Sang-soo (Night and Day, In Another Country). This is not a negative thing per se, especially because playing around with repetitions and variations is an organic part of the director’s oeuvre, and also a recurring element within each single film. His latest, Right Now, Wrong Then (Jigeumeun matgo geuddaeneun teullida), consists of two parts, roughly an hour each, in which the same two characters meet and end up spending the same single day ...

Many auteur filmmakers are accused of making the same film over and over again, though few live up to that accusation as much as Korean arthouse darling Hong Sang-soo (Night and Day, In Another Country). This is not a negative thing per se, especially because playing around with repetitions and variations is an organic part of the director’s oeuvre, and also a recurring element within each single film. His latest, Right Now, Wrong Then (Jigeumeun matgo geuddaeneun teullida), consists of two parts, roughly an hour each, in which the same two characters meet and end up spending the same single day ...

AFI Fest 2012 presented by Audi, a program of the American Film Institute, today announced the remaining sections and films that will screen in the festival.s World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight and Shorts programs. AFI Fest, which annually presents the best of world cinema in the movie capital of the world, will take place November 1 through 8 at the historic Grauman.s Chinese Theatre, the Chinese 6 Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

World Cinema showcases the most anticipated and prize-winning international films of the year, Breakthrough highlights work discovered only through the submission process and Midnight.s selections are always haunting. Both World Cinema and Breakthrough feature a number of films making their North American or U.S. Premieres, including The Angels. Share, Greatest Hits, Laurence Anyways, Nairobi Half Life, Pieta, White Elephant and Zaytoun.

Two of the shorts in competition are from AFI Conservatory.s recent class of...

Today, AFI 2012 announced its complete lineup, after previously debuting its New Auteurs, Young Americans, Galas and Special Screenings we finally get a look at the Midnight, Breakthrough, Shorts, and deliriously good World Cinema Selections.

The Shorts section, with almost too many to count, features new work from Nacho Vigalando, Nicolas Provost, and even Shia Labeouf (Cannes selected), among many others. The four Midnight titles all played in Tiff 2012’s Midnight Madness selection, and here we see John Dies at the End making a stop here after originally premiering at Sundance. They’ve nabbed three North American premieres in their Breakthrough section, including Kid from Fien Troch, Nairobi Half Life from David Tosh Gitonga, and Oh Boy from Jan Ole Gerster. But AFI has managed to really impress with it’s World Cinema selections. Just as they nabbed Cannes premiere Holy Motors for their Special Screenings, they’ve nabbed several high...

Montreal’s Festival Du Nouveau Cinema (10.10 – 10.21) announced their line-up today for their 41st edition and among the smorgasbord of subtitle offerings dating back to this year’s Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Venice and Tiff editions, we’re knee-deep in avant-garde world cinema from the established auteurs Assayas, Vinterberg, Ozon, Sang-Soo, Joao Pedro Rodriguez, Larrain, Loach, Reygadas, Ghobadi, Mungiu and Miguel Gomes. Heavy on offerings from Quebec and France, the fest also manages to offer a stellar snapshot of the up-and-comers from all corners of the globe. Among the notable titles in the (Competition category) International Selection we’ve got Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, Ursula Meier’s Sister, Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s Francine (which received its theatrical release earlier this month) and Rodrigo Plá’s La Demora. Loaded in Cannes items, the Special Presentations is the fest’s A-list selections (see filmmakers named above) and the one pic...

After a string of announcements, it looks like the Toronto International Film Festival have locked down their line-up and it’s looking like a fantastic slate. Much of the additions today come in the form of previous Cannes premieres, including Michael Haneke‘s Amour (review), Cristian Mungiu‘s Beyond the Hills (review), Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone in Love (review), Bernardo Bertolucci‘s Me and You (review), Hong Sang-soo‘s In Another Country and the Venice premiere Olivier Assayas‘ Something in the Air. Most notably missing is Leos Carax‘s Holy Motors, but we do get a new Michael Winterbottom film titled Everyday. Out of the Discovery section, the biggest film seems to be The Brass Teapot, and indie drama starring Juno Temple and Michael Angarano and one can check out all the additions below.

Masters

Amour Michael Haneke, Austria/France/Germany North American Premiere Screen legends Jean-Louis Trintignant and...

New films by Michael Haneke, Jacques Audiard, Lee Daniels, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach and Wes Anderson are in competition at this year's festival

Cannes 2012 is shaping up to be an auteurs' reunion, with new films from old Croisette stagers such as Jacques Audiard, Ken Loach and Michael Haneke vying for this year's top honour, the Palme d'Or. Joining them in competiton are the likes of Walter Salles, Leos Carax, David Cronenberg, Thomas Vinterberg, Lee Daniels and Wes Anderson, whose Moonrise Kingdom is the first opening night film to be also in competition since 2008's Blindness.

Rust and Bone, the latest from Audiard, whose A Prophet won the Grand Prix in 2009, was long a shoo-in for a competition spot; ditto Haneke with Love, which reunites him with Piano Teacher Isabelle Huppert, and Abbas Kiarostami with Like Someone in Love. Matteo Garrone's followup to Gommorah is another welcome inclusion. Loach returns with The Angels' Share,...

Cosmopolis

So we've known for some time now that Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom will be opening the Cannes Film Festival (site) on May 16. Yesterday, the Festival announced that Thérèse Desqueyroux, Claude Miller's final film, will close this year's edition on May 27. Miller's adaptation of François Mauriac's novel Thérèse Desqueyroux features Audrey Tautou in the title role as well as Gilles Lellouche and Anaïs Demoustier.

And lineups for the Short Films Competition and the Cinéfondation Selection were unveiled on Tuesday. Jean-Pierre Dardenne will preside over the Jury.

Today, the Festival's announced the full lineup for the Official Selection of its 65th anniversary edition. This is a roundup-in-progress, obviously.

Competition

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. The synopsis at the official site: "Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact,...

"Not many people have seen my films," says Seongjun (Jun-Sang Yu), the impulsive filmmaker at the center of "The Day He Arrives," the latest characteristically rambling character study from Korean director Hong Sang-soo. In one of many cases where art imitates life in a Hong movie, Seongjun's complaint reflects the general unfamiliarity with Hong's work in the United States. Churning out curiously structured narrative experiences in a roughly one-film-a-year cycle, Hong has crafted a dozen features since 1996's "The Day the Pig Fell Into the Well" (his next one, "In Another Country," is expected at Cannes next month). Despite the sizable filmography and a distinctive voice holding it together, festival awards and plenty of critical acclaim, Hong remains a storyteller whose talents are known only by a privileged few. Fortunately, "The Day He Arrives," the first Hong movie released in the U.S. since "Woman on the...

If you've kept up with us since we dropped our intial Cannes Film Festival piece back in February, a lot has changed and the field is becoming narrower and more clear in terms of what films and filmmakers are headed to the south of France. It requires a bit of moving puzzle pieces, and putting together bits and bobs of information, but the writing on the wall is beginning to appear, and today, the one moving the pen is The Hollywood Reporter. The trade has likely made a few phone calls of their own and been watching the landscape and today they reveal that "On The Road" and "Cosmopolis" -- two movies already widely expected to hit the fest -- are pretty much locks, while The Weinstein Company's "Cogan's Trade" (aka "Killing Me Softly") is "expected to be on hand." So what else can we expect? 

"Rust And Bone" -...

While he's not quite going Hollywood, Korean helmer Hong Sang-Soo seems to be continuing down the starry path he took with Isabelle Huppert who stars in his upcoming "In Another Country." Actress and chanteuse Jane Birkin has revealed that she's set to meet with renowned Korean helmer this week with an eye on a possible on-screen collaboration.

"I'm old now, and I don't know whether he needs me, but I'd like to appear in one of Hong's films," Birkin told ChoSun. "If it is going to be a good one, I'm willing to accept the challenge of making my first appearance in a Korean film."

Obviously, it remains to be seen what transpires from here but the casual meeting is similar to the genesis of Hong's most recent collaboration with French thesp, Huppert. On a visit to Korea, the actress name-dropped Hong as a director she'd like to work with in the future and,...

#37. Untitled Hong Sang-soo Project Director/Writer: Hong Sang-sooProducers: TBDDistributor: Rights Available The Gist: Taking place near the backdrop of the beach/coastal town, what we do know is that Huppert is joined by Hong Sang-soo regular Yu Jun-Sang and I like how we put it: "one can presume that the thematic material in this one won’t deviate too much from his usual concerns, i.e. love triangles (squares, pentagons, and so forth), filmmaking and creative processes, and kimchi eating."...(more) Cast: Isabelle Huppert and Yu Jun-Sang List Worthy Reasons...: 2012 will be known as the year that Isabelle Huppert experimented with Asian auteur filmmakers and we're more curious about a potential relationship drama with Hong Sang-soo than the hostage Berlin preemed Captured by Brillante Mendoza. Release Date/Status?: Filming towards the end of 2011, if there is a filmmaker who can meet a Cannes deadline in a short amount of time it is Sang-soo.