This year's Cannes is a big year for Chinese films - the 2024 Cannes International Film Festival Main Competition Unit, Un Certain Regard Unit, Non-Competition Screening and Cannes Premiere Unit The film list was announced today, Jia Zhangke's new work "Merry Generation" entered the main competition unit, Guan Hu was shortlisted for a kind of attention unit with his new film "Dog Formation", Chen Kexin's "Sauce Garden Lane" was shortlisted for the non-competitive screening unit, and Zheng Baorui's "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" was shortlisted for the midnight screening unit.
The last time two Chinese films were shortlisted for the Cannes International Film Festival was Jia Zhangke's "Mountains and Rivers" and Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Nie Yinniang" in 2015. For many years afterward, the presence of Chinese films in Cannes was not strong, and only Jia Zhangke's "Children of Jianghu" and Diao Yinan's "Party at Southern Station" were shortlisted for the main competition.
"Barbie" director Greta Gerwig will be the president of the jury of the main competition unit of the 77th Cannes International Film Festival in 2024. Xavier Dolan, director of "I Killed My Mother", served as the chairman of the jury of the Un Certain Regard unit. The 77th Cannes International Film Festival will open on May 14. In addition, the opening film of Cannes is confirmed to be the new film "Act II" by French director Quentin Dupie. Earlier, the new film of the "Mad Max" series "Mad Max: Fury Goddess" was confirmed to have its world premiere in the off-competition screening unit.
● Main Competition: "The Merry Generation"
Director: Jia Zhangke
Starring: Zhao Tao / Zhou You / Renke / Mao Tao
"The Merry Generation" tells the story of the hustle and bustle of life experienced by a Chinese woman in silence in the first 21 years of the 21st century. The background of the story spans from 2001 to 2022, with the division and integration of lovers Qiaoqiao and Guo Bin in a small town in northern China as the main line, telling the life stories of them and all kinds of grassroots people around them in the first 20 years of the new century, depicting the indomitable enterprising spirit of a generation in the context of social change, and depicting the life of a generation.
Jia Zhangke once said to the foreign media "Variety" magazine: "This is a fictional work, but I used a lot of documentary techniques. I started discovering the storyline when combining the different events we filmed, and then went back and added the necessary structure. "It's interesting to see how these relationships change as the world around them evolves. It also deeply shocked me, how their faces have changed, and it helped me realize what a real film is," Jia Zhangke said. "I also found that while we have been fairly successful in preserving images, we have lost many of the voices of past societies. ”
The film, which has been in production for about 22 years, with the earliest footage shot in 2001, will continue to star Zhao Tao, the absolute screen muse of Jia Zhangke's films, who has appeared in all of Jia's feature films since 2000's Platform. Zhao Tao has another chance to compete for the Cannes actress after "Let It Be Free", "Tale of Twenty-Four Cities", "Heaven is Destined", "The Old Man of Mountains and Rivers" and "Children of Jianghu".
● A kind of focus competition unit: "Dog Formation"
Director: Guan Hu
Starring: Peng Yuyan / Tong Liya / Jia Zhangke / Zhang Yi / Yuan Hong
"Dog Formation" started filming in September 2021, officially completed in April 2022, and then entered the post-production stage.
Synopsis: More than ten years ago, a small town in the northwest. Jiro, who has been adrift for ten years, returns to his homeland and prepares to spend the rest of his life with a cynical philosophy of survival. In order to make a living, I was introduced by my old friend Nie Shili. Erlang (played by Peng Yuyan) joined the folk dog fighting team and worked all day long to haul stray dogs. A stray dog named hemp rope broke into his life, this stray dog has wolf blood, and its courage to fight for survival moved Jiro, and the two sympathetic souls gradually developed feelings. Jiro's compassion for life was slowly awakened, and the blood and courage that had been deliberately suppressed began to return, in order to save more stray dogs, and for the salvation of his soul, he took active action.
● Non-Competition Screenings: "Sauce Garden Lane" Director: Chen Kexin
Starring: Zhang Ziyi / Lei Jiayin / Zhao Liying / Yang Mi / Yi Yang Qianxi / Li Xian
Chen Kexin's "Sauce Garden Lane" starring Zhang Ziyi, and the Douban cast list also includes Lei Jiayin, Zhao Liying, Wang Chuanjun, Yang Mi, Yi Yang Qianxi, Fan Wei, Zhang Zifeng, Dapeng, Li Xian, etc., and the final lineup is to be officially announced. The film is adapted from "Sauce Garden Lane", one of the four strange cases of the Republic of China, which is about the treacherous era of waves, a bizarre case stirred up a thousand waves with one stone, and there are different opinions about the truth. When the original story of the case is gradually restored like pieces of a puzzle, people realize that the original truth is no longer so important.
● Midnight Screening Unit: The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City Director: Zheng Baorui
Starring: Louis Koo / Sammo Hung / Yam Yinqi / Lin Feng / Liu Junqian
The film is adapted from Yu Er's original bloody fighting novel "Kowloon Walled City", which tells the story of the 80s of the 20th century, in the notorious "three regardless" zone in the Kowloon Walled City, the underworld forces are intricately entrenched, and the social order is chaotic.
Attached: List of shortlisted films for the main competition unit:"Soaring" Ali Abbasi
"Destination Motel" Karim Enoz
"Birds" Andrea Arnold
"Emilia Perez" Jacques Odia
"Anola" Sean Baker
"Metropolis" by Francis Ford Coppola
The Shroud, David Cronenberg
"A Certain Substance" Coralie Farya
"Journey to the East" Miguel Gómez
"My Marcelo" Christophe Honoré
"Merry Generation" Jia Zhangke
"The Light of Imagination" Pallal Capadia
"The Kind of Goodness" by Ugs Lanthmoss
"Crazy Love" Gilles Lelouche
《Rough Diamond》阿加特·里丁格(首作)
"Oh, Canada" Paul Schrader
"Limonov" Kirill Serebrynnikov
Paternope by Paolo Sorrentino
"The Dogma Killer" Magnus Van Horn
Proofreader: Liu Tian Reporter: Xing Yuan Editor: Xing Yuan