IF YOU CAN’T DO CANNES…

Understandably, everybody is getting excited about the elite crop of films that will be shown at Cannes. One of the great joys of being a cinema lover is when you find directors that you love, and then can look forward to their next films. Of the Cannes crop, the latest efforts from Wong Kar-Wai, Emir Kusturica, Carlos Reygadas and Harmony Korine particularly excite me. But I’m also looking forward to a number of upcoming films from directors who won’t be on the Croisette in May.

First of all, there’s the new one from Takeshi Kitano, about a director who attempts to work in seven different genres. Kantoku: Banzai! (which roughly translates as Hooray for the Director!) sees Kitano parodying everything from Ozu-esque 50s dramas to the yakuza movie, a genre he has made his own. It’s the first film in which Kitano’s Beat Takeshi persona (his zany comic side) is at the fore directorially (rather than his serious, credible Takeshi Kitano persona), and from the Japanese trailer it looks very silly, but very fun. The film will be released in Japan in June, and you can read more about it here.

And then there’s Lights in the Dusk, from Finland’s finest, Aki Kaurismäki, which premiered at last year’s Cannes. It’s the final part of Kaurismäki’s “unemployment trilogy” – following Drifting Clouds (1999) and The Man Without A Past (2002) – and is about an impoverished nightwatchman lured into crime by a femme fatale. Here’s a great interview with Kaurismäki, and you can watch the trailer (with French subtitles, I’m afraid…) here. Strand Releasing puts the film out in the U.S. on June 13.

A few days ago, IFC picked up the U.S. rights to Shane Meadows‘ latest unconventional take on British life, This Is England. It will get a day-and-date release through their First Take arm in July, but will screen before that (on May 2, 3 and 4) at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival in New York. To get a taste of it, you can check out the film’s official site, which has the trailer and numerous other goodies, or read an interview with the always entertaining Meadows.

The Boss of It All looks to be the first film since The Idiots in which Lars von Trier is actually having some fun. The movie has a jaunty little website, which is well worth a look – although you might not want to have the sound on your computer too loud if you’re checking it out at work… A safer option would be to read von Trier’s feelings on The Boss of It All in a relatively rare interview from last year. The film gets its U.S. release, also through IFC, on May 25.