7. The Look Of Love
Director: Michael Winterbottom Starring: Steve Coogan It's always nice to see the best of British featured in France, and Michael Winterbottom's biopic of King Of Soho Paul Raymond, the adult entertainment impresario and publisher who brought nudity to the masses and the mainstream. He made a lot of money, but that fact ignores his personal tragedy, which is something Winterbottom focuses on quite explicitly, and though Coogan has always made a name for himself as a comic talent, his acting chops are very good in serious roles. The pair have worked together before of course, on the excellent 24 Hour Party People, and this might well be judged a good way to comment on Cannes own fascination with nudity in its various forms over the years. They're very meta like that, you see. It's already played at Sundance to some success, and hopefully we'll see it come to Cannes as well.
6. The Young And Prodigious Spivet
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Starring: Kyle Catlett, Callum Keith Rennie & Helena Bonham Carter. Aside from Alien Resurrection, Jeunet has made a lot of films that would fit the Cannes bill, and his latest will feature the same spirit as Amelie presumably given the travel motif. It sounds quite whimsical, with the young prodigy heading across America to attend a special dinner in his honour at the Smithsonian Museum, but there is a darker undercurrent, implied by the death of his brother, which he may or may not have been partly responsible for, and some familial dysfunction. Could well get the Beasts Of The Southern Wild nod for a film featuring a young prodigious talent on a personal journey of discovery, only with less giant warthogs.