Time Out's pick of Cannes 2005

Geoff Andrew takes a look at the strong contenders in competition this year, including Haneke's 'Cache' and Egoyan's 'Where the Truth Lies'.

Apr 20 2005

On paper, at least, Thierry Frémaux's selection of films for the official competition looks unusually strong. Even the opening film – 'Lemming', by Dominik Moll, who made 'Harry, He's Here to Help' a few years back – looks rather more promising than the usual first-night fare, and there are more than enough titles by top-notch auteurs to make the competition a mouth-watering prospect. Of the Time Out favourites among the Cannes regulars, Jim Jarmusch returns to the Croisette with 'Broken Flowers', Michael Haneke with 'Caché', the Dardenne Brothers with 'L'Enfant', and David Cronenberg with 'A History of Violence', though we're also – obviously – mighty keen to catch Atom Egoyan's 'Where the Truth Lies', Lars Von Trier's 'Manderlay', Gus Van Sant's 'Last Days', and Robert Rodriguez's 'Sin City'. The East is providing strong contenders, including Hou Hsiao-Hsien with 'The Best of our Times' and Wang Xiaoshiai with 'Shanghai Dreams', and we're very intrigued not only by Tommy Lee Jones' first film – 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada' – and by Marco Tullio Giordana, whose 'When You're Born' is a follow-up to 'The Best of Youth', which won the Un Certain Regard prize two years back. And the biggest questions? Will Woody Allen's out-of-competition London film 'Match Point' be any good, and will Wim Wenders' reunion with Sam Shepard – 'Don't Come Knockin'' – match up to their 'Paris, Texas'?