Keith Simanton's Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of Cannes 2023

I haven't seen a Jonathan Glazer work since UNDER THE SKIN. Couple that with some of his other, earlier works like BIRTH and 2000's criminally under-seen SEXY BEAST, one of the best mad-gangster films of all time (and about so much more), and this makes ZONE my top In Competition watch.

The multi-hyphenate Maïwenn has tackled gritty procedural drama in POLISSE and relationship drama with MY KING with a deft hand but she has chosen to also star opposite a plumper, more rascally Depp for this period piece. It's opening the fest so the film promises glamour and the intriguing proposition of this director taking a crack at her DANGEROUS LIASIONS or AGE OF INNOCENCE.

Koreda returns after his excellent, morally dense PARASITE-in-waiting SHOPLIFTERS from 2018 and his 2019 Franco-fizz-out THE TRUTH with Catherine Denueve. MONSTER looks to be more his bag just given the title.

Yes, THE FRENCH DISPATCH was too long (still in my Top 10 for that year) and ISLE OF DOGS was...ponderous but it's still Anderson and he's still capable of creating wonder and striking emotional chords underneath all of that twill and twee.

BOY is in the Un Certain Regard competition which can be a blessing and a curse. The big stage premiere in the Lumiere Theater is off and so the expectations are lessened. And Regard has had both great films, like FRUITVALE STATION, and really not-great films, like James Franco's interminable Faulkner adaptation AS I LAY DYING. But it's a steady platform for new filmmakers, like Warwick Thorton, and has Cate Blanchett, in her next role after TAR.

It could be the final bow for one of the masters of cinema in the holy of holies, the Lumiere Theater where I once watched him unveil a peek of GANGS OF NEW YORK. Cinema doesn't get much richer.

I'm completely apoplectic at the current trend of reconsidering the abomination that was KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL and I'm hoping that Phoebe Waller-Bridge can bring some of the Lawrence Kasdan-snap back to the series. Plus there's the hint that this is all time-travel stuff, which could be richer, and more poignant, than we can guess. C'mon Mangold!

Provost directed the ugly, beautiful SERAPHINE and he has both Cécile de France (HAUTE TENSION & THE KID WITH A BIKE) and Stacy Martin (NYMPHOMANIAC I & II) making this a Cannes premiere worth catching.

Yes, it's only 31 minutes long (or 8 FLOWERS OF THE KILLER MOON's worth) but any Almodovar is a must in Cannes.

Director Cailley's LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT was a favorite of the César Awards (the French Oscar), the plot sounds intriguing (even if it's not directed by THE LOBSTER's Yorgos Lanthamos) and it's got Adèle Exarchopoulos.