one topic. five videos.

Sphere

May 16, 2007

Average Rating:

( 0 votes)

Hot Cannes Film Trailers

By Anthony Kaufman

The Cannes Film Festival launches tonight with the world premiere of Wong Kar-wai's "My Blueberry Nights," the Hong Kong maverick's first English-language outing, which stars singer Norah Jones and Jude Law. While the world media turns their attention to the French Riviera, most of us won't have the luxury of seeing the festival first hand. So here's a virtual taste of the proceedings with trailers from five hot new films showing in this year's official program.

1 "A Mighty Heart"

In this high-profile Hollywood film directed by British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom ("The Road to Guantanamo," "24 Hour Party People"), Angelina Jolie stars as Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, who lives through the abduction and murder of her husband by Pakistani militants.

2 "The Orphanage"

Produced by Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), this new Spanish horror-thriller focuses on a woman who returns to the long abandoned orphanage where she grew up. But things at the old home – as you can tell from this eerie teaser – have changed for the worse. A flashy debut from 32-year-old award-winning music video and commercial director Juan Antonio Bayona.

3 "U2 3D"

Mark Pellington and Catherine Owens's U2 concert film follows Bono and the gang in 3-D across the world on their "Vertigo" tour.

4 "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"

From artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel ("Before Night Falls") comes this film based on the life of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French magazine editor who suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body except his left eye -- which he then used to blink out his memoir. Even with a rudimentary understanding of French, it still looks cool.

5 "Flight of the Red Balloon"

The trailer alone is as touching as Albert Lamorisse's 1956's French children's classic "The Red Balloon," the inspiration for this new feature from Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien ("Three Times," "Millennium Mambo," "Flowers of Shanghai"). The story famously tracks a mysterious red balloon that follows a little boy around Paris.