Sun, sex and publicity stunts: 5 things to expect at Cannes 2015
You may not be able to pick the winners, but you're guaranteed some controversy - Keely Lockhart on what you can expect to happen at this year's Cannes film festival
Cannes has always aspired to be the most contentious and outspoken of the film festivals.
Since 1939, when Cannes was born in reaction to Nazism’s corrupt influence over the Venice Film Festival, the French film festival has provided us with 69 years of controversial moments and genre-defying cinema.
Sex has always played a major role in the Cannes Palme d’Or official selection dividing critics and shocking the world.
Starting with Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960), which attracted the wrath of the Catholic Church who declared watching the film was a sin, Cannes paved the way for films such as Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, lies and videotape and the sexually explicit Brown Bunny, whose supposedly unsimulated blowjob scene prompted acclaimed critic Roger Ebert to declare it was “the worst film in the history of the festival”.
This year we can expect more sex with Gaspar Noé’s 3D creation Love.
But it is not all sex and violence, in 2009 Disney/Pixar’s Up became the first animated film to open the Cannes Film Festival.
This year, director Pete Docter is again turning the festival upside down with Inside Out.
Other films to look forward to are Asif Kapadia's Amy Winehouse documentary - which, as if in true Cannes tradition, has already been branded “misleading” by the late singer’s father.
This year at Cannes, like many others, you can expect the odd fame-hungry guest - such as Simone Silva, who gained notoriety when she stripped off on the beach, or Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme who staged a punch-up to promote their new film.
However one thing that we are expected to see more of this year compared to others is Cannes honouring a greater number of female directors.
Once a mysterious breed confined to dark corners of the cinematic landscape, this year, Emmanuelle Bercot will open the festival with her film La Tete Haule (Standing Tall) - something which hasn’t happened since Diane Kurys in 1987.
