Cannes film festival 2023: return of the old guard royalty of Loach, Wenders and Scorsese. Then there’s Johnny Depp

The Cannes film festival looks to have maintained – maybe even consolidated – its position at the centre of the conversation. Three years after the first complete cancellation, the competition boasts one of its juiciest ever line-ups of distinguished auteurs. Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismaki, Todd Haynes, Ken Loach, Wim Wenders and Alice Rohrwacher all compete for the Palme d’Or. After launching Top Gun: Maverick here last year, Hollywood returns with two of the year’s most high-profile mainstream releases: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny; and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Johnny Depp helps kick things off with his (mildly controversial) appearance in opening film Jeanne du Barry.

Following the announcement of the programme three weeks ago, there was, if anything, some concern that too many of the old – in some cases positively elderly – guard were returning. The festival could respond that it had broken its own (admittedly undistinguished) record for films by women in the main competition. That still adds up to just seven out of 21, but the situation is improving. At any rate, attendees cannot complain about the variety of films premiering this year.

Most outside attention will be focused on Indiana Jones and on the Scorsese film. For the former, Steven Spielberg hands over directing reins to the efficient James Mangold. The director of Logan and Walk the Line brings the still-upright archaeologist into the US of the 1960s, where eyebrows are raised at the involvement of former Nazis in the space race. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Indy’s goddaughter. Harrison Ford, still with a grip on the whip, should be there to juice up the red carpet.

Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, long in development, adapts David Grann’s non-fiction book about murders among a Native American community in 1920s Oklahoma. The 3½-hour film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, has been billed as the director’s first western, but Grann’s source suggests something closer to a period detective yarn. Whereas Dial of Destiny opens wide in late June, the public will have to wait until October for the Scorsese film.

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Both those titles play out of competition. Elsewhere, Ken Loach, premiering The Old Oak, breaks his own record for most films in the main race with his 15th tilt at the Palme d’Or. Twice a winner, the veteran (86) has a chance to become the first person ever to take the prize on three occasions. The new film goes among the inhabitants of a town in northeast England experiencing the arrival of Syrian refugees.

Todd Haynes, whose Carol was a sensation here in 2015, returns with an intriguing drama, May December. Natalie Portman stars as an actor researching a once scandalous marriage for a role. Haynes and Julianne Moore, the subject of Portman’s investigations, helped each other to prominence with their work on the singular Safe from 1995 and then excelled again together with Far From Heaven. The old pals are sure to generate much eager anticipation.

“It’s a film by Wes Anderson ... full stop,” Thierry Frémaux, festival director, said of Asteroid City. Stills of the title – which goes among stargazers in 1950s America – look to back up that assessment. Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton and Steve Carell are just a few of the many, many stars set to arrange themselves in pastel shades for the famously eccentric director. If all credited celebrities turn up, there will scarcely be room for anyone else on the red carpet.

Joining Ken Loach in the “previous winners” enclosure are heavyweight Turkish ponderer Nuri Bilge Ceylan with About Dry Grasses; versatile Italian master Nanni Moretti with A Brighter Tomorrow; stoic German pioneer Wim Wenders with Perfect Days; and Japanese humanist Hirokazu Koreeda with Monster. That last film, concerning a mother standing up for her troubled son, will be distinguished by a late score from the recently deceased Ryuichi Sakamoto.

All the world comes to Cannes. If they are able. If the lights are still on

Many Cannes watchers are most intrigued by the prospect of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Glazer has made just three films: Sexy Beast, Birth and Under the Skin. A comprehensive poll recently identified that last title as the best British film of the century to date. So little information emerged on the production of The Zone of Interest – adapted from a novel by Martin Amis – that some began to doubt its existence. But it’s here. “Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig strive for a good life for their young family,” the synopses tentatively reveals.

Pick of the “special screenings” looks to be Steve McQueen’s documentary Occupied City. The film, adapted from a book by the director’s wife, Bianca Stigter, studies Amsterdam in the years of the German occupation. There are rumours that Occupied City will run to a mighty four hours. Take that, Martin Scorsese, with your puny 206 minutes.

[ Cannes 2023: official selection reveals heavyweight directors to compete for Palme d’Or ]

As Aftersun’s performance at last year’s International Critics Week demonstrated, the most acclaimed films can often emerge from the parallel strands. Nobody knows what surprise that event or the always fecund Directors’ Fortnight will deliver (that’s the thing about surprises). The title that stands out is, however, Michelle Gondry’s The Book of Solutions in the latter strand. This is the director’s first film since the well received, but little seen, Microbe & Gasoline from 2015.

There is little obvious Irish interest in the official selection or the key parallel strands. But domestic talent will be travelling for events surrounding the always busy Cannes market. Screen Ireland and the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée will participate in a workshop offering advice on co-production between France and Ireland. Eclectic Irish film-maker Paul Duane will be representing his upcoming horror All You Need is Death at the launch of a new label for low-budget genre films called New Visions.

The rest of the Irish industry will be burrowing away in nearby corners. All the world comes to Cannes. If they are able. If the lights are still on. The only cloud on the horizon remains threat of strikes from air traffic controllers and electricity workers. “The Cannes film festival, the Monaco Grand Prix, the French Open, the Avignon festival could be in the dark,” the mines and energy union declared last month. Jean-Luc Godard would have approved.

Donald Clarke will be reporting daily from the Cannes film festival May 16th-27th