cannes 2015

Our guest film correspondent Séamas McSwiney with his final report from the Cannes 2015 film festival.

The perfect sun shines down on Cannes, as the packed wagons get in line to trek out of town after Cannes 68, a revolutionary number that did not really live up to its significance.

While the 1968 festival was abandoned mid-stream through protest by enraged French cineastes such as Godard, Truffaut et al, and though the last two years brought tempests, the high winds and rain also brought with them some great films. Alas, this year's balmy weather brought cinematic doldrums and few reel pleasures in the form of artistic turbulence. In the end, even the prestigious jury presidency of Joel and Ethan Coen did little to enhance the spotty selection by coming up with a puzzling palmarès.

Our guest film correspondent Séamas McSwiney will be sending us special reports from the Cannes 2015 film festival over the coming weeks, starting with a preview of this year's Festival. 

Cannes is a leveller where new talent gets an upgrade. As the stardust sprinkles down, less known filmmakers get to profit from the enormous media presence that has mostly come to cover the celebrity glam. At the Oscars, the surprises, if any, are planned, predicted and marketed. In Cannes the surprises are real and its savvy juxtaposition of styles, themes and exoticism make the seaside town the capital of World Cinema for 12 days in May.

Of the thousand or so films screening in Cannes, about 100 are selected and invited and, of these, about 20 are in competition.

Irish eyes will be on two competition films with County Kerry connections. Michael Fassbender hails from Killarney and will star in a new film of Macbeth, alongside French actress Marion Cotillard who plays his dark lady wife, directed by Australian Justin Kurzel. Interestingly the same trio are the prime players of another 2015 movie called Assassin's Creed, a title that echoes Macbeth.