The Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to the late Jean-Luc Godard, who died last September at the age of 91, with a trio of works in its Cannes Classics heritage line-up. A highlight will be the world premiere of the 20-minute trailer he created for a film that will never be made, titled 'Drôles de Guerres (Phoney Wars)'.
The short work, billed as a production by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello and Vixens, in coproduction with L’Atelier, is described by the festival as following in the tradition of Godard transforming synopses into aesthetic programs. It will be screened in the presence of Fabrice Aragno, Godard’s longtime collaborator on films including 'Notre musique', 'Film Socialisme' and 'Goodbye to Language'.
The homage also includes a screening of a 4K restoration of Godard’s 1963 classic 'Contempt', alongside the documentary 'Godard by Godard'. Directed by Florence Platarets and written by Frédéric Bonnaud, the hour-long film is an archival self-portrait retracing the director’s life and filmography through his own words and work.
Other Cannes Classics highlights include Lubna Playoust’s documentary 'Room 999', revisiting Wim Wenders’s 1982 film 'Room 666', and a newly restored version of Man Ray’s 1923 film 'Return to Reason' with a new score by Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan of Sqürl. The section will also honour Liv Ullmann with a bio-doc, and mark Yasujirō Ozu’s 120th birth anniversary with restorations of two of his films.
