Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour has landed a Cannes competition slot after apparent complaints about the filmmaker, while Sean Penn starrer Black Flies by director Jean-Stehane Sauvair will also compete, festival organizers said on Monday.
A berth for Le Retour in Cannes had been put on hold while festival organizers took note of alleged events that took place during the filming of the French film. Fest organizers had no comment on the addition of Corsini’s film beyond a short announcement.
Le Retour, which stars Virgini Ledoyen, portrays a woman who works for a wealthy Parisian family who offers her the opportunity to take care of their children for a summer in Corsica. That’s an opportunity for her to return with her daughters, Jessica and Farah, to the island they left 15 years earlier in tragic circumstances.
Sauvaire’s paramedic thriller Black Flies also stars Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson. An adaptation of the novel by Shannon Burke, the story is set in the high-wire world of New York City paramedics and takes a look at the toll the job inflicts on their lives.
Sheridan is playing a first-year medic who hits the streets driving an ambulance with a grizzled vet, played by Penn. Choices they make will take them in opposite directions, as the newbie finds his desire to help people challenged to the breaking point. Burke, Ben Mac Brown and Ryan King wrote the script.
Black Flies is being produced under the Sculptor Media banner alongside Force Majeure, James Masciello’s creative producing arm and Projected Picture Works.
Open Road Films will release Black Flies theatrically. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international rights. Producers include Warren Goz and Eric Gold of Sculptor, Christopher Kopp and Lucan Toh. Penn is also producing via his Projected Picture Works partners, John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth.
Cannes also booked Frédéric Tellier’s L’Abbé Pierre – Une Vie de Combats to screen out of competition. And the Un Certain Regard section will screen Only the River Flows from Wei Shujun and Une Nuit from helmer Alex Lutz.
Cannes also added special screenings for Mona Achache’s Little Girl Blue, Sahra Mani’s Bread and Roses, which is produced by Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi, and Anna Novion’s La Théorème de Marguerite.
Rounding out the latest Cannes lineup are Midnight Screening entries for Hypnotic, by director Robert Rodriguez, and Kim Tae-gon’s Project Silence.
