Cannes readies the red carpet

There were few enormous surprises when the competition line-up for next month’s Cannes Film Festival was announced yesterday.

As expected, David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, Michael Haneke’s Amour and Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share will all have their premiere on the La Croisette. But those old hands seem like novices when set beside the 89-year-old Alain Resnais, whose new film journeys out under the appropriate title Vous n’avez Encore Rien Vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet).

The programme also finds space for some admired younger directors. Jeff Nichols, who gave us the extraordinary Take Shelter, makes his first trip to the main competition with Mud. The Paperboy, Lee Daniels’s follow-up to Precious, should bring Zac Efron to the red carpet. The organisers will also hope that Brad Pitt, star of Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly, will make an appearance.

Those dreamers harbouring faint, desperate hopes that Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master or the new, untitled Terrence Malick film would be ready in time were faced with disappointment. Neither ever seemed likely to turn up.