MALICK’S TREE OF LIFE TO BE PLANTED AT CANNES

Terrence Malick’s much awaited The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, is among the films selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which opens on May 11. (The film had been expected to compete at the festival last year but was not completed in time.) Festival President Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux, who has the title of General Delegate but whose official capacity is that of head of the selection committee, announced the lineup at a news conference in Paris today (Thursday). Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In, another highly anticipated film among cineastes, is also among the films participating in the competition. Danish director Lars von Trier will also be returning to the Croisette with his Melancholia, starring Kirsten Dunst and Kiefer Sutherland, while British director Lynn Ramsay, who first visited the festival in 1999 with her debut feature Ratcatcher will return with We Need to Talk about Kevin, starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly, who play the parents of a boy who massacred fellow students at his high school. Belgian directors the Dardenne Brothers (Jean-Pierre and Luc) who have already won the Palme d’Or twice, will enter their The Kid with the Bike/aka Set Me Free in this year’s competition. Other directors whose films were selected by Frémaux’s committee include Japan’s Naomi Kawase (Hanezu no Tsuki), Romania’s Radu Mihaileanu (The Source), Australia’s Julia Leigh (Sleeping Beauty), and France’s Maïwenn (Polisse).