Since Les films de Cannes à Bucarest is one of the festivals that fully meet the tastes of our readers, below is a selection of the five most tempting titles screening at this year’s edition (October 22-31) which starts next Friday. The list of recommendations is completed by a couple of fresh out of the oven trailers, especially one with millions of views in just a few days.

Dune (Sci-Fi, dir. Denis Villeneuve)

“Dreams make good stories, but everything important happens when we’re awake”, here’s what Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) tells his mentee in ways of combat, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), in this new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s famous novel (still the best-selling SF of all time). But when they arrive on the desert planet Arrakis, Paul may interpret his mentor’s advice differently. Villeneuve’s film is the third adaptation of Dune, being the first that seems to satisfy.

The film comes out in Romanian cinemas on October 22. Films in Frame will publish a review on its premiere day, so stick around.

Cyrano (drama, musical, dir. Joe Wright)

An expert in adaptations, British filmmaker Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina) is now turning his attention to Edmond Rostand’s play, with the main part going to the extremely popular Peter Dinklage. We were wondering when he will have the opportunity to play a leading role after the phenomenal success of Game of Thrones when news came of this big-budget adaptation. And casting Dinklage is a far-reaching choice since Wright seems to start from the classic text to challenge us to assess our prejudices about body image, prejudices now cast in a new light by social media.

With the European premiere in the selection of the Rome Film Fest (October 16), the film does not yet have a release date in Romania.

House of the Dragon (fantasy series created by Ryan J. Condal, George R.R. Martin)

Will this fantasy series inspired by George R.R. Martin’s intricate novels wash away the bitter taste left by the last season of Game of Thrones? We sincerely hope so, for the simple reason that the series’ battalion of screenwriters have certainly seen what can happen when you betray your source and at the same time try to fool your fans. The above teaser had millions of views in just a few days, which reconfirms the global enthusiasm for a new foray into the violent realm imagined by Martin. Matt Smith is a completely different prince (after successfully playing Prince Philip in The Crown) in this series in which history does not take into account blood ties and the family tree.

House of the Dragon appears on HBO in 2022.

Screening at Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest

Titane (drama, dir. Julia Ducournau)

Julia Ducournau is only 37 years old and she is the second woman in history to be awarded a Palme d’Or, the first who didn’t receive it ex-aequo (Jane Campion won for The Piano but shared the award with Chen Kaige, who is the first director in China or Hong Kong to win the Palme d’Or). “Demented”, “pure chaos”, “a punch in the face”, these are just some of the epithets and warnings that accompanied the film which proposes “the most bizarre pairing since The Shape of Water” (Cineuropa). Our recommendation is to get a ticket as soon as the LFC’s program is announced, otherwise you may have to wait months for the film to be released in cinemas.

Memoria (drama, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, Memoria is Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s first English-spoken film, which stars one of the most versatile actresses today, Tilda Swinton, who easily moves from Marvel superhero movies to super-niche projects. Here, Swinton plays Jessica, a Scotswoman visiting her sister in Bogotá. The mysterious sounds she starts hearing lead to a personal investigation and soon she comes to see her existence with different eyes. A foray of a Thai director into South America, that can only come as intriguing, no doubt.

Zero Fucks Given (comedy, drama, dir. Emmanuel Marre, Julie Lecoustre)

This hard-to-class Belgian film is such a small production that it doesn’t even have a proper trailer before its national and French premieres. We can only see an excerpt in which the protagonist, Cassandre (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a flight attendant for a low-cost airline, fails a test with her boss. The reviews present this film as one of the most pleasant surprises in this year’s Cannes’ Critics’ Week and as a unique, almost documentary-like foray (up to a point, at least) into a fast-paced community (“we see sun and snow on the same day”), governed by extremely specific rules (did you know, for example, that flight attendants need to be able to smile convincingly for 30 seconds straight?). All the praise goes to Exarchopoulos, who completely immerses herself in the role.

The Worst Person in the World (drama, dir. Joachim Trier)

It is understandable when critics are ecstatic about a film selected at Cannes; after all, the festival can afford to choose the best productions from around the world. But does the general public have the same reaction to such a film? All we can say is that in the case of The Worst Person in the World the answer is definitely “yes”, maybe because Joachim Trier’s film “ventures where few dare to these days – right into romantic-comedy territory” (Cineuropa). Renate Reinsve (Best Actress Award) is Julie, the girlfriend of a comic-book artist (Anders Danielsen Lie), who is tempted to leave everything behind when she meets a younger man.

Drive My Car (drama, dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi has without a doubt an exceptional 2021: he won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale for Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (screened in Romania at the Transilvania IFF) and the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes for Drive My Car. The film is based on a short story by Haruki Murakami and starts from a chance encounter: when he arrives in Hiroshima, where he has to stage a play, a theater director finds out that he has a chauffeur to drive him around town. The chauffeur turns out to be a woman, and her personality and the dozens of trips they make together pave the way for interesting conversations.