First Video From The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus And Other Cannes Films Online

The website of French TV station Canal + is playing host to a video of the entire Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony. Easily the most exciting section is a long montage of clips from different films that will be playing there over the next couple of weeks though you might enjoy the rest, perhaps most particularly Bryan Ferry's tidy performance of She.

The film clips section starts at around the 15 minutes and 40 seconds mark, and lasts for seven minutes or so. Most films get a 15 to 30 second showcase, which might not seem like much, though in many cases this is the first footage of the films to have turned up online at all. While I found a lot of the material quite exciting none of it compared to the giddiness I have for the 18 seconds of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. The clip focuses on Heath Ledger, dressed in the costume shown in the picture at the head of this post, and addressing the audience of the traveling Imaginarium. I want to see this film right now.

After the break, a list of other films presented in the montage that I think will be of particular interest to /Film readers.

I've put this list in order, to give you some help in navigating the clips. Not all films in the video are listed here, however, so bear that in mind if you want to try skipping about.

  • Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank
  • Jane Campion's Bright Star
  • Chan Wook Parks Thirst
  • Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock
  • Marin de Van's Retourne Ne Te Pas
  • Johnnie To's Vengeance
  • Alejandro Amenebar's Agora
  • Ken Loach's Looking for Eric
  • Lars von Trier's Antichrist
  • Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces
  • Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds
  • Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell
  • Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar's Panique au Village
  • Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void
  • Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
  • Isabel Coixet's A Map of the Sounds of Tokyo
  • Do be aware that the Basterds and Hell footage has been previously seen in trailers.

    I've been away for a few days so you probably aren't going to be surprised to hear I have a small backlog of Parnassus pieces that I'm going to try and bring together into another post later today.