Which is more likely: That filmmaker Lars Von Trier, known for making provocative statements, decided to come out at Cannes as a secret Nazi-sympathizer or that he was making a bad joke in response to dull press conference questions?  The Cannes Film Festival has apparently decided it’s the former and banned the Danish director from the festival indefinitely by declaring him “persona non grata”.  While Von Trier’s new film, Melancholia, is still eligible for the Palme d’Or, Von Trier will be unable to receive it if the film wins.

Hit the jump for what Von Trier said yesterday, his apology, the statement from Cannes, and my thoughts on the festival’s hypocrisy.

Just days before its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, a clip for Polisse has been released, offering a sneak peak at Maïwenn’s first official entry at the fest.  The actress, screenwriter and director, who was once married to Luc Besson, is one of the many female filmmakers selected for the official competition this year. She also has a supporting role in the film.

Read the synopsis and check out the images after the jump.  The 2011 Cannes Film Festival starts tomorrow and runs through May 22nd.

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer constantly justify our hatred with a slew of awful spoofs movies: Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie, and last year’s Vampires Suck.  But darn it if I didn’t chuckle at the title of their latest, The Biggest Movie of All Time 3D.  It will still be awful, of course.  According to Variety, Icon Entertainment will grant The Biggest Movie the opportunity for global atrocity with a deal for the worldwide sales rights secured at the Cannes Film Festival.  Peter Safran (Buried) will produce.

In more promising acquisition news, Variety reports Sony Pictures Worldwide has picked up the North American rights to the thriller Retreat, led by Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton, and Jamie Bell.  Hit the jump for more on Retreat.

Just a week before kick-off, organizers of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival have announced a last-minute addition to the official selection, rounding up the number of films in competition to a nice 20. The Artist, which was originally due to be screened out of competition, will now be up against Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and the Dardenne brothers’ Boy With a Bike in the race for the Palme d’Or.

Director Michel Hazanavicius and the star of his Bond-inspired OSS 117 franchise Jean Dujardin have teamed up once again in this black-and-white silent movie about… a silent movie star. Check out the synopsis after the jump.

A clip from Christophe Honoré’s Les Bien-aimés (The Beloved) has been released, a little over two weeks before its premiere at the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival. The French movie will screen following the awards ceremony on Sunday, May 22.  Starring Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Milos Forman, Louis Garrel, Michel Delpech and Paul Schneider, the musical comedy draws us “into Prague of the sixties, London of the ’80s, the world of Sept. 11 and Paris of today in a singular, melancholy and romantic work of art,” according to the film fest’s press release.

Hit the jump for the synopsis and to watch Deneuve and her daughter Chiara (daughter of late Italian legend Marcello Mastroianni) singing “Une fille légère”, written by Alex Beaupain.  Les Bien-aimés will be Honoré’s second film to screen at Cannes, although it will be out-of-competition. Les Chansons d’amour, which had also starred Chiara Mastroianni, Sagnier and Garrel, competed at the fest in 2007.

New images have been released for the Cannes selections This Must Be the Place starring Sean Penn and Miss Bala.  This Must Be the Place follows an aging rock star (Penn) who picks up his father’s mission to hunt down a Nazi war criminal.  As for Miss Bala, no synopsis has been supplied but we’ll provide one as soon as we get it.  In the meantime, the image from the film leads me to believe that Miss Bala is a harrowing drama about a woman struggling to fix her car’s windshield.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The 2011 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 11 – 22nd.

As we just reported, the selections for this year’s Cannes Film Festival have been announced.  Among this year’s selections is Julia Leigh’s dark psychosexual drama Sleeping Beauty.  How dark is the film?  Well here’s what he heard the synopsis was last year: “a haunting erotic fairy tale about a student who drifts into prostitution and finds her niche as a woman who sleeps, drugged, in a ‘Sleeping Beauty chamber’ while men do to her what she can’t remember the next morning.”

The trailer has some striking imagery and I’m intrigued by the unnerving premise.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer along with some images from the film.  The 2011 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 11 – 22nd.

Director Terrence Malick’s highly anticipated, and long in the works, The Tree of Life is finally being released this May, and now word comes that the film will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier that month. Variety reports that it’s still unclear whether Malick will screen the film in-competition or not, but The Tree of Life will definitely be there. Back in 2010, it looked like the film might screen at that Cannes Film Festival, but the ever-meticulous Malick didn’t feel that the flick was ready just yet.

The Tree of Life stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain and follows a life from childhood in the 1950’s to adulthood in the modern day. If the trailer is any indication, audiences are in for a very characteristically Malick experience (visceral, thought-provoking, etc.). If you missed it, be sure to check out Steve’s interview with Chastain in which she describes the experience of working with an auteur like Malick. The Tree of Life hits theaters on May 27^th. The 2011 Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 11th – May 22nd.  Hit the jump for the official synopsis.

Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, a romcom which was shot in Paris last year, is set to open the 64^th Cannes Film Festival on May 11^th and will be released in French theaters on the same day. The movie features an international all-star cast, including Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux and Gad Elmaleh.

But the talk of the town is the very special cameo appearance by a certain French leading lady. Find out who after the jump.

Robert DeNiro has been named as the president of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Jury.  This will be the actor’s third time serving as president of a Cannes jury, having presided over two juries back in the 1980’s. Speaking about being selected as president, DeNiro had this to say:

The Cannes Film Festival is a rare opportunity for me as it is one of the oldest and one of the best in the world. Having served as president of the jury in the eighties twice, I know this isn’t an easy task for me or my fellow jury members, but I’m very honored and happy to head the jury for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

No stranger to the festival as a competitor, DeNiro’s films Taxi Driver and The Mission have both won the coveted Palme d’Or prize at the festival in the past. DeNiro himself started the Tribeca Film Festival ten years ago as a way to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking hub. The 2011 Cannes Film Festival will take place May 11^th – 22^nd.