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#16. Love and Bruises Director: Lou YeCast: Tahar Rahim, Corinne Yam, Jalil Lespert, Sifan Shao, Vincent RottiersDistributor: Rights Available Buzz: Can't say I consider myself a fan of Lou Ye's body of work, so when word first surfaced that A Prophet's Tahar Rahim was joining the banned Chinese filmmaker for a Last Tango-like drama that was sexually and violently fierce, my thoughts were indeed I'm back in the Ye camp. I'd normally be tempted to make a last minute switcheroo as the reactions from Venice have been mostly negative --- but the performances appear to be the film's consolation prize. I'll have checked my hopes for a nouveau Tango once I'm seated, but I might not be able to control the persistent thoughts as to why this wasn't included at Cannes. The Gist: Formerly titled Bitch, "this is an adaptation from Jie Liu-Falin’s autobiographical novel, Hua, a young teacher from Beijing,...

Shawn Ashmore, Ashley Bell, Shannyn Sossamon, Dominic Monaghan and Cory Hardrict in The Day

Photo: Content Media The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival announced 56 more movies added to its festival line-up this year with selections in the Vanguard, Midnight Madness, Documentaries, City to City and Tiff Kids programs. And to be honest, the line-up is filled with titles, most of which are absolutely new to me.

I have seen one of the films under the Vanguard banner, a selection of young and cutting edge features and I've heard of Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31, Ben Wheatley's Kill List (watch the trailer to the right) was a hit at South by Southwest earlier this year and the documentary selections include familiar names such as Werner Herzog, Morgan Spurlock, Jonathan Demme, Alex Gibney and Wim Wenders, the latter of which is delivering a 3D documentary centered on the dance world of Pina Bausch and her company.

#24. Love and Bruises Director: Lou YeWriter(s): Catherine Paille and Liu Jie Falin Producers: Kristina Larsen and Vincent Maraval Distributor: Rights Available. The Gist: Formerly titled Bitch, this is an adaptation from Jie Liu-Falin’s autobiographical novel, Mathieu says, if she were a prostitute, for sure Flower would make a lot of money. He says she’s a born bitch. Any profession other than a prostitute would indeed be a waste of her gifts. Maybe he’s had few numerable women in his life, even though he boasts himself a veteran of love affairs; or maybe he just says it as a compliment to her, even though his flattering always goes too far, but no matter how, she can never be a prostitute.....(more) Cast: Tahar Rahim, Jalil Lespert, Lika Minamoto, Sifan Shao and Corinne Yam List Worthy Reasons...: If we thought that Tahar Rahim was the...

Kaboom

Opens: 2011

Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Juno Temple, Kelly Lynch, James Duval

Director: Gregg Araki

Summary: Smith's everyday life in the dorm - hanging out with his arty, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor - all gets turned upside-down after one fateful, terrifying night.

Analysis: A year after "Thelma and Louise" came "The Living End", an independent film which had a similar premise but made the protagonists two gay HIV+ men. It was raw, intense and signalled the arrival of a new talent in the form of filmmaker Gregg Araki. In the subsequent two decades, he's delivered several trippy films involving young, good-looking omnisexual people having lots of graphic sex and dealing with some wacky cobbled together plot shenanigans.

The tone has ranged the light-hearted "Splendor" and "Nowhere" to the darker "Mysterious Skin...

Among the films pegged for next year's Cannes is the already completed Love and Bruises. We collected some stills of Lou Ye's film which began filming three weeks after winning Best Actor and Best New Actor at the French Oscars for his role in A Prophet and ended in May. We found out that Ye was interested in Rahim taking the lead based on a photo of the actor and not the role that catapulted him to fame - Ye had yet to see the Jacques Audiard prison drama. Ye didn't switch up his brand of filmmaking - working with long takes and keeping the cameras rolling on Rahim and newbie actress Corinne Yam. Jalil Lespert (Human Resources) and Sifan Shao (Eden Log) also star, and I imagine that Hao Qin (who was in Ye's Spring Fever) might have grab a cameo role or was visiting the set for the...