CANNES CHECK: ‘This Must Be the Place’

The director: Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)

The talent: Sean Penn (a Best Actor winner at Cannes back in 1997 for “She’s So Lovely”) pops up in his second film of the Competition, though this time in a clear lead role. Frances McDormand makes it two Oscar-winners on board, while the eccentric supporting cast includes Harry Dean Stanton, Judd Hirsch, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne (guess he sanctioned the film’s title, then) and Eve Hewson — the 19 year-old daughter of Bono.  Byrne also contributed the film’s score, with original songs by US folk star Will Oldham (aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy). Overall, however, the crew remains heavily Italian; Sorrentino’s regular (and regularly flashy) cinematographer, Luca Bigazzi, is also on board.

The pitch: Sorrentino’s first English-language feature — hardly a surprising move, given how his previous features toyed with Hollywood forms — sounds like a decidedly odd duck on paper. If you think the film’s various connections to rock royalty seem thematically related, you’d be right: Penn plays Cheyenne (!), a former Goth rock star living in wealthy retirement in Dublin, shaken out of his self-involved stupor by his estranged father’s death.

Upon learning that his father was an Auschwitz survivor and that his chief Nazi tormentor is still alive in the US, Cheyenne sets out to track the man down, and complete his father’s quest for revenge. The material could be a match for Sorrentino’s sneaky thriller stylings, though perhaps a little more lurid. (Quentin Tarantino must be livid someone dreamed up the “rocker-turned-Nazi-hunter”  hook before he did.)

The pedigree: Sorrentino is on a roll at Cannes: this is his fourth feature in a row to play in Competition. While knotty genre pieces “The Consequences of Love” and “The Family Friend” both left empty-handed, he applied his whizz-bang style to more expansive non-fiction subject matter in 2008’s “Il Divo,” and was duly rewarded with the Jury Prize.

The buzz: Word on the film itself has yet to circulate, though the sheer weirdness of the premise, plus the mix-and-match big-name cast, ensures it’s being awaited with more curiosity than most of its Competition rivals. (The release of a still featuring Penn in full dissolute-rocker regalia, reportedly modelled on The Cure’s Robert Smith but looking for all the world like Linda Perry on a particularly rough morning, heightened the “what is it” chatter.) As a big fan of “Il Divo,” I hope to be wrong, but I can’t shake the creeping hunch that a disappointment is in the works here: the synopsis seems dangerous enough without the potential pitfalls of a director switching languages. However it turns out, the film has already been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.

The odds: Based on Sorrentino’s solid reputation and the prestige names in the cast, the bookies rather fancy the film’s chances, placing it in the upper tier of possibilities for the Palme. I’m more sceptical, though a lot depends on what tonal approach the film takes to outlandish-sounding material. (The strange clip below suggests it may be more of a deadpan comedy than initially suggested.) Some have positioned Penn as a Best Actor favorite, thanks in part to his friendship with jury president Robert De Niro — though it bears repeating, whenever pundits make such projections, that it’s a jury of nine, not one.