After sharing the screen on Sam Raimi now defunct “Spiderman” franchise, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco are now set to close Cannes’ Critics’ Week together on May 20th with their respective short films “Bastard” and “The Clerk’s Tale.”
Dunst’s short, her second after 2009’s “Welcome,” stars Brian Geraghty (“The Hurt Locker”), Juno Temple and Lukas Haas and centers on a young couple in crisis who find their way to a desert motel where three odd men plan to meet them for questionable reasons.
The actress-turned-director cryptically added that the film “explores what makes the unbelievable believable. When we hear a story that seems mysterious or far-fetched, we put more trust in its accuracy the longer ago it took place. As the centuries pass, the truth becomes more malleable. We grow less skeptical of what we might otherwise dismiss as incredible. Our perspective changes. This film addresses the eerie transformation of a familiar myth when displaced to the present.”
The short also evidently features a score by Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger. The two previously collaborated together on Jason Schwartzmann’s musical project Coconut Records and his album Nighttiming which saw Eizinger produce at his home studio and Dunst contributing vocals on “This Old Machine” and “Summer Day.”
Franco’s short, meanwhile, is an adaptation of Spencer Reece’s poem of the same name and is a psychological portrait of a gay man trapped in the monotonous routine of life at a high-end menswear store described as a “haunting and delicately observed study in loneliness.” John Kelly and Charles Dance star.
“The Clerk’s Tale” will be Franco’s second short premiering this year after his Michael Shannon led adaptation of Frank Bidart’s “Herbert White” screened at Sundance. The film-school student slash actor-turned-director also has adaptations of Charles Bukowski’s “Ham On Rye” and the Hart Crane biopic “The Broken Tower” in the works with his brother Dave Franco co-adapting the former literary work for the screen and his documentary “Saturday Night Live” spotlighting the titular show hitting this year.