Cannes adds 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood', 'Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo' to competition line-up

Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and Abdellatif Kechiche's "Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo" are part of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival competition line-up, the festival organisers announced on Thursday.

The two films have been added to the 2019 Official Selection, according to the festival's official website.

Tarantino's film had been expected in the original line-up, unveiled on April 18, but artistic director Thierry Fremaux told reporters that day that the film was not ready.

Fremaux praised both Cannes favourite filmmakers -- American director Tarantino and Tunisian-French filmmaker Kechiche for their dedication towards the movie gala.

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood", based on the murder of actor Sharon Tate and three others at the hands of the Manson Family cult in the 1960s, will have its world premiere at the festival.

Fremaux said the team was earlier afraid Tarantino's film would not be ready for the gala.

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"... As it wouldn't be ready until late July, but Quentin Tarantino, who has not left the editing room in four months, is a real, loyal and punctual child of Cannes! Like for 'Inglourious Basterds', he'll definitely be there  25 years after the Palme d'or for 'Pulp Fiction'  with a finished film screened in 35mm and his cast in tow. 

"His film is a love letter to the Hollywood of his childhood, a rock music tour of 1969, and an ode to cinema as a whole," he added.

Film's cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt will be also present for the premiere.

About "Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo", Fremaux said he watched Kechiche's film  last week while it was being edited.

"But it is going to be finished and the director says it will be four hours long. And screened at the end of the Festival so the DCP (film's digital copy) has time to get there...

"The groundwork for this saga storytelling and extraordinary portrait of French youth in the '90s was laid in his 'Canto Uno' (2017), and it will be a pleasure to see its cast again," he said.

The dramedy stars Shain Boumedine, Ophelie Bau, Salim Kechiouche, Lou Luttiau, Alexia Chardard, and Hafsia Herzi.

The film marks Kechiche's returns to Cannes six years after winning Palme d'or for "La Vie d'Adele (Blue Is the Warmest Color)".

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