Wrapping Cannes and measuring the Fahrenheit 9/11 factor.

Rob Nelson arrived a tad late at Cannes, but once he arrived, he started keeping a very fine diary for the City Pages, culminating with a face-to-face with Wong Kar-wai.

For indieWIRE, Stephen Garrett offers one of the most comprehensive wrap-ups around. The man was busy. He caught 50 films in 10 days - just ten short of George the cyclist's tally. And here are George and Jesse's final lists of favorites.

Filmbrain is collecting guesses: "Which film did Quentin hate?"

Time's Richard Corliss gets to expand on his coverage for the US edition of the magazine; in Time Asia, he writes, "What you need to know, what 2046 makes unavoidably clear, is that Wong Kar-wai is the most romantic filmmaker in the world." And in Time Europe, an assessment of a "brighter and more fun" fest this year than last. Meanwhile, Mary Corliss presents the newsweekly's "Parallel Awards."

Via Movie City News, Roger Ebert's Cannes Photo Album. More pix at indieWIRE.

For the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, it was a "very good year for Cannes, though not vintage." The most remarkable highlight, of course, was the way Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 "was operating outside the world of arthouse festival aesthetics. A widespread cinema release could bring anti-war/anti-Bush opinion to the political tipping point.... It isn't often that Cannes juries have it in their power to change the course of history." Also: Cannes clips from German, French and US papers.

Gary Younge, in the meantime, takes a closer look at how the Palme d'Or winner might impact the US election by asking media and political observers such as Howard Kurtz and Todd Gitlin.

Sharon Waxman spells out what's known publicly about the complex behind-the-scenes haggling between Harvey Weinstein and potential US distributors for Fahrenheit 9/11. She also measures out the egg on Michael Eisner's face: Lots. Accompanying that piece, by the way, is AO Scott's full audio report from Cannes, updated with observations on the Asian and European presences at the festival.

And finally for the moment - because the Fahrenheit 9/11 story probably has legs that reach from here to November - David Poland offers a far livelier, opinionated and provocative take than Waxman's on the marketing of the film's back story. That's right: Not the film itself, but the spin on how it's come to pass that there's a distributor lined up for nearly every territory in the world but the US. You may not agree with every offhand comment and you may even get ticked off here and there, but this is compulsively readable stuff.

Posted by dwhudson at May 26, 2004 9:19 AM