Cannes, 5/16.

What a day in France. Nicolas Sarkozy takes office as the first new president in a dozen years and Cannes opens a big anniversary edition.

"The festival is marking its 60th incarnation with a burst of nostalgic self-congratulation," note Manohla Dargis and AO Scott in a preview for the New York Times. "Its international scope is part of what makes Cannes so unmistakably French.... For the next 11 days, in any case, Cannes will be the undisputed center of the movie universe, a place of hyperbolic debate, unexpected delight and also a certain measure of disappointment. Established reputations will be dented or burnished, and new ones will be minted."

"As there are only a token handful of public screenings, for all intents and purposes Cannes is a private event," Hannah Eaves reminds us in PopMatters. She gets some great stories from Telluride co-directors Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer. Luddy once served on the jury with Emir Kusturica, who came out of seemingly nowhere to win the Palme d'Or for When Father Was Away on Business.

Updated.

Luddy:

We had one jury member who was complaining all the time about Cannes being this insane media circus with paparazzi everywhere, saying why did she come here, this was not about art, this was not about culture, this was not about cinema, this was just about media, and of course that's partly true. Then Kusturica said, listen my dear, you were telling me earlier how much you love my films, how you'd love to work with me, how you admire me, I can tell you that you wouldn't know my films, I wouldn't be sitting here today, if it wasn't for a bunch of people like us a few years ago, sitting in the middle of this media circus, and deciding that this obscure unknown film was the best film. That's the responsibility we have.

Eugene Hernandez and Brian Brooks launch indieWIRE's coverage with all sorts of newsy bits.

Cineuropa's wide-ranging coverage begins.

Variety's Sharon Swart's got an annotated list of several titles that have "the world's buyers buzzing as they head for the Croisette." Cinematical's Monika Bartyzel focuses on one David Lynch will be shopping around: Lynch.

At the Austin Movie Blog, Charles Ealy explains the various sections and press badges: "Blue is the badge of shame."

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw picks ten films to keep an eye on.

"If the Sundance Film Festival is governed by the discovery and selling of independent film, and Telluride and Toronto film festivals build buzz for the Academy Awards, then Cannes is all about making a splash," writes John Horn. "'There's no reason to go if you don't have anything worth showing. But if you got it, flaunt it,' says Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Co has five films - led by Michael Moore's new healthcare documentary, Sicko - in this year's festival." Also in the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan's preview.

Mike D'Angelo is conducting a little experiment. He'll be watching 22 films knowing as little about each as possible going in. Why? He explains at ScreenGrab.

Filmzeit's gathering coverage in the German-language press all on one handy page.

Updates: "Sarkozy has vowed to rebuild the French relationship with the United States, but Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux and his staff are way ahead of him," writes Andrew O'Hehir in his excellent preview for Salon. "While not officially an American film, Wong Kar-wai's road romance kicks off a rich and exciting lineup that's the most conspicuously Yank-centric in recent memory."

Noel Murray at the AV Club:

If I have one complaint about the tenor of Cannes coverage over the past couple of years, it's that most of the people who've been around long enough to get credentialed for Cannes tend to be somewhat jaded, and split between two tribes. On one side, you've got the hardcore types, yearning for austerity. They're looking for the hard sits - the films that drive cranky middlebrow critics like Variety's Todd McCarthy and Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells batty. On the other side, you've got McCarthy and Wells and Anne Thompson and others, who'd like nothing more than to find another Babel this fortnight. And sitting back home are a lot of dudes like me, who like movies that range from dopily commercial to aggravatingly abstract, and enjoy watching the Cannes fray from afar.

He's also got a nifty brief history of Cannes at the Hollywood Reporter.

"[T]his year [Germans] might have to lay aside their usual complaints that France is acting sniffy about German film," suggests Wolfgang Höbel at Spiegel Online.

Online viewing tips. Anthony Kaufman's got plenty. Good ones, too.

IFC's got its "Cannes Cam" up and running. Matt Singer and a string of guests are commenting on the major red carpet events.

Posted by dwhudson at May 16, 2007 2:27 AM