Cannes, 5/22.

Scott Roxborough in the Hollywood Reporter: "There's something missing from this year's Cannes lineup: Iraq."

Martin Scorsese has launched an international project at Cannes to preserve endangered landmarks of world cinema. As Angela Doland reports for the AP, the set-up is similar to that of the Film Foundation he co-founded in the US. Update on this: indieWIRE. Also alert-worthy: J Hoberman's Cannes-so-far piece in the Voice.

The Guardian's Xan Brooks listens and watches as Samira Makhmalbaf presents footage of the attack that put a halt - temporarily, she insists - to the shooting her next film, Two-Legged Horse, in northern Afghanistan. A "man who had infiltrated the set as an extra tossed a hand grenade from the rooftop at a local bazaar, severely injuring six people and killing the horse that took the brunt of the blast." When her father, Mohsen, joins her, Brooks writes, "One suspects that he was the flashpoint for this latest attack, and one suspects he knows it too." Al-Qaida or the Taliban might have been behind the attack, but Mohsen voiced another possibility: "Please remember that this is only my theory, my opinion. But if you hear that Mohsen is killed, that Mohsen is dead, you will know it was Iran that did it."

Chris Weitz, who's written and directed the upcoming adaptation of The Golden Compass, the first volume in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, as quoted by the Guardian's Charlotte Higgins: "In the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic church gone wildly astray from its roots. If that's what you want in the film, you'll be disappointed. We have expanded the range of meanings that the Magisterium represents." And Pullman seems fine with that. A 20-minute preview was screened in Cannes. For the Telegraph's David Gritten, so far so good. And for the Los Angeles Times, John Horn notes that New Line's strategy of offering Cannes this sneak peek is awfully similar to their tactic in 2001 with the first installment of The Lord of the Rings.

Ashley Adams visits the Turkish Pavilion for indieWIRE and finds things on the up and up: "2005, Turkish film was 40 percent of the country's domestic box office revenues. In 2006, the percentage had increased to 51.8 percent of the box office, a figure that gives the country an enviable home grown film industry in comparison to many of its neighbors."

Blogging for the Guardian, Mike Brett visits the Cannes Short Film Center and Xan Brooks gets lost in the Marché du Film.

Speaking of which, Twitch's Todd "spotted a pair of trailers for upcoming Thai films that bear watching out for while wandering the Cannes market."

Where are the women directors? asks Kira Cochrane.

Christina Kotlar's on the road to Cannes for Zoom In Online.

Online listening tip. At IFC News, Matt Singer and Alison Willmore reflect on the fest.

Posted by dwhudson at May 22, 2007 1:18 PM