Cannes, 5/26. Late-ish edition.

"Something a little strange is going on though, especially for us," says Emmanuel Burdeau, in conversation with two other critics for Cahiers du cinéma. "Cannes has selected a few of the most radical filmmakers (auteurs), the strongest in worldwide cinema: Sokurov, Béla Tarr and Naomi Kawase for its official competition, and yet this is not where things are happening, where things are really being shaken up. This year, the Cannes Festival will have been very American, whereas for the cinema in general lately this has not been the case. And this has happened in a manner that resembles what is happening right now, in a broader sense, to all of cinema: a return to the fundamental things, a distance in relation to what is contemporary, toward a more rudimentary art."

For Time, Mary Corliss considers a few likely award-winners and does a little math: "[T]here are up to 10 prizes given out for the 21 films selected for the competition. Theoretically, if you're invited to the Cannes party, you have a nearly 50 percent chance of coming home a winner."

Posted by dwhudson at May 26, 2007 3:20 PM