Cannes, 5/22.

"It is easy to forget that the cinema is but light and shadow, and for such a simple admission, it takes someone like Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet to remind us of this vital fact," writes Daniel Kasman in the Auteurs' Notebook. "Le Genou d'Artemide, to my knowledge Straub's first film directed by himself after Huillet passed away, is really nothing but the sound of wind in the air, and the look of moving light through trees....

"More cryptic than Le Genou d'Artemide is what seems to be the last film made by the husband and wife couple, Itinéraire de Jean Bricard, shot in severe, silvery, and restrained shades of black and white.... Commemorated now, even if only commemorating its passing, the filmmaker couple's last film becomes an ode to the evidence of a disappearing history—or the history of disappearance—just as their final project may become but the last surviving evidence of cinema's master artists."

"Latin America is supposed to be the success story at this year's Cannes." And yet, and yet... the Guardian's Xan Brooks enumerates all the reasons to celebrate - and to remain cautious. Also: "The Cannes marché is a babble of TV screens playing trailers for films you will never see.... I still love the marché and frequently get lost along its endless, green-carpeted rat runs. That said, it feels more sedate and conservative this year."

Quentin Tarantino gave a master class today and they were there, taking notes: Richard Corliss (Time), Karina Longworth (live-blogging for Spout) and Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times).

"Olivier Assayas's Summer Hours screened in the market without the Cannes Film Festival's official kiss on the cheek," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog, "but even without that critical imprimatur, it's nonetheless one the finest features I've seen this year, a return to classicism of a sort for Assayas (in the press notes, he admits that he sought to return to the stylistic concerns and working method of his Late August, Early September era) and the kind of thoughtful French film designed for adults for which there seems to longer be a US market (IFC bought it anyway)." Earlier: Daniel Kasman in the Auteurs' Notebook.

"Dividing audiences, it seems, is what Cannes does best," notes Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE.

Online listening tip. The Observer's Jason Solomons talks with Matteo Garrone (Gomorra), Bruce Weber (Let's Get Lost), Steve McQueen (Hunger) and Spike Lee.

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Coverage of the coverage: Cannes 08.

Last year: Cannes @ 60. And Cannes 06.

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Posted by dwhudson at May 22, 2008 2:56 PM