Grading Cannes 2005

In the past 10 days I’ve seen 30 movies and interviewed a slew of directors and actors. Here’s a quick graded guide to the films I've screened.

1) Lemming (Dominik Moll) C

2) Kilometre Zero ((Hiner Saleem) C

3) Midnight Movies: From The Margin To The Mainstream (Stuart Samuels) A-

4) Match Point (Woody Allen) A-

5) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black) B

6) Shadowing The Third Man A-

7) Last Days (Gus Van Sant) D

8) Where The Truth Lies (Atom Egoyan) B

9) The Power Of Nightmares (Adam Curtis) A

10) Come (Mike Figgis) C

11) Hidden (Michael Haneke) C+

12) Murderball B-

13) Punk: Attitude B

14) I Know Where I’m Going (Restored Classic by Michael Powell, 1945) B

15) King Boxer (1973 Kung Fu Classic From Run Run Shaw Studios) B

16) Down In The Valley (David Jacobson, Starring Ed Norton) C+

17) A History Of Violence (David Cronenberg) B-

18) The King (James Marsh, Starring Gael Garcia Bernal) C

19) Manderlay (Lars Von Trier) B+

20) Hard Candy (David Slade) A

21) Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch) B-

22) Wolf Creek (Greg Mclean) C

23) To Paint Or Make Love (Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu) C+

24) The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones) B-

25) James Dean: Forever Young (Michael J. Sheridan) (B)

26) Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes (Avi Mograbi) B-

27) Free Zone (Amos Gitai, Starring Natalie Portman) C-

28) Don’t Come Knocking (Wim Wenders, Starring Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange) B

29) Junebug (Phil Morrison) B+

30) Chromophobia (Martha Fiennes) C-

The Ugly Americans

The notoriously snotty American Pavillion (the hub for US representation at Cannes) has outdone itself this year by demanding 20 Euros for access to the tented area where people can hang out, check their e-mail, etc.

It's the only pavillion on the croisette to pull such a greedy stunt and is being met with fierce resistance by people like me who refuse to endorse the money grab on principle.

The word going around is that the American Pavillion lost their corporate sponsors (which translates as somebody on their staff wasn't doing their job of getting on the telephone and locating new sponsors). Allegedly, the American Pavillion staff are upset with the French for charging them a $350,000 (they think the French are 'screwing' them) fee for the space and are taking it out on people wanting access to the previously public area.

Even press are expected to pay the $20 Euros for entry to the symposiums of interviews with actors and directors.

It's an unfortunate example of American capitalist greed bearing its teeth in a place where everything done is under an international media microscope.

I predict that this will prove a bitter lesson to the people running the American Pavillion, and that next year they'll be engaged in an effort to win back the people they have insulted this year with their ham-fisted stunt.

Cannes '05 Without Jetlag

Finally, I've met my dream of hitting the ground running at Cannes thanks to good advice about beating the normal restraint of jetlag.

Dominik Moll's Cannes opener "Lemming" was an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying contemplation of middle class mentality via a dark psychological thriller.

Woody Allen's latest film "Match Point" hit the biggest ace in the festival so far. Set in London, the movie is Allen's strongest effort in a long time and exceeds even "Melinda And Melinda." This is vintage Woody Allen. The director liked working in London so much that his next film will also be set there.

Shane Black's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is great fun and firmly states Robert Downey Jr.s' return to the big screen. I enjoyed chatting with my hero Robert Ebert and his wife while we waited for our screening to be rearranged at one of the cinema's a few blocks from the Palias.

Frederick Baker's documentary "Shadowing The Third Man," about the making of "The Third Man," shed essential light on the film widely considered to be the best "British" film ever made.

Gus Van Sant's "Last Days" is the worst film in the festival as the navel-gazing director continues his lazy and sloppy deconstructionist approach to filmmaking. Somebody, please take Van Sant's camera away.

Atom Egoyan strikes dramatic paydirt with "Where The Truth Lies" with great performances by Allison Lohman, Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth.

"Midnight Moivies: From The Margin To The Mainstream" is a fun and informative at the six movies that generated a decade of cult cinema.

The Rivera sun, the insane screening scheduling and little time for sleep - "Hog Heaven."