In spite of the fact that there isn’t a lounge for critics and journalists to hang out and drink free beer like there used to be in the pre-austerity days of Cannes, you can pick up on conversations if you have good ear.
Alice Winocour’s Un Certain Regard film “Maryland,” about a French ex-Special Forces soldier suffering from PTSD who gets a bodyguard job protecting a wealthy Lebanese businessman, is getting talked about. It doesn’t hurt that the film stars the versatile Matthias Schoenaerts and secret-weapon-actress Diane Kruger.
Every other girl on the croisette favors the Amy Winehouse eye-make-up style of heavy black eyeliner turned up at the outer edges. From the looks of it, director Asif Kapadia has a surefire hit on his hands for “Amy,” the documentary for which he and his team interviewed around 80 of Amy Winehouse’s friends, associates, and family members.
Movie technology has a presence on the beach with Auro 3D Audio CEO Wilfried Van Baelen giving private exhibitions of the sound technology he masterminded. The process was used on the latest “Spider-Man 2” movie, and it truly does deliver on its promise of “immersive sound.” Just don’t get the loquacious Wilfried going on how his technology is not related to any “channel or object-based technology,” you might miss that screening of Natalie Portman’s directorial debut “A Tale of Love and Darkness.” Still, she’s hard to miss on the red carpet.
