Anticipating Cannes, 5/9.

By David Hudson on 05/09/2009

[Updated through 5/11]

The Cannes Film Festival opens on Wednesday, runs through May 24, and while I plan to be all over it - virtually, of course - it looks like I can already get started. "Up" is the official opener and, for Time, Richard Corliss considers the similarities between this new Pixar film and "WALL-E": "Both movies are about lonely creatures - a droid left on Earth, a man whose cherished wife has died - taking a perilous trip. Both protagonists are stout and box-shaped and don't talk much. Both films, under the thrill-ride wrapping, are unabashed love stories. And though it's not yet summer, we can declare that 'Up,' like 'WALL-E,' will prove to be one of the most satisfying movie experiences of its year."

But "Up" also "represents several Pixar firsts," reports John Horn for the Los Angeles Times. "In addition to the studio's first trip to Cannes, 'Up' also marks a new move into producing and releasing a film in 3D. It's a format that has worked well for competitor DreamWorks Animation's 'Monsters vs Aliens,' and Pixar is now remaking its first two 'Toy Story' films (in addition to next year's 'Toy Story 3') in the immersive technology. The film's more material departures are harder to detect. It's the first Pixar feature to have as its central character a senior citizen, and because Fredricksen is based on friends and relatives of the filmmakers, 'Up' might well be considered the studio's most personal film."

Meantime, individual pages for films screening at Cannes this year now have synopses, links, etc, and the festival has announced that "Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne will give the Cinema Masterclass."

"'Is it brilliant or is it muddled?' we've been quizzing acquisition execs who saw [Terry Gilliam's] 'The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus' at the first and heretofore only buyers' screening earlier in the week. 'And, more to the point, would you buy it?'" The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik: "The first question has returned an answer of surprising consistency. Both, most of them said." Related: FirstShowing's got fresh pix.

Which is also where Alex Billington's got photos from Michel Gondry's evidently quite personal documentary, "L'epine Dans le Coeur" ("The Thorn in the Heart").

"I wasn't out to teach a history lesson. You can turn on the History Channel - which might as well be called the Hitler Channel. I just wanted to tell my story and have the same freedom I would have telling any story. I want the act of writing to be so fulfilling that I have to question do I want to even make the movie." That's Quentin Tarantino, talking to Kristin Hohenadel in the New York Times. The movie at hand, of course, is "Inglourious Basterds," and Hohenadel wanders the set, chatting, too, with Daniel Brühl and production designer David Wasco. For those who read German and want another set report, turn to Matthias Schmidt in Stern.

"'Looking For Eric' is [Ken] Loach's first comedy in 20 years," writes Simon Hattenstone, who talks with the director and star, Eric Cantona, for the Guardian. "It's a wonderful, humane, feel-good movie. Though, as you'd expect with a Loach film, he still plumbs the depths along the way. The film deals with broken men, drugs, poverty, violence, betrayal, corruption. Business as usual, then, for the director, except he's swapped down and dirty realism for down and dirty magic realism."

"Filmmaker Cordell Barker considers the economic meltdown 'serendipitous' and he's grateful for Winnipeg's lousy weather," writes Peter Howell in a profile for the Toronto Star. "He credits both bummers for pushing him to finish his animated short 'Runaway' in time for the Cannes Film Festival (May 13 - 24), where it will have its world premiere in competition as part of International Critics' Week." Via Movie City News.

Michael Dwyer profiles festival director Thierry Frémaux for the Irish Times.

Variety has its special section set up.

The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips talks to Chicagoans heading to Cannes.

The Telegraph's David Gritten writes up "an essential A-Z."

Online scrolling tip. Joe Bowman's collected posters for several of the films to be screened.

Earlier: The lineups: Cannes/Un certain regard, Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week.

Updates, 5/10: "We might associate the competition with glitter, glamour and cultural cachet, the revered Palme d'Or trophy denoting the eternal lofty glory of the 'seventh art.' But, in fact, over and over, film-makers have used the competition to put the wind up their evening-dressed audiences, sometimes in very brutal ways indeed." Like Robert Koehler, Jonathan Romney notes that there's a lot of blood and gore in the lineup this year. And towards the end of his piece for the Independent, he offers "a round-up of what else will be fighting for attention this year."

The Observer's Jason Solomons talks with Cantona and lists "Five to watch: Films set to make a splash in Cannes."

Update, 5/11: Several nifty Cannes-related items top today's "Fests and events" entry.

[Photos: "Up," Walt Disney Pictures, 2009; "Inglourious Basterds," The Weinstein Company, 2009]

Tags: Cannes 2009, Cordell Barker, Dardenne Brothers, Eric Cantona, Ken Loach, Michel Gondry, Pixar, Quentin Tarantino, Terry Gilliam, Thierry Frémaux, Up