Cannes, 5/16.

By David Hudson on 05/16/2009

There will, of course, be a full-blown entry in good time, but I thought you'd want to know that AICN's Quint has seen "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, screening Out of Competition: "The greatest compliment I can give the movie is that if I had been told the final product was exactly what Terry Gilliam had intended from the beginning I'd believe it. Heath is in the movie for the great majority of his character's screen-time. This time fate only threw down a gauntlet and challenged Terry to overcome a huge set-back, not Nancy Kerriganed him.... 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' is pure, unadulterated, unhomogenized, unrestricted Terry Gilliam."

"Marco Risi's long-in-gestation 'Fortapasc' strikingly re-creates the last four months in the life of Giancarlo Siani, a young journalist whacked by the Neapolitan mob in 1985 for digging too deeply into their alliances," writes Jay Weissberg. "Though any Camorra movie will now inevitably be compared with Matteo Garrone's very different 'Gomorrah,' Risi has crafted his personal best with this hard-hitting take on the murder of idealism."

Also in Variety, Leslie Felperin: "In an attempt to plumb the depths of fear again without appreciably lowering standards, several key talents behind cave-set cult horror-thriller 'The Descent' reunite for 'The Descent: Part 2,' although franchise founder Neil Marshall has passed the helming baton to editor Jon Harris. Treading closely in the steps of its predecessor in every sense, the sequel has less emotional nuance, shows more of the monsters and opts this time for a less interesting coed cast instead of the all-femme crew used so effectively in the original. Nevertheless, as popcorn entertainment, it delivers, and should satisfy fans on all platforms."

"A happening guy from West LA beds a lot of beauties, but he wakes up one morning with blood in his bed and all over his torso. How did it get there and whose is it?" asks Duane Byrge. "That's the deadly question in 'In My Sleep,' a well-stirred titillation that will appeal to twentysomething audiences and movie-buff viewers who appreciate the pursued-pursuer, Hitchcockian style of suspenser." Also: "Often mean-spirited, with sadistic dark flourishes, '2:22' registers 0:00 on the empathy scale." This is one "brutal heist movie."

And also in the Hollywood Reporter: "One of those extraordinarily dark Russian films that views life as a harsh wasteland unfit for human beings, Alexei Balabanov's 'Morphia' cuts no corners," writes Deborah Young. "Viewers swept up in the grim fascination of the story of a young doctor addicted to morphine are caught in a crossfire of admiration for the subtle storytelling and repugnance for what is often on screen."

For Vanity Fair, Julian Sancton listens to Lee Daniels introduce the screening of "Precious": "This movie is made of love, bubble gum, popsicle sticks, and a couple of dollars. I'm a little homo, I'm a little Euro, and I'm a little ghetto. And I put all of that into the world I tried to create. So sit back, y'all, and enjoy the ride." Earlier: Reviews from Sundance when the film was called "Push."

"What was it about 'L'Avventura' that provoked such disparate responses?" FilmInFocus runs a brief excerpt from Kieron Corless and Chris Darke's "Cannes: Inside the World's Premier Film Festival."

How slow is Cannes this year? Noah Harlan lists a few leading indicators at Filmmaker.

The town and the festival keep changing, though. Roger Ebert counts the ways.

Online scrolling tip. Joe Bowman collects more posters.

[Photo: "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," Parnassus Productions, 2009]

Tags: Alexei Balabanov, Cannes 2009, Jon Harris, Lee Daniels, Marco Risi, Terry Gilliam, The Descent 2, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus