A few quickies:

"The Da Vinci Code": Color us bemused. $77 million opening weekend, despite those reviews.

At Cannes, people are plotzing over DreamWorks’ 20-minute preview of Bill Condon‘s "Dreamgirls," which stars Beyoncé and Jamie Foxx and which is based on the Broadway musical based on the rise of Diana Ross and the Supremes. Bob Tourtellotte at Reuters:

Shouts of "more" echoed round the room after the four brief scenes were shown — the first ever screening of the clips — and when Foxx addressed the crowd, Oscar whispers filled the air.

We imagine that’s like smoke filling the air, but less breathable. David Poland:

My favorite unspoken bit is when [Eddie] Murphy‘s Early (a performance that
stinks of Oscar, even in this small quantity) wants two back up
singers, but accepts the three, figuring without a word that there is
the beauty, the singer, and the one to whom he is immediately attracted
and that if the girls were forced to drop one member, his hoped for
lover would be the one to go. And of course, this is an early echo of
what is to come in the film.

Again! Oscar buzz is not unlike some form of conical incense. Mary Corliss, blogging for Time:

Twenty minutes, even the 20 shown at the Martinez, do not make a movie. There’s no telling how the entire film will play. But the Friday-night tastes were savory. It was apparent that the film, designed by John Myhre ("X Men," "Chicago," "Memoirs of a Geisha") with special lighting by Broadway legend Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, looks fabulous. Choreographer Fatima Robinson put the non-dancing actors through brilliant moves.

And the teaser, for you the judge yourself. All this Oscar buzz is going to our head, we need some fresh air. The film’s not even done yet, and it has a late December premiere date attached.

Speaking of, the trailer for Oliver Stone‘s "World Trade Center," backed with wall-to-wall sappy strings and headed by Nicolas Cage (attempting what may be an even less convincing accent than the one he assumed for "Captain Corelli’s Mandolin") is still oddly comforting — we don’t particularly want to see it, but if 9/11 films are an inevitability, we’d rather see them a-drip with sentimental cinematic goo than sparse and lean and delivered like a dose of medicine.

Also at Cannes, via Todd at Twitch:

Apparently Choi Min-Sik and Bong Joon-Ho have been leading nightly vigils in from of the Palais Lumiere every night at eight, just on time for the big nightly galas. The duo are there protesting, once again, the reduction of the Korean screen quota system. Bong’s presence makes good sense as he’s there with "The Host" this year, but as near as I can tell Choi has nothing at the festival whatsoever, not even in the market, which means he’s made the trip solely for this purpose.

Incidentally, "The Host," which is part of the Directors’ Fortnight, and which IMDb sums up with "a mutant emerges from Seoul’s Han River and focuses its attention on attacking people," has been generating advance rumblings for ages.

Via Gregg Kilday at Hollywood Reporter, Todd Solondz is apparently at Cannes trolling for cash for a new film "inspired by his black comedies ‘Happiness’ and ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse.’ " Because, boy, save his embarrassing 1989 semi-studio film "Fear, Anxiety & Depression," his films have just been all over the extremely bleak black comedy map.

Finally, via (yes!) the New York Post‘s Page Six, Lionsgate’s promotional efforts surrounding forgettable horror flick "See No Evil" reportedly sidestep the slight issue of helmer Gregory Dark‘s previous career directing and producing pornos (as if they were required to trumpet the fact?). Title highlights include "The Creasemaster," "Between the Cheeks," and our personal favorite, "Dr. Penetration." We do feel they’ve missed out on a key marking hook here: "From the makers of ‘Hootermania’…" beats out "Hey! This movie stars a pro-wrestler!" any day. It does also add a mildly ironic twist to that whole "torture porn" discussion.

+ The Da Vinci Code (Boxoffice Mojo)
+ "Dreamgirls" casts spell over Cannes audience (Reuters)
+ Dreamgirls On The Croisette (The Hot Blog)
+ Dream a Little Dream (Time)
+ Teaser: Dreamgirls (Apple)
+ Trailer: World Trade Center (Apple)
+ Choi Min-Sik and Bong Joon-Ho Holding Screen Quota Vigils at Cannes (Twitch)
+ Solondz finds more "Happiness" with new film (Hollywood Reporter)
+ HISTORY EXCISED (NY Post)