Morsels, Observations and a Prediction from the Croisette

By Steven Zeitchik

Tasting menus are all the rage in France, so we thought we'd offer a few morsels from the last two days of Cannes -- some frog legs of wisdom, if you will. (Apologies, by the way, for the delayed posting; every time an item presented itself it was followed by another item presenting itself. This is a good thing if you're in the business of feeding a hungy blog monster, though a decidedly bad thing for one's sleep schedule.) We'll keep updating as the fest goes on.

-- A Mike Tyson party Friday was fun, if only for the spectacle of seeing the icon/walking reality-show hanging out at a tony Croisette bar, sitting quietly with a young lady friend and watching all the couture-clad bodies and 22-year-olds gyrating partiers with a notable trace of bemusement. A Paramount party for "Kung Fu Panda" was curious -- not only because it featured grown men and women in panda suit frolicking on Carlton beach with men in tuxedos (penguins?) but because it revealed a poster in which Jack Black is not mentioned or promoted. Isn't that the whole reason Jack Black is in the movie? A Focus Features party, meanwhile, was fun because international buyers really like to dance, often in disproportion to their ability to do so.

--Four days in, and there's still no standout acquisition target. IFC did (pre)buy the new Arnaud Desplechin movie, "Un Conte Noel," putting them one step closer to their quest to be the first distributor to buy 2,435 festival titles in a single year.

--There's nothing funnier than hearing people try to pick the Palme D'or. The line of conversation usually goes something like this (we'll do it in second person in case you, too, want to create your very own Palme D'or salon). A) Ask someone, preferably a random stranger you've met at a party restroom line, who they think will win the Palme D'or B) Pretend to listen for five seconds, then start to shake your head in vigorous disagreement C) State with unwavering certainty the movie you think you'll win, taking special care to privilege a title you saw on the first night when there was no earthly way to know anything about the movie's competitors or, better yet, pick a movie that doesn't debut for another four days. D) Declare that the Palme D'Or doesn't matter anyway because it's just an elitist award and the whole jury is corrupt E) Repeat the exact same conversation ten minutes later

--There's something weird about not having a Q&A at a film festival. We get the idea -- let the work speak for itself, allow the director his moment in the limelight without having to put up with questions, blah blah -- but when all you get to do after a screening is clap at a waving director, it makes you feel a little removed from the work. At the gala Saturday evening for Walter Salles' "Linha de Passe" it would have been infinitely more illuminating to hear the director flash some of his remarkable eloquence instead of just a few (admittedly nice) front teeth. Couldn't there be some compromise -- maybe a NY Film Festival-style question from a programming person, or just some opening remarks? It's nice not to have to hear someone ask how long it took a director to shoot -- is it even a festival screening without it -- but it would also be nice to hear a director talk instead of just smile.

--The early word on Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, "Synecdoche, NY," one of the hot available titles in competition and a movie which screened for buyers for the first time Saturday at 2, is that it's ambitious, long, a little messy and pretty out there. Which sounds kind of fun, though are distributors going to open the wallet for fun?

--Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" will win the Palme D'Or.