*$CANNES SO FAR!{

So Le Festival De Cannes started last week and since then there has been a lot of buzz surrounding some films. There were early raves for Fish Tank, especially for its main actress who never acted before. Its director Andrea Arnold released a film called Red Road in 2006 which isn't very well known, but I stumbled upon it multiple times as it stars Natalie Press who, together with Emily Blunt, received some buzz for the film they were in together called My Summer Of Love. So far Blunt has come out as the most succesful of the two. Kind of the same thing happened with a film like Bend It Like Beckham which led to early success for Keira Knightly, but Parminder Nagra who was the real lead of the film ended up on TV's ER and well, we all know what happened to Knightley. Precious, a film by Lee Daniels, too has been received well, which features Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey in small roles and who are both apparently much better than expected. Daniels made another film called Shadowboxer, but that one was basically panned by critics. Then there's also Jane Campion's Bright Star which is said to be her best film since The Piano which won the Palme D'Or in 1993. Earlier she already won an award for a short film she made. Abbie Cornish who plays Fanny Brawne, the film's lead, is said to be very good and might win the award for best actress. Cornish received some great buzz for her role in the film Somersault which meant a breakthrough for both her and co-star Sam Worthington who can be seen in the next Terminator film as well as James's Cameron first film since Titanic called Avatar. In the meantime Lars Von Trier, not surprisingly, is the first who has caused a stir with his new film Antichrist which features a lot of violent scenes. Because of the violence and critics responding in shock it's hard to tell whether the film is actually any good. This morning Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (no typos) had its premiere and critics seemed to like it, but I'm not sure they really loved it. Pedro Almodóvar's new film Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) which once again features Penélope Cruz seems to be amongst his darker type of films like 2004's La Mala Educación (Bad Education). It seems to be pretty good, although like Inglourious Basterds, it hasn't ignited the same buzz as Campion's Bright Star has. Could this mean a second Palme D'Or for Campion? Jacques Audiard's Un Prophète (A Prophet) is rated as the best film so far from what I have read so it might be another win for France after last year's Entre Les Murs (The Class). However, this time one of the world's best actresses and one of my favourites, Isabelle Huppert, is the head of the jury and only she knows what's going on in that mind of hers. I expect her and her fellow jury members to make a very good and thought through decision and choose a film that really does this year's festival justice.

Campion's Bright Star. This shot alone makes me want to see the film. There's just something about pretty girls in dresses sitting in a field of flowers. It's one of the main reasons why I love Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette so much.