THE LISTS: Most Anticipated Films at Cannes 2012

We are precious few days from the kickoff of Cannes Film Festival, which pretty much begins the season of strong films coming to the fore. Of last year's festival, six films premiered that ended up making my end of year list, an additional one if you count "Certified Copy" of the previous year. "The Artist" went on to win Best Picture just less than a year after it premiered, so the festival clearly holds a strong place at the center of the cinematic year. This year obviously has a much different dynamic to it, skewing somewhat more mellow beforehand, but that could very well change depending on how the films perform.

So it figured like an appealing idea to spotlight ahead of time some of the more intriguing offerings of this year's festival circuit. Obviously I don't have quite a complete attachment to many of the foreign films showing, though I'm not discounting them altogether. I'm waiting for them to surprise, which they hopefully might. To that effect, I want to believe that "The Paperboy" is more than it seems to be. Lee Daniels isn't the most spectacular of directors, nor is Zac Efron the most skillful of leading men, but I am one for surprises. I can only hope there will be many, but I hope none of those are that the films I am anticipating aren't worthy of such.

CANNES 2012: Lineup announcement scales down

Is anybody else severely interested in how US-centric this year's Cannes lineup is? I say "severe" as an deplorable statement, since I'm usually quite captivated with the Cannes lineup when it goes for films that haven't been even close to my radar. As your knowledge of the world grows, surprises do seem to dwindle. That's not to say I'm completely down on the Cannes lineup this year, and in fact, I'm quite pumped for many of the films brought forth. Any year we get the latest from Jacques Audiard, Michael Haneke, David Cronenberg, Andrew Dominik, and Abbas Kiarostami is an exceptional year on those bases alone.

"Rust and Bone", "Cosmopolis", and "Like Someone in Love" have already gotten the ball rolling with trailers up for the Audiard, Cronenberg, and Kiarostami films, respectively. If you were to ask me which film I'm most interested to see, it's got to be Haneke's "Amour". Such a title to pair up with that guy is going to arouse suspicion, but mostly just arouse. Beyond that, there's Walter Salles' "On the Road", which I must honestly say I have little interest in. Kristen Stewart is an unbearable actress, and I try to avoid seeing anything with her wandering across the screen with an absolutely clueless expression on her face.