CANNES 2012 AWARDS: "Amour" take the Palme!

Festival came. Festival went. This may have no inevitable bearing on the Oscar race this year, nor should it truly, but Cannes was a rather interesting time in our lives this year. The awards, on the other hand, I can't quite say so. Not that a whole lot of bad films took the wins. On the contrary, I've heard some rather good things regarding "Beyond the Hills", which took both Actress wins and Screenplay win for Mungiu. There's not a bad thing to be said about "Beasts of the Southern Wild", from all I've heard. Nor can truly be said about the Palme d'Or winner, Michael Haneke's "Amour". Who could complain for a film that got near universal praise.

The problem, as per usual, was that this was predictable and business as usual for the Cannes affair. Early rumors that Nanni Moretti hated "Holy Motors" seem to have come to fruition, which is a shame. I've heard quite a many crazy good things about that competition pic. Most ambiguous wins of the festival belong to the Jury winners, belonging to "Reality" by Matteo Garrone and "The Angel's Share" by Ken Loach. My knowledge of either? Slim, so slim in fact that I consider their wins alone to reason enough to be skeptical of them. It's a wait-and-see awards ceremony, to be certain. Far too unlike last year. The Palme to Malick? Director to Refn? Actress to Dunst? Actor to Dujardin? What a perfect fest! This year? What an imperfect one.

Palme d'Or: "Amour"

Grand Prix: "Reality"

Prix du Jury: "The Angel's Share"

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Matteo Garrone's "Reality"

Perhaps the most questionable prospect heading into this Cannes Film Festival is Matteo Garrone's follow-up to the acclaimed "Gomorrah". "Reality", fitfully set in the world of Italian reality television, seems to be receiving mixed receptions from around the Croisette, some coming into it with open arms, while others receive it as something of a disappointment. Then again, this is very likely to be the case on most Cannes films, but I'm not trying to advocate for any films that I haven't seen yet. The news of a satirically minded film hitting Cannes is enough to pique my interest, and some reviews prove rather encouraging to the prospect.

Drew McWeeny (Hitfix): "My only hesitation is that while I would compare this to Martin Scorsese's "King Of Comedy," it feels like it's missing a final beat that would punctuate the story perfectly.  Even so, there is a haunting quality to the wrap-up, and the dark laughs the film inspires got caught in my throat at times because of just how raw Arena is as Luciano.  His palpable longing and his visible deflation will stick with me, as will Matteo's sincere disdain for modern values.  "Reality" continues my Cannes streak, and I have no doubt it will be embraced as another major statement from an artist worth our time and attention."

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.