Cannes in 60 Seconds: A Lounging ‘Dictator,’ A Triumphant ‘Kingdom’ and Maximum Plaid

By  · Published on May 17th, 2012

What is Cannes in 60 Seconds? If you say it with a pompous accent, it’s a hilarious pun on a classic Nic Cage/Angelina Jolie film that no one can rightfully claim is at all terrible. If you say it with a normal accent, it’s still a news and review round-up from the South of France.

The biggest news comes from the mouths of critics after seeing the opening night flick – Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. It’s garnered high, near-universal praise. A smattering of reviews can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

But that’s not all that’s going on:

Crowd-funded dynamos, friends of Reject Radio and podcasting titans Eric D. Snider and Jeff Bayer submitted their first Cannes podcast. The pair made it all the way across the world with a Kickstarter campaign, and now they’re delivering the goods. Don’t let that stop you from folding up a few extra dollar bills and waving to them from across the club.

As far as experiential writing goes, you could do far worse than Barbara Scharres at the Chicago Sun Times who, like any true Chicagoan, has to compare everything to pizza.

James Rocchi’s Cannes Diary is also puts you right in the middle of the sandy red carpet.

General Aladeen also found some free time in between having people beheaded to hang out with supermodel Elisabetta Canalis:

While some people were tanning and pretending like celebrities aren’t completely hairless, the movie deals were getting done early. Everybody’s looking for the next Midnight in Paris.

IndieWire is questioning whether Harvey Weinstein can help Obama win in November with the release of Osama Bin Laden doc Code Name: Geronimo. Because Fahrenheit 9/11 was so good at ousting Bush.

Our own reviewer, Simon Gallgaher, thoroughly enjoyed Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone, and so did Drew McWeeny. Reading between the lines, it’s pretty clear that they both cried during a Katy Perry song. If a filmmaker can make that happen, they’re a dangerous talent.

The Hollywood Reporter learned a bit about being Egyptian with Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle.

In the excellent “Confessions of a Cannes Festival Virgin,” Robbie Collin explains what no one can warn you about the beachy fest.

And, of course, this happened:

Complete Cannes 2012 Coverage

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Movie stuff at VanityFair, Thrillist, IndieWire, Film School Rejects, and The Broken Projector Podcast@brokenprojector | Writing short stories at Adventitious.