The knock out is coming but it’s still a few days away and in the meantime, we’ve got another Cannes roundup and it’s a doozy!

Canada tends to be well represented at Cannes but this year our numbers seem to be down though the quality is definitely holding up. One of the few picks for this year’s festival came care of a young Quebec filmmaker named Xavier Dolan. The 20 year old’s film J’ai tué ma mere premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight to a huge standing ovation. The film opens in Quebec City and Montreal on June 5th but considering the Cannes praise and the great looking trailer, I’m hoping it expands to the rest of Canada.

On another note that makes me giddy with glee, it looks like Jane Campion’s Bright Star may be the comeback a few of us have been waiting for. The gents at In Contention have gathered a few reviews of the film and by all accounts, it’s a success. Even Mr. Jeff Wells concedes that it’s a great film even though it’s not his cup of tea. Can’t ask for much more than that.

The biggest buzz out of Cannes at the moment surrounds Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. Around these parts we were pretty excited about the trailer for the film but its premiere at Cannes has been less than favourable and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Where I was once merely curious I’m now on board completely to see von Trier’s twisted vision and from all accounts, it’s pretty twisted (and crowd splitting). Spout gathered a great collection of snippets from folks that reviewed the film both positively and negatively but what really caught my attention were von Trier’s comments after the screening.

Asked about the film, he explained that it “is a very dark dream about guilt and sex and stuff.” As if we couldn’t figure that out from the trailer. Even better, and one of the reasons von Trier is now on my revered directors list, is the fact that’s he’s unwilling to compromise the film he’s created:

I don’t have to justify myself. I make films and I enjoy very much making them. You are all my guests, it’s not the other way round. I work for myself and I do this little film that I’m now kind of fond of and I haven’t done it for you or the audience, so I don’t feel I owe anyone an explanation.

Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds has premiered and the reviews are slowly coming in. We should have a few more to go by in a few days time but for now, Screen Daily reports that the film has some moments but also features Tarantino overindulging.

Variety muses on how the billboard business is on the downturn this year though from what I’ve seen, it looks to me like they’re still going strong.

Martin Scorsese was in town last week to celebrate his good friend Roger Ebert. The Oscar-winning filmmaker was on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to rename the press conference room as The Roger Ebert Conference Center.

And closing off with a few videos. A resourceful YouTuber has gathered together a playlist of Cannes trailers. Anne Thompson posted a video of Francis Ford Coppola after a screening of Tetro but perhaps the best video discovery so far is the teaser trailer for ONEDREAMRUSH.

Cinematical posted the teaser, along with details on the project which is essentially a collaborative film featuring 42 talented individuals all contributing 42 seconds of film and the result is weird. NSFW weird. You can check out the trailer here but I highly recommend checking out the project website (with a bunch of videos already posted).

POST EDIT: And breaking news that (as a fan) I simply had to post. Looks like New Moon got some Cannes love as well. News today is that footage from the upcoming film was screened at a party last night. Look for more footage (or perhaps the same footage) making a splash at the MTV Movie Awards in a few weeks time.

If you missed it, round one is here and yes, I’m still wishing I was there.