Hey folks, Harry here... There seems to be a lot of belief that for some odd reason, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Altman deliberately held their films out of Cannes this year due to the "anti-French" feelings permeating the United States of America. Back in February it was general knowledge that Quentin wouldn't have KILL BILL ready in time for Cannes. His shoot went long and he had a couple of weeks of pick-up shots that he did after principal photography. Which basically would have amounted to about two months of post-production prior to Cannes, and on this type of film, there was a lot more post-work than on films like Res Dogs, Pulp or Jackie. As for Altman, he's a noted peace-lover and I'm willing to bet that George Bush isn't Altman's altar boy of the moment. He's long loved the French, and I doubt national hysteria has gotten to him.

Meanwhile... the selection this year has many standouts that I'm looking forward to. The film that kicks off this year's fest is the Luc Besson produced & written remake of FANFARE LA TULIPE, which was first a silent... then remade with charming as hell Gerard Philipe in 1952 and the scrumdiddliumptious Gina Lollobrigida, a top-heavy actress of drool-inducing proportions. This one will star Vincent Perez and the tiny-topped Penelope Cruz. The director is Gerard Krawczyk, who has been making excellent cool French Geek films like the TAXI series and WASABI with Jean Reno. This is one to definitely look forward to.

Then there is LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE, which we first told you about back in November of 2002 (Click Here to Check out that early review and astounding trailer!) Back then, the film was shown to some American distributors, and was rumored to blow them completely away. It is a film of pure animation. No dialogue and adult (not juvenile) storytelling. Expect this film to be heralded as pure genius, and to possibly be the first animated feature to win the whole kit and kaboodle... but alas it ain't in competition!

Those two films are actually the films I'm most eager to hear about, though there's a great deal of flicks I'm excited about. Eastwood's latest getting in competition is a great sign. Peter Greenaway's THE MOAB STORY is exciting, as is Lars Von Trier's latest with Nicole Kidman and every other interesting actor living today. Heh. From what I've seen of SWIMMING POOL, well it looks absolutely beautiful, and I've heard wonderful things about STRAYED with Emmanuelle Beart. That new Iranian film shot in the remnants of Afganistan will be quite powerful. Then there is THE BROWN BUNNY, which I told you about yesterday. Anyway, here's our Euro-man to give us the rundown on the films that made it. Check it out, and if you're going to Cannes, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the films you see. After all, these are the movies we'll be talking about in March of 2004. They always are...

Is Hollywood boycotting the Cannes film festival? This is the idea that many people have in Europe. Maybe there are just coincidences, but there are too many "coincidences" this year. Is it possible that movies as Kill Bill or the latest by Robert Altman are not finished yet, but the american line-up is very poor, even considering how much important the Festival was in 2002 for movies as The Pianist, About Schmidt and Bowling a Columbine. Of course, the majors have the right to do what they want with their titles, but I'd prefer that their decisions wouldn't be influenced by politics. Hope I'm wrong. Anyway, these are the contenders:

In Competition