Greetings from Cannes

It seems that the arduous business of sifting through films in preparation for Borderlines 2009 has already begun. Festival Director, David Gillam writes:

Greetings from Cannes! All pretty good here - though I expect the weather is better with you as it's been raining on & off today and the one thing I didn't bring was an umbrella. Haven't actually seen any stars yet, just lots of motorcades with greying executives and dazzling blondes, the closest I've got to a star is watching Mike Tyson being interviewed for French TV.

Just seen a very funny Belgian comedy called Rumba, about 2 teachers who live for their Latin American dancing until they have a terrible car crash - she loses a leg, he loses his memory - and while they valiantly try to rebuild their lives it all goes down hill from there. Very non-PC - the scene where she sets fire to her wooden leg, then contrives to burn their house down sets the tone, lots of physical comedy, a bit haphazard, but in places absolutely hysterical. After 'three comedies' which barely raised a titter from the audience from beginning to end I was beginning to despair of ever doing a comedy season! But today has been a good day, two good if rather bleak Argentinian films and another very deadpan comedy, O'Horton from Bent Hamer, the guy who made Kitchen Stories and Factotum, about an engine driver who retires after 40 years, and gets into various rather bizarre scrapes, the moral being "It's always too
late, so it's never too late".

Cannes Film Festival in Review from The Independent on Sunday
Heavyweight boxer Tyson at Cannes film festival from The Washington Post