It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Film Year

Yes, it's Cannes season - once a prestigious film festival now reduced to being a high-profile opener for Ocean's 13. I shouldn't be too harsh, though, for this year sees fewer summer blockbusters opening there, and it seems that Cannes is beginning to return to its tradition of showing serious films.

There are two of these which I am most looking forward to watching (eventually). The first of these is Michael Moore's new documentary on the American Health Service, Sicko. I am a big fan of Moore's Bowling For Columbine, as this review will show. I wasn't' too keen on Fahrenheit 9/11 however; for me it was too American, not really relevant for an international audience. I know Columbine is not really either, but it seemed more appropriate for an international audience. On first looks, Sicko looks like it's gone the way of Fahrenheit 9/11. There is also the undeniable problem of Moore himself as a loud, obnoxious character - I can't quite shake the image of his puppet, hot dog in hand, blowing up in Team America: World Police. But on the whole I'm looking forward to this film.

As I am Control, the biopic of the tragic lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis. Now, I'm not a particular fan of Joy Division's music; I only really know one song of theirs, "Love Will Tear Us Apart". But this film intrigues me in a morbid, postmodern voyeuristic kind of way. Based on the book by Deborah Curtis, Ian's widow, the film doesn't rely on big stars like so many American music biopics (Walk The Line had Joaquin Phoenix, Ray had Jamie Foxx, etc). In fact, the only name international audiences would know would be Samantha Morton, who plays Deborah. This is a film that knows it can survive without a big star in the title role. The story of Ian Curtis, and the story and music of Joy Division, is the key to its success. I think this will be a surprise winner of a few of the gongs on offer this year, and I'm interested on hearing how critics rate it.

One film I am not going to want to see that's premiering at Cannes is Quentin Tarantino's new film, Death Proof, because in my opinion it should be shown together with Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez's film, as it was originally intended in a double-bill homage to B-Movies called Grindhouse. This was to feature spoof trailers in the middle of it by directors such as Rob Zombie and Shaun Of The Dead's Edgar Wright. But the American studio behind the film has decided that audiences won't understand the Grindhouse method and have opted for splitting the two films, adding scenes and dialogue. I don't think this is the way to go, and I really hope a DVD version comes out the way it was truly intended. Because, unless the two films can survive on their own, I know I'm going to have nothing good to say about them.

Laters.