The Ephemeric

It's that time of year again. From the 13th until the 24th of May the south coast of France will be the party centre of the world as everybody who's anybody in the world of film descends upon Cannes for the Cannes film festival. Join us now as we guide you through the essential films from this year's line up.



Inglourious Basterds
One of the more hyped events at this year's festival is the world premiere of Quentin Tarantino's latest film, Inglourious Basterds. Starring Brad Pitt, this is a film about a squad of Jewish resistance fighters in a war torn France set during World War 2. Tarantino has always had guts, but having the debut showing of his Americanized interpretation of war torn France actually IN France is definitely brave, only time will tell how they respond to it.

Up
The first animated film ever to open the Cannes film festival, Up is being billed at yet another Pixar masterpiece, and perhaps even better than Wall-E. This film concerns a retired salesman who attaches balloons to his house to travel the world, and the buzz is very very positive.



Taking Woodstock
The latest from Brokeback Mountain's Ang Lee is a comedy drama focusing on the legendary Woodstock festival, based off a book of the same name. Starring Emile Hirsch, this looks to be one of the more enjoyable films in this year's lineup and the early word so far is very positive.


Fish Tank
British director Andrea Arnold wowed critics at Cannes in 2006 with Red Road. Now she returns with this offbeat romance between a fifteen year old girl and her mom's boyfriend. Can she add to Boyle's success and make it a very good year for British directors by becoming only the second woman ever to win a Palme d'Or?



Looking for Eric
Eric Cantona takes a star turn in another British film at this year's festival. This film revolves around a football fanatic postman whose life is collapsing all around him, and receives life lessons from his hero Eric Cantona, who as we all know was a great philosopher. The idea is so awesome that this film simply can't miss.