The Twilight Saga as interpreted by the Cannes Film Festival

Behold, the Cannes jury!

from left to right: Tim Burton (Jury President and Johnny Depp's #1 Fan), Alberto Barbera (Italian film festival biggie), Victor Erice (Spanish Director of the acclaimed Frankenstein picture The Spirit of the Beehive), Giovanna Mezzorgiorno (Award-winning Italian actress, Vincere recently boosted her international profile), Emmanuel Carrere (French writer), Alexandre Desplat (composer and last minute juror... this man must never sleep or have several clones of himself given his workload), Benicio del Toro (Oscar winning Puerto Rican actor and werewolf), Shekhar Kapur (Indian director of Elizabeth fame), and Kate Beckinsale (British hottie, vampire who hates werewolves).

Danger! Benicio's getting way too close to Beckinsale.


You know Tim Burton wants to direct this battle. Or at least art-direct the buildings and landscapes surrounding the battle. And though Desplat sorta already scored it (The Twilight Saga: New Moon) he'd have to toss that out like a temp track and find Danny Elfman for the real thing.

This jury is positively supernatural... frankenstein, werewolves, vampires.

<--- But monster mash aside, Kate Beckinsale knows how to make an entrance, doesn't she? It looks like she's stepping out of a technolor musical and floating seamlessly onto the most prestigious of film festival red carpets. Or like she's a model in one of those color fashion interludes in a black and white comedy like The Women (1939), maybe.

Woof! The Wolfman Reviewed

Zombies ruled the movie monster jungles for a good long while in the Aughts until Twilight and True Blood boosted the vampire back up top as the king of all supernatural beasts. When will it be the lycanthropes turn? If The Wolfman is indication, they'll have to keep waiting.

The Wolfman, a reworking of the 1941 monster classic, begins with the recitation of a gloomy gypsy proverb. It amounts to this: prayers won't save you from curses. Something unholy and accursed is definitely roaming the forests near the Talbot estate. Bodies are discovered dead and mangled. Sir John Talbot's (Anthony Hopkins) son goes missing and his fiance Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) writes to the Talbot prodigal son Lawrence (Benicio Del Toro) to return home and help has father in the search. By the time he does, he's been traveling the world as a famous stage actor, his brother's mutilated body has already been discovered. Local gypsies are blamed and Lawrence seeks them out only to run into the growling monster itself.

You can guess what happens next.

Read the Rest @ Towleroad...
Wherein I ponder the movies multiple mysteries, Blunt's misfortune and (briefly) the best actress race.

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