AND THE WINNER IS...

Michael Moore promoting Sicko, his new documentary, which was a big hit at Cannes

• If you're looking for a good laugh this weekend, go out and see Judd Apatow's latest comedy, Knocked Up, which opens today and is far and away the funniest movie of the year so far. You may remember that I loved it when I saw it at a screening about a month ago... having just rewatched The 40 Year Old Virgin, I'm ready to go see Knocked Up again. For some fascinating added perspective about the crazy-like-a-fox minds behind these movies, check out 'Judd Apatow's Family Values,' a lengthy cover piece about the director from last week's New York Times Magazine; 'The Education of a Comic Prodigy,' a profile of star Seth Rogen by Joel Stein in the May 17 Time magazine; and 'Knocked Up Delivers Old-Style Comedy,' a review of the film by Richard Schickel in today's Time magazine in which the sometimes snobby critic refers to this film as 'a small and welcome miracle'; and, perhaps most impressive of all, 'Bye-Bye, Bong. Hello, Baby,' a review of the film by A.O. Scott in today's New York Times in which the esteemed critic says the film 'strikes me as an instant classic.' (In the interest of equal time, check out a less enthusiastic review of the film by someone whose opinion I respect, Peter Keough of The Boston Phoenix.) To me, the question is less whether the public will like this film than whether they will turn out to see it--we'll have to wait until Monday to see whether or not the box-office delivers a hit... or a stillborn.
• The 60th annual Cannes Film Festival came to a close this week with the Golden Palm being awarded to the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, directed by Christian Mungui. The Ethan and Joel Coen (Fargo) film No Country for Old Men, which stars Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Woody Harrelson, was reportedly hot on its heels. The bigger Cannes winner, however, may be Sicko, the latest documentary from controversial director Michael Moore, who elected to screen the film out-of-competition, having previously been awarded a special prize for Bowling for Columbine (2002) and won the Golden Palm for Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). Even Roger Friedman, the gossip columnist/film commentator for right-wing Fox News, called it "brilliant and uplifting." (For another interesting perspective on the Cannes awards, check out the 'Palm d'Hoberman'--as in J. Hoberman of The Village Voice.)
• Changing subjects from a French film festival to a French language film, I will be seeing a press screening of La Vie En Rose on Tuesday. Marion Cotillard, Russell Crowe's love interest in A Good Year (2006), stars in this biopic of Edith Piaf, the popular WWII era French singer who may be best known for the song that is the title of this film. It has been rumored that Cotillard gives an awards-worthy performance, although an early release date (it has a slow rollout beginning June 8) and foreign language are always tough to overcome.
• On Wednesday, I will be heading out to Los Angeles to conduct several interviews for a book project, accompanied by my friend Harley Yanoff, a young actor who recently starred in a small indie called Remedial Attraction (2006) and will be appearing as one of Kevin Spacey's college students in the upcoming 21 (2008). While the days will be busy with work, we're slightly concerned that the city's nightlife will have collapsed, what with Lindsay Lohan checking into rehab and Paris Hilton checking into jail this week; alas, we have faith that L.A. will somehow find a way to go on. Among the film folk with whom I'll be speaking: A.C. Lyles, an executive at Paramount Pictures who has worked at the studio since 1928, on the studio lot; Corey Allen, best known as James Dean's rival whose car goes off the cliff in Rebel Without a Cause (1955); Carla Laemmle, niece of Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle, who utters the opening lines in Dracula (1931) and is the sole survivor of that film and The Phantom of the Opera (1925); Marsha Hunt, a popular M-G-M actress who was blacklisted and ruined by the House Un-American Activities Committee; my friend Peter Ford, the son of the late, great actor Glenn Ford; and several others who I will be able to discuss later. I might also check out the Student Academy Awards, which have previously been won by the likes of Spike Lee and Robert Zemeckis, and will be handed out on June 9.
• Speaking of Lindsay Lohan, the young actress was supposed to begin shooting the dark indie comedy Poor Things on Thursday but, having been forced into rehab by her latest vehicular mishap, many speculated that she would be replaced. Instead, Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment, Terms of Endearment), the film's legendary star and co-producer (along with Rob Hickman), announced that they will rearrange their shooting schedule in order to wait for Lohan.
  
• My home state, Connecticut, is generating some impressive visitors from the world of film, thanks to recently passed tax incentives that give a 30% tax rebate to filmmakers who spend more than $50,000 in the state. (My friend Carl Feen, a major player in the Connecticut Democratic Party, played a key role in making this happen.) Last summer, chunks of In Bloom (starring Uma Thurman) and 2007 awards contender Reservation Road (starring Joaquin Phoenix) were shot in Connecticut. This summer, Indiana Jones IV comes to the Yale University area of downtown New Haven, probably since Indy's son (Shia LeBouf) will be a college-age student, and Revolutionary Road, which reunites Titanic mates Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (and Kathy Bates), will begin shooting in Stamford in about three weeks. (All 'Roads' lead to Connecticut?) Here are some photos of Leo and Kate from the set.
• John Travolta is reportedly 'remarkable' as a grossly-obese woman in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of John Waters' play Hairspray.
• Variety has put an end to thirteen years of rumors by confirming that The Women, the classic American 'women's weepie' from 1939 that starred Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Marjorie Main, and Ruth Hussey, among others, will be re-made with Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Candice Bergen, and Debra Messing, all of whom "have either signed or are near committing." The first one is worth seeing, if only to hear the bitchy Joan Crawford line, "There is a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society--outside of a kennel."
• The screening room: Just watched Hell's Angels (1930), Howard Hughes' passion project about WWI British aviators, which is notable for its great stuntwork (three pilots died during shooting) and an early performance from troublemaking blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (including the only eight minutes in which she ever appeared in color)... King Vidor's adaptation of Ayn Rand's controversial novel The Fountainhead (1949) today comes across as too preachy and repetitive, and its 'go it alone' and 'stay the course at all costs' mottos have been hurt by George W. Bush and Iraq, but it is interesting to see the beginning of the Gary Cooper-Patricia Neal affair. Neal, who I recently met with, was never sexier (or more sadistic) than in this film... The 39 Steps (1935) is an early film from Alfred Hitchcock, and features most of his usual trademarks--sabotage, secret agents, ordinary men (Robert Donat) dragged into extraordinary situations, sexy blondes (Madeline Carroll), etc. It is nowhere near one of his finest pictures, but it is worth a look, as is Hitchcock and Selznick, a great book by Leonard J. Leff about the fiercely independent director and the controlling producer who brought him to America, and their collaboration over six acrimonious years in the forties that resulted in Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and The Paradine Case (1947).