Pierre Lescure, the new president of this upcoming 68th edition of the Cannes Festival, quickly took to the media this week after it was announced that this year’s jury would be presided over by the Coen Brothers. "These geniuses of dark humor, these portrait artists we love so, cutting and tender all at once, a balance between popular and independent.” is how Lescure described the Coens in a brief interview given to French radio RTL.

This year's selection in Cannes, while not being particularly exceptional in terms of big-name wattage, could lead to some interesting results. For example, this marks Xavier Dolan's first year bringing a film to the competition series (he's been at Cannes before, but was never in line to compete for the Palme D'Or). A win for Dolan would validate years of efforts and progress. This year also marks Jean-Luc Godard's return, so to speak.

In four unrelated chapters “A Touch of Sin” tells the [...]

Paris--Ever since the launching of French television network and film distributor CanalPlus in the early eighties (of which he was a central part) media capitan Pierre Lescure has led the charge in terms of edgy programming and driving audiences' expectations for top-notch entertainment ever higher. Whether it's entertainment or art (or both) and it is destined for the small or big screen or the stage, Lescure has had some hand in it these last three decades. Now, he wants the Cannes president job (2014 marks outgoing president Gilles Jacob's final year at the helm of the world's most famous film festival).

Power grab! Ooh la la ...

Sixty eight year-old Lescure, a businessman who holds stakes in a number of different media holdings, has chaired the jury of the Deauville American film festival

Adèle Exarchopoulos seems to have unlimited amounts of energy and charm. Will she follow Mélanie Laurent ("Inglourious Basterds")  and Léa Seydoux ("Mission Impossible") to Hollywood, too? Considering the fabulous triumph she experienced in May in Cannes, a career in the movies is hers, if she wants it. She appears in Abdellatif Kechiche's "La Vie D'Adele" ("Life of Adele") alongside with Léa Seydoux, an intense love story between two young girls which is sure to move even the most stone-cold moviegoer. Against all odds the film earned the Palme D'Or. What's striking about Exarchopoulos is the pout

Abdelatif Kechiche’s "Blue Is the Warmest Colour," a graphic but incredibly haunting and beautiful lesbian love story, has won the Palme d’Or, as was just announced during today's closing ceremony. The jury, presided over by Steven Spielberg (the other members: Daniel Auteuil, Vidya Balan, Naomi Kawase, Nicole Kidman, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Lynne Ramsay, and Christoph Waltz), presented the following awards as well:

I'd like to thank the Coen Brothers for giving me the opportunity to write this post. I've just waited sixty minutes in the pouring rain for a chance to get inside the Debussy theater and watch "Inside Llewyn Davis" but the theatre filled up and we got left out in the cold. Fortunately I was with my three colleagues from the French site Abus de Ciné so we got a chance to exchange about the day's discoveries (there was a lot to cover).