August 1954, Sète (South of France). In the bright summer [...]

Ever since his first outing there in the nineties Jean-Michel Frodon, one of France’s most distinguished film specialists, traveled four more times to Iran, the country whose filmmakers gave us festival favorites like GABBEH, A TASTE OF CHERRY and CLOSE-UP. As your not-so-average tourist, at times, and as officially-summoned authority on cinema, at others, Frodon soaked up the lore and took in the sights, giving talks and trekking it

The 67th Cannes Festival was capped with a lively closing ceremony last night. There were tears, there was comedy and there was scandal. Some of the night's victories were well-deserved—Timothy Spall's winning of the best actor prize was a fait accompli, his turn as the British painter Turner in Mike Leigh's romanticized biopic being well above exceptional. Upon receiving his prize Spall did a very entertaining (but unintended, perhaps?)

For an unbeatable view of the Swiss Alps and their picture-perfect mountaintops see the “Clouds of Sils Maria.” This new film by French director Olivier Assayas (“Summer hours,” “Carlos”) shot entirely within the idyllic spreads of rural Switzerland puts in focus the coming undone of Maria Enders, an older actress (played by Juliette Binoche) who is confronted by her past when an actress half her age (Chloe Grace Moretz) is handed the role

The Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury headed by Abbas Kiarostami and including Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Noémie Lvovsky, Daniela Thomas and Joachim Trier, has awarded the 2014 Cinéfondation Prizes during a ceremony held in the Buñuel Theatre, followed by the screening of the winning films.

The Cinéfondation Selection consisted of sixteen student films, chosen out of 1,631

"Only Lovers Left Alive" by Jim Jarmusch will be vying for the 2013 Palme d'Or at Cannes. The film was added Friday to the official selection of the festival, which now runs twenty films deep. The festival has also decided to complete its official selection with "Le dernier des injustes" (the last of the unjusts) by Claude Lanzmann ("Shoah"), which will be screened out of competition. In addition, "My sweet Pepperland" by Kurdish director Hiner

The revolt sweeping across the Middle East these last couple of years will figure highly at the Cannes Festival, and it’s no coincidence.

“The Sermon at Tobrouk,” a documentary by French philosopher Bernard “B.H.L.” Henri-Lévy (pictured below in Libya in September 2011) shot over the final eight months which led to the downfall of Kaddafi will be shown as a special screening. Henri-