The second part of the Cannes Festival is turning out to be more challenging, quality-wise, than the first where “Ma Loute” and “Mal de Pierres,” an off-kilter comedy and a love drama respectively, were easy to stamp as good cinema. Week two, on the other hand, isn’t all gems. Yesterday, the Dardenne Brothers’s “La fille inconnue” (“The Unknown Girl”) received a lukewarm response. It's a drama about a young woman doctor who, overcome

Darren Aronofsky has made another divisive film; in fact I […]

The first thirty minutes of Gaspar Noé's "Irreversible" had a background noise added which hovers around the 28 hz frequency. This type of frequency causes nausea, sickness and vertigo in humans; this might help explain the numerous walkouts on the festival circuit the year the film came out (2002; San Sebastian, Cannes)--though there were other reasons (fire extinguisher, anyone?). "Irreversible," which stars Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci caused debate, disagreements and managed at the same time to bring us deep into the moist recesses of France's libidinous culture (swapping and the like).