Critic's Notebook Cannes 2012

6:00 AM PDT 4/24/2012 by Todd McCarthy

Bookish films rule the must-see list, but it's not easy guessing what the jury has in store.

One year ago at this time, much of the press coverage of the upcoming Cannes Film Festival was centered upon Terrence Malick's long-delayed The Tree of Life, accompanied by speculation that it was probably the film to beat for the Palme d'Or. As it turned out, this was correct. But how many of the same pieces put a spotlight on a silent, black-and-white French film about Hollywood by a director with an unpronounceable name no one had ever heard of?