Cannes, France —Whether it’s the weather, the traffic or the movies, perhaps the best word to describe the Cannes Film Festival this year is “stuck.” From the outset, when organizers announced the directors competing for the festival’s top honor, Cannes seemed stalled in a past era: Of the 22 films competing for the Palme d’Or this week, not one is directed by a woman, a nod to the mythical image of the heroic auteur that Cannes is famous for championing in its 66-year history. Read full article > >

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Cannes Film Festival 2012: Stalled in the past, with few surprises

A French film in which Kylie Minogue makes a cameo appearance has emerged as a dark horse contender to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Minogue movie the talk of Cannes

More than 65 years after it was suppressed by the Army, a powerful and controversial John Huston documentary about soldiers suffering from the psychological wounds of war has been restored by the National Archives and debuts Thursday on the Web. Read full article > >

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John Huston film about WW II soldiers that Army suppressed is restored

Restoring the film-maker’s nine silent films

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Restoring Hitchcock’s silent classics

What happens when people stop being polite and start getting real? According to the last few seasons of MTV's “The Real World,” they get drunk, hook up and make innumerable questionable decisions. What happens when strangers come to live on a family farm in rural Arkansas, grow their own food, give up modern-day conveniences and attempt zero waste? While it may not sound like a compelling reality show by MTV's standards, that's exactly the premise of the independent film, “The Garden Summer,” which debuted to a sold-out crowd in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 16. It also premiered in Conway, Arkansas, on May 18. Inspired by the idea of social capital, then-Georgetown graduate student Hailey Wist came up with an idea for a social experiment that would challenge people like her to live off the land. The ultimate goal was “to inspire, not preach.” Wist already had a location in mind for the experiment – a farm in the Ozarks that had been in her family for generations. Despite not knowing much about gardening, she had the assistance of her mother and aunt, both avid gardeners. All that was left to do was find people willing to give up modern conveniences to spend the summer living a bit more simply. “Will I get warm bodies?  I don't know.  Probably not,” she mused in the film’s trailer. Four willing “suburbanites” – Seth Amos, Marie Barker, Ben Williams and Emilee Cleary – eventually signed on without much persuasion. Wist said she sought out people who were strangers to each other, but who she also wanted to get to know better. In preparation of their summer, the group had to decide what produce they would grow and what they could sell at the local farmers market. They also decided that coffee, cooking oil and booze would be the only three things they would source outside of the 100-mile radius of their garden. When the group met at the farm in May to plant their garden, friendships took root immediately; everyone was getting along and having fun. However, the summer was not without challenges. When the group returned weeks later to live within Wist's parameters, it took only a week and a half before they started “airing grievances” by candlelight on the front porch of the farmhouse. Everyone obviously had a stake in the garden; their ability to eat and make money depended upon its success. As the creator of the concept, Wist became the leader by default, but being everyone's boss was not a role that came easy to her. Maintaining a garden makes for long days of hard labor. Along with the close quarters of communal living, “there was a lot to be cranky about,” Wist said. Unlike some of the other reality-based programs that portray alcohol-induced arguments over hook-ups and break-ups, the rifts featured in “The Garden Summer” were rooted in the division of labor in the garden and expectations over what “local consumption” really meant. In fact, a budding romance between Wist and Williams wasn't really featured in the film at all. Over the course of the summer, the group made friends with locals who taught them, among other things, how to make soap and butter. They also welcomed a steady stream of visitors from the “outside,” and found that showing off all they'd accomplished always gave them new energy. It certainly didn't hurt that one of those friends was James Beard award-winning chef Mike Lata, who helped them prepare a field feast with the food they'd grown. “The Garden Summer” turned five typical consumers of modern conveniences into producers and contributors to their community. While Wist remains very much a part of the Charleston food community, she admits her farm experience has been difficult to completely replicate in her real life. But if farming isn't in her future, filmmaking might be, at least according to part-time Charleston resident and actor Bill Murray. “To make a movie that is lousy is difficult,” he said after attending Wist's first screening. “So to make one that is good, it's quite an accomplishment.”

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Documentary cultivates real-life lessons

A long-awaited film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road is screened for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival.

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On the Road is unveiled at Cannes

A stage version of the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire has its premiere in London and is now set for a West End run during the Olympics.

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Chariots of Fire sprints on stage

Hollywood actress, Cameron Diaz, took the red carpet for the UK premiere of her film What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

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VIDEO: Diaz: ‘You don’t have to have kids’

“Killing Them Softly,” Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of the George V. Higgins crime novel “Cogan’s Trade,” will have its gala premiere tonight at the Cannes Film Festival. The film screened this morning for the press, who were treated to a gritty, stylized and deeply cynical genre exercise in which Brad Pitt played hardened hit man Jackie Cogan. (Pitt last worked with Dominik on “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”) Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendolsohn co-star in a film that takes its inspiration from Martin Scorsese, murder ballads and America’s recent economic crisis which, as in the movie was brought on by greed and a fatal lack of self-control.   Read full article > >

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Brad Pitt film, ‘Killing Them Softly’ premieres at Cannes

Film director Ken Loach criticises British film censors for asking him to remove swear words from his new film in order to qualify for a 15 certificate.

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Ken Loach bemoans censors’ cuts

Controversial film looks at the origins of Scientology.

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‘The Master’ Trailer Debuts

“The Butler,” Lee Daniels’s adaptation of Wil Haygood’s 2008 Washington Post article about long-time White House butler Eugene Allen, has gained considerable heat at the Cannes Film Festival , where Nicole Kidman is said to be joining a cast that includes Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Jane Fonda. (Fonda will play Nancy Reagan; no word on who Kidman would portray.) Read full article > >

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Nicole Kidman said to star in White House butler movie

When George Washington University’s Class of 2012 marched across the Mall to accept its degrees Sunday morning, the nation’s back yard was transformed into an eco-fashion runway. Sure, the men wore dress shirts and slacks while the women donned colorful spring dresses and shoes that wouldn’t sink in soft soil. But on top of these outfits, each GWU student sported the newest trend: gowns made from plastic bottles. Read full article > >

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Green graduations at Washington area universities

A portion of Joaquin Phoenix ’s first film performance since his bearded-and-fake-crazy period is now available for viewing online. A teaser for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” — a drama from the director of “ There Will Be Blood ” that purportedly examines the evolution of a Scientology-esque organization — was unveiled online today. Read full article > >

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Watch Joaquin Phoenix act again in ‘The Master’ trailer

A US student who used a webcam to secretly film his room-mate in a gay encounter is set to be sentenced by a judge.

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US webcam student to learn fate