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The Palais des Festivals, which is where I watched all of the press screenings

It seems there have been a lot of articles speculating as to which films will be showing at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival this year, each of them pretty much naming the same films. However, the only film confirmed is Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris which will open the fest. The rest is simply speculation and rumor, but now the most comprehensive and seemingly "in the know" list has surfaced.

Of the films currently expected to hit the Croisette, but obviously in no way confirmed yet seem to be among the most likely, are Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, Gus Van Sant's Restless and Lars von Trier's Melancholia.

Of course, those are the big name features. The films that draw the...

Here's a first look at on-the-rise thespians Tahar Rahim and Corinne Yam in Lou Ye's upcoming romantic drama "Love And Bruises"--formerly known by the evocative title of "Bitch." As the original title suggests, Ye's a helmer not adverse to controversy. Having been banned twice by the Chinese government for 2000's "Suzhou River" and for 2006's "Summer Palace," this latest project doesn't sound like any sort of compromise either. An adaptation of a banned Jie Liu Falin biography, the story follows Matthieu, a French man who has his Chinese lover follow him to Paris setting off an intense love addiction. After…...

#24. Love and Bruises Director: Lou YeWriter(s): Catherine Paille and Liu Jie Falin Producers: Kristina Larsen and Vincent Maraval Distributor: Rights Available. The Gist: Formerly titled Bitch, this is an adaptation from Jie Liu-Falin’s autobiographical novel, Mathieu says, if she were a prostitute, for sure Flower would make a lot of money. He says she’s a born bitch. Any profession other than a prostitute would indeed be a waste of her gifts. Maybe he’s had few numerable women in his life, even though he boasts himself a veteran of love affairs; or maybe he just says it as a compliment to her, even though his flattering always goes too far, but no matter how, she can never be a prostitute.....(more) Cast: Tahar Rahim, Jalil Lespert, Lika Minamoto, Sifan Shao and Corinne Yam List Worthy Reasons...: If we thought that Tahar Rahim was the...

Kaboom

Opens: 2011

Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Juno Temple, Kelly Lynch, James Duval

Director: Gregg Araki

Summary: Smith's everyday life in the dorm - hanging out with his arty, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor - all gets turned upside-down after one fateful, terrifying night.

Analysis: A year after "Thelma and Louise" came "The Living End", an independent film which had a similar premise but made the protagonists two gay HIV+ men. It was raw, intense and signalled the arrival of a new talent in the form of filmmaker Gregg Araki. In the subsequent two decades, he's delivered several trippy films involving young, good-looking omnisexual people having lots of graphic sex and dealing with some wacky cobbled together plot shenanigans.

The tone has ranged the light-hearted "Splendor" and "Nowhere" to the darker "Mysterious Skin...