THE HOST IN CANNES

Bong Joon-Ho's THE HOST just had its first screening in Cannes and I got a phone call from one of the attendees who said that it was so good that in the middle of the screening several audience members who were on crutches suddenly stood up, approached the screen, touched it and were cured. They just threw away their crutches! Also, the production company has released a press release about how great the screening was and while that's not the most unbiased source of information possible, the quotes all do sound good.

So the word now? Cannes made a big mistake to pass this over and let it go to Director's Fortnight. What with the generally lukewarm SUMMER PALACE and the badly reviewed SOUTHLAND TALES (from DONNIE DARKO director, Richard Kelly) being called an "...enormous flat pancake..." it sounds like the official competition at Cannes this year is pretty weak.