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After catching the attention of the international film circuit with a trio of powerful pictures firmly rooted in Taiwanese culture - Pushing Hands in 1991, The Wedding Banquet in 1992 and Eat Drink Man Woman in 1993 - director Ang Lee quickly did a turnaround and launched himself into a series of varied projects. First came his adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and then, in 1997, another literary adaptation - the family drama The Ice Storm, writen by James Schamus from Rick Moody's eponymous novel and an official selection, in competition, at Cannes that year.

“Strange” (sounds better in French: bizarre) is the first label that comes to mind after watching How to Talk to Girls at Parties, from John Cameron Mitchell, which is an official selection (out of competition) of the 2017 Cannes Film Fest. This romantic tale, which tries to mix the subcultures of punk and aliens in a sci-fi milieu, was one of the toughest press screening to get into (It took place at a small venue, Salle Bazin).

It was a somber start for day seven in Cannes as the Festival, like the rest of the world, awoke to the tragic news coming from Manchester. An official statement from the Festival read: “This is yet another attack on culture, youth and joyfulness, on our freedom, generosity and tolerance, all things that the Festival and those who make it possible –the artists, professionals and spectators– hold dear.

The opening of The Rider - winner, with A Ciambra, of the Directors Fortnight-  focuses on a horse’s mane, spreading and floating in slow motion as the animal bucks and whinnies. It’s an indication that this cowboy story is going to be told differently and hints at the visuals to come that capture the vast open spaces and rugged isolation of South Dakota.

“The P in HFPA stands for press, but it could also stand for philanthropy”, said HFPA president Lorenzo Soria in his opening remarks on Sunday, May 21, at the Association’s annual Cannes party. This year the event served as a benefit for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nonprofit organization that responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people who have been devastated by conflict and disaster, to which the HFPA donated $500,000.

In its US landing Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant had the honor of a $36. 5 million first place debut.

Kristen Stewart is in Cannes making her directorial debut with her short film Come Swim. Stewart, 27, is not new to Cannes - she was here as an actress with Twilight and Café Society and again last year in Personal Shopper -  but this is the first time she's here as a director and screenwriter.

Day four of the festival was dominated, at least briefly, by the “security scare” at the Palais des Festivals. As if journalists were not frayed enough by the interminable lines for screenings and the extra security, the several hundred who had lined up for over an hour to see Michel Hazanavicius’ Le Redoutable were suddenly ordered to move back by surging security officers.

Boldly original, Okja, the new film from the talented South Korean writer-director Bong Joon Ho, is not just an ambitious film with a social message, but a charming fable about the incomparable love of a young girl for her special “Super Pig,” whose name provides the film’s title. Working with a larger budget than the usual, and defined by some dazzling state of the art special effects, Okja is the most eccentric film to date in competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Fest.

40 years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger, then a famous bodybuilder and an aspiring actor (he had already done Bob Rafelson's Stay Hungry, which earned him the best newcomer Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association), came to Cannes with a documentary which became a must-see in the world of body building, Pumping Iron, by George Butler. Since then Schwarzenegger, who came back to Cannes with Terminator 2 and True Lies, has become a global movie star, Governor of California, object of a much talked-about divorce from journalist Maria Shriver, and is now back as producer and narrating voice of another documentary, in 3D, Wonders of the Sea, directed by Jean-Michel Cousteau (son of Jean Jacques) and Jean Jacques Mantello.