Cannes 2017 International Film Festival

The introspective comedies of Noah Baumbach have established him as one of the most distinctive voices working in American cinema today. Recently his films have been populated by millennials and gen-xers feeling their way though life’s existential and emotional choices as if they’d misplaced the instruction manual.

After color drenching the carpet for the first part of the festival, black and white has dominated in the last two days. The twist is the geometry of the patterns in an exquisite, modern way.

Consider the life of a Cannes jury member - there's basically two activities in her/his agenda:  watching the best international films available at the moment and attending whatever events tickle her/his fancy among the vast opportunities available; this, in a country famous for the excellence of its cuisine, wines and parties. The job, of course, also comes with a tremendous amount of pressure and responsibility.

There have been plenty of soft palettes and bold brights at Cannes 70th Film Festival, but Thursday demonstrated why black and white will never go away. Click for more pics of Diane Kruger, Robert Pattinson and the always-stunning Jaqueline Bisset.

By the time Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorsese met on the Croisette in 1990, both were already celebrated master filmmakers. Scorsese had one Palme d'Or (Taxi Driver) and one Best Director prize (After Hours), plus three nominations for the Palme (Alice Doesn't LIve Here Anymore, The King of Comedy and After Hours) and one Golden Globe nomination for Raging Bull.

Gallic writer-director Robin Campillo is a major talent to watch. In is feature directing debut, 120 Beats Per Minute which world premiered in Competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Fest, he revisits with passion and compassion his past as a member of the AIDS activist organization ACT UP in 1990s Paris.

Last night at Cannes the women wore pastels perfectly. As the stars entered the Palais it was like magic: the flash of the lights, the press of the crowd, the frantic calls of the photographers – “Over here, Madame, over here”.

The day started in a flurry of actvity - panels, a master class, parties, the massive AMFAR benefit at the Hotel du Cap in Cap d'Antibes - and ended with a surprise: the longest standing ovation of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Not for a film: for a TV series.

Some decades down the line, how will the 70th Cannes Film Festival be remembered? From an in-the-moment point of view, this jubilee iteration of the venerable event is being shaped by the forces of new media - streaming platforms, virtual reality, TV-as-cinema - and women. Lots of women - behind the camera, in front of the camera, telling women's stories and universal themes from a female perspective.

Feminine. Everything the word evokes.