Cannes gets a little Lynchian…

Though he’s not vying for another Palm d’or at this year’s Festival, Cannes favorite David Lynch — who won the Palm for “Wild at Heart” in 1990 — made quite a splash on the riviera yesterday with the debut of his super cool poster for this year’s fest.

Haunting, strange, and strikingly beautiful, the poster is the textbook definition of the term “Lynchian”…and apparently, film geeks everywhere are eating it up.

I thought about ordering a print for myself, but wall space being at a premium in my already cluttered office, there is just no more room for another cool poster. Plus, even though I love the print, those “man hands” carressing that woman’s face kind of give me shivers, so I’ll just post a copy of the poster here for now…

Though the Americans are said to be taking this year’s festival by storm, with “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” set to have it’s world premiere on Sunday, and a number of other highly-anticipated films from American directors lined up after that, the big news for me this year is the jury!

Always composed of some really cool, eclectic film folks — one of my all-time favorite directors, Wong Kar Wai served as Jury President a couple years back — this year’s panel is headed by perennial hot head Sean Penn. Even though I personally think he’s a humorless prick, I gotta say, “Into the Wild” was one of my favorite films last year…so, rock on, sourpuss!

The rest of the jury — pictured below with Penn at last night’s premiere of Fernando Meireilles’s all-star supernatural thriller “Blindness” — are, from left to right: Director Alfonso Cuarón, Actor Sergio Castellitto, Author/Director Marjane Satrapi, Actress Jeanne Balibar, Director Rachid Bouchareb, Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Actress and former Queen of Naboo, Natalie Portman and finally, Actress Alexandra Maria Lara.

I know…crazy, huh? The guy who wrote and directed “Children of Men”, the chick who literally lived “Persepolis”, Madonna’s first husband, and the mother of Luke and Leia Skywalker…all on one jury? Wow…it’s like, movie nerd nirvana!

So, as the 61st Festival de Cannes settles into it’s first full day of screenings today, here’s hoping this years films are as interesting and diverse as its rocking poster and jury! Vive le France!

Edwards endorses Obama!

Despite his crushing defeat in yesterday’s West Virginia’s primary, Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama — pictured below in a rocking Photoshop tribute by über blogger Kevin Chu — managed to score another major endorsement today, this time from ex-rival John Edwards.

And though I still wish Edwards himself was a part of this race — go, Tar Heels! — I gotta say that with Johnny Edwards joining the ever-expanding roster of powerful Dems endorsing Obama (hell, even Clinton’s political mentor George McGovern has announced his support for Obama!) Clinton seems destined for a VP position, at best, at this point.

And I’m not saying that would be bad…I mean, even Clinton supporters have gotta agree that an Obama-Clinton ticket would be damn near unbeatable come November. Of course, I’m sure she’d rather be on top of that ticket, but hey…she’d make a damn fine VP too. I mean, shit…after eight years of President Cheney making most of the decisions in Washington, it’d be kinda cool to have co-Presidents who actually know what they’re doing this time around!

But until Clinton accepts the inevitable and joins Obama to rule the galaxy as President and Vice President she can take comfort in some of the really cool things Edwards said about her today.

Sharing the stage with Obama at a rally in Grand Rapids, Edwards said: “She’s a leader in this country not because of her husband, but because of what she has done.” and gushed further that: “We are a stronger party because Hillary Clinton is a Democrat.” Whoa…talk about your Southern charm! Edwards might have stabbed Clinton in the back, but man, he did it with style!

Seriously, though…I couldn’t agree with Edwards more. Hilary Clinton (and Obama) have made this battle for the Democratic presidential nomination one of the most electrifying in recent memory. I mean, think about it, people who’ve never voted in their lives are actually getting up off their asses and voting…in primaries! Amazing!

So, keep on keeping on, Jedi Master Obama. The Force is clearly strong with you. And something tells me that it’s only a matter of time before you are joined on the ticket by Vice Jedi Master Clinton…or at least I hope so.