Though not for lack of trying, I haven’t seen a film worth really writing about in days. This afternoon I check out Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, about which I’ve heard good things; before I leave I’ll attempt to see the Competition entries from Gaspar Noe, Tsai Ming-Liang and Isabel Coixet. But the end of Cannes 2009 is definitely in sight. The market wraps up today, and the crowds are both thinning and wearing out. I arrived at this morning’s screening of Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus 90 minutes early to find nothing like a crowd in wait; when I walked out of the film after 40 minutes because my eyes ached from rolling so much, it looked like everyone in my half-full row was asleep.

So in lieu of reviews, here’s some gossip and other notes on the past few days:

• Someone from IFC told me last night that although they plan to release the Cannes cut of Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist theatrically in the States, the filmmaker has agreed to edit a cleaner cut for television. Which version will be available on VOD simultaneous to the theatrical release? My IFC source says they haven’t figured that out yet.
• With just two days until the Cannes jury hands out awards, speculation is high that this year’s Palme D’or will be given to a French film for the second year in a row. Most people I’ve talked to are putting their money on one of three homegrown features: Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, the Haneke film, and Wild Grass by Alain Resnais. Keep in mind that The Class came virtually out of nowhere to take the prize in 2008; more than one person has told me that they think this year’s upset could come in the form of an award for Antichrist (though probably not the Palme), depending on whether or not jury member Asia Argento carries enough weight.
• Last night I skipped the Ella Suleiman film in order to check out the sole screening of Two of the Wave, a documentary about the relationship between Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, playing in the Cannes Classics sidebar. Unfortunately, the film was essentially unwatchable for non-French speaking audiences, partially due to what I assume was malfunction, and partially due to design. Composed mainly of clips from Godard and Truffaut’s films interwoven with footage of actress Isild LeBesco reading old French newspapers and issues of Cahiers du Cinema, with both put into context via a narration spoken in French, the audio is translated into English via subtitles … which, last night, were out of sync with the sound and image, appearing on screen at least 10 seconds before the imagery they should have corresponded to. So you’d read an exchange between Belmondo and Seberg from Breathless quite awhile before actually seeing and hearing it; by the time the stars were on screen, you were likely already reading about something having to do with Truffaut. I assume there was a glitch with the tape or the machine playing it, but if the issue wasn’t forecasted, I’m not sure why the film was allowed to play on without announcement. If it was intentional effort to reveal the artifice of documentary, well, that’s very Godardian, but completely incomprehensible. In any case, the audience walked out in droves, and after giving it a good solid try for about half an hour, I joined them when I became worried that my brain was going to explode.