Cannes 2009: Buyers, like weather, warming up

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By some estimates, attendance at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is down as much as 30%. So far, the buying by prominent U.S. distributors is down almost 100%, but as the weather turned sunny over the weekend, there were signs that some domestic buyers were starting to circle a couple of acclaimed titles.

Although no major sales had been announced as the festival entered its sixth full day, buyers and sellers alike said three well-reviewed Cannes competition movies were starting to attract attention. The best-received competition movie so far has been the French gangster movie “A Prophet” (pictured above) from director Jacques Audiard (“The Beat That My Heart Skipped”). The movie reminds some festival-goers of the mob movie “Gomorrah,” which IFC Films acquired after it premiered at last year’s Cannes festival. Like “Gomorrah,” “A Prophet” is sometimes disquietingly violent, particularly a scene involving a razor blade and oral sex that left some theater patrons hiding under their chairs.

Far less difficult to watch but equally appealing to buyers was Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric” (pictured), a sometimes serious but mostly lighthearted story of a British mailman who turns to soccer superstar Eric Cantona for help in his life, especially to repair his fractured relationships with his ex-wife, daughter and two sons. Even though the film is in English, thick accents may necessitate subtitles for full comprehension.

Though it wasn’t as well-reviewed as “A Prophet,” director Andrea Arnold’s family drama “Fish Tank” intrigued several smaller buyers and could secure a distribution deal by the festival’s end.

The one competition movie that will be a much tougher sell is Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist,” an exceedingly disturbing, violent and sexual drama about a couple’s crumbling marriage. The movie opens with a toddler stumbling out of a upper-floor window to his death, and let’s just say that what follows is more distressing still. If there’s a market for a movie in which a character gives herself a clitorectomy with a pair of scissors, Cannes could still surprise some people yet.

-- John Horn

Photos: At top, ‘A Prophet.’ Credit: Celluloid Dreams. At bottom, ‘Looking for Eric.’ Credit: Wild Bunch