The mob descends on Cannes, here on the Croisette just in front the red stairs of the Palais, where “Robin Hood” blew into town as the opening night film. Later that night, the rains came, and my Cineaste magazine colleague Richard Porton and I were stuck in another mob blocked by gendarmes as the movie’s contingent passed in front of us, including Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Director Ridley Scott was absent due to knee surgery….

Waiting in line for the first film, Mathieu Almaric’s “Tournee,” made under the sway of both Cassavetes’ “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” and Renoir’s “French Can-Can,” about a haphazard tour of French port o’ call towns by an American ensemble of “New Burlesque” performers, I have my first sight of an IPad in action…more to come….

View of everyone’s favorite block party spot in Cannes, the nightly crowd at and outside of Le Petit Majestic, as seen from the balcony of my 11th floor room at the Grand Hotel.