Whilst this year’s Cannes Festival remained as glamorous as ever, with the requisite number of the great and good of Hollywood and beyond all making their way up the red carpet, the general consensus is that the festival lacked a certain ‘ooomph’. With no real stand out feature films in the competition, some disappointments surrounding highly expected films (especially Southland Tales, Richard Kelly’s follow up to Donnie Darko, but more of that later) and a lack of activity in the festival market it seems that 2006 represents an industry in hibernation. But if you look beyond the high profile films you’ll see that there are some definite bright spots amongst the general malaise.

Firstly the market proffered a UK product that was by and large intriguing and offering a hopeful future for our home grown industry. Apart from Andrea Arnold’s competition film Red Road - which garnered excellent reviews and praise from the often critical Cannes crowd - and Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley, there were a number of other features that should get people talking over the next few months. First up there was the long awaited Colour Me Kubrick, the story of Alan Conway the man who blagged his way round London by pretending to be the legendary director. Apparently completed for two years but plagued by internal wranglings, the film should hopefully soon pick up a distributor soon as audiences will surely be drawn in by a surreal and funny story held together by an excellent performance by John Malkovich as the deluded con artist. Curiously Malkovich shares a lot of screen time with Jim Davidson. Yes. You read right. JOHN ‘Famous Actor’ MALKOVICH and JIM ‘Generation Game’ DAVIDSON in the SAME FILM. Despite this sure sign that the apocalypse is now upon us (I repeat: John Malkovich and Jim Davidson in the same film) it’s a well thought out movie.

Other UK product included Kenneth Branagh’s new film which is a action sci-fi film full of massive explosions. OK, not really, it’s an adaptation of As You Like It which is the usual Shakespeare movie (though Branagh has changed the setting to 19th century Japan) packed full of English thesps which should appeal to older audience members and students who couldn’t be arsed to read the original play. Driving Lessons takes a clichéd story (teenager is taught how to enjoy life thanks to his friendship with an older woman) and imbues it with an energy thanks to a sharp script and a winning performance from Julie Walters whilst Dead Man’s Cards is an atmospheric thriller set in Liverpool, with fine performances from the like of Paul Barber.

a sharp script and a winning performance from Julie Walters

But, for me, the stand out UK film was Sean Ellis’ Cashback. An extension of his award winning short from 2004 it takes a conventional narrative but twists it thanks to a number of bravura sequences, a quick wit and some simply superb cinematography (and the Cannes billboard for the film with a naked woman didn’t do the film any harm when it came to attracting some attention). Refreshingly adult and full of invention, let’s hope that it finds it’s way to the cinemas sooner rather than later.

There was also a lot of bonking go on in, though unfortunately for me, only on the cinema screen. With ‘the nice love story that happens to be full of hardcore sex’ Shortbus - from the director that brought us Hedwig and The Angry Inch - to the brace of erotic tales that make up the film Destricted it seems that, post 9/11, there’s a need to celebrate the creation of life (well, it’s either that or Viagra have been given free samples to filmmakers). Indeed, many buyers seemed not to be put off by the graphicness of the movies and there seems to be a much more relaxed attitude to sex on the screen. This is also explained captivating documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated showed. Filmmaker Kirby Dick tries to find out why the ratings board at the MPAA are the only organisation in the USA, aside from the CIA, who keep their members secret. Interviewing filmmakers such as John Waters he gets behind the veil of their decisions and undergoes a bit of detective training to achieve his goals. Whilst the film sometimes loses its way, it’s a fascinating insight into the American Film Industry which seems to regard ultra violence as fine but any depiction of sexuality with deep horror.

Whilst the film sometimes loses its way, it’s a fascinating insight into the American Film Industry

Speaking of horror, lets move on to Southland Tales. Trying to explain the film here is futile, because it would take me 10 hours just to try and go through the first ten minutes. Suffice to say, Kelly has certainly been given free reign by the studio and has come up with something that some (admittedly a minority) see as a masterpiece or others as the biggest pile of crap ever committed to celluloid. I’m still going to go for a cop out here as I can’t bring myself to hate it as there’s something (which I can’t put my finger on for the moment) that I admire intensely about the film but also know it’s deeply flawed. Either way, it’s almost unreleasable in its current 2hr 40mins version and Kelly is rumoured to be doing a re-cut. When that finally surfaces, there’ll be a film that - for either good or bad reasons - will have a lot of people talking. And probably going to see twice to work out just what was happening.

There’s was a lot more that was good. Powerful anti-war movie The Violin or gentle comedy 12.08 East Of Bucharest were favourites whilst Almodovar’s Volver and the intense Taxidermy have all been talked about up and down La Croisette. So, whilst not a vintage year for Cannes there’s been enough that should keep the filmgoing public for the next year of so.