Cannes Film Festival Official Web Site

No photos of Sharon Stone sashaying down the Croisette or Liv Tyler demurely decked in gingham under the glare of the Mediterranean sun to be found here. In fact, virtually every element of the Cannes International Film Festival that makes it such a spectacle of glitz and glamour is absent from the Cannes Film Festival Official Web Site (www.festival-cannes.fr). Instead, this dulled-down site resembles an official program — something you’d frame, not peruse. For Cannes-o-philes, Cannes does present a comprehensive schedule of this year’s 50th-anniversary fete, a list of films in competition, and a history of the festival since 1939’s original premiere was canceled (due to Hitler’s invasion of Poland). Even the time line’s a snore, made up mostly of factoids about festival-board appointees, accompanied by tiny photos of past attendees and movie posters that require a magnifying glass to recognize. So if you’re a Cannes festival wonk, by all means, log on. If not, no Cannes do. C