In a Festival not overflowing with freebies, the PolyGram UK lunch at the Carlton came up with a cracker: numbered copies of a limited-edition of Making Movies, a new book of cartoons by Alan Parker, who is currently preparing Angela's Ashes for the company.

Some of them, incorporating Parker's irreverent take on Hollywood, the British film industry and, of course, Cannes, will be familiar to those who remember the director/cartoonist's previous slim volume, Un cartoon de... Others are a good deal more recent.
 

Judiciously omitted from the book, however, are all cartoons on what used to be one of Parker's favourite subjects: the British Film Institute. Parker was, of course, appointed chairman of the BFI last summer, and all proceeds from sales of the book will go to boost the activities of the BFI's education arm.

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Daily briefing

The Danes are coming! That has been the message since it was announced that there are two Danish films in competition in Cannes this year. They may well be coming, but they certainly seem to be taking a long time arriving if Lars Von Trier's travel arrangements are anything to go byÉ it's a long way to Cannes when you're travelling by camper van.  Lars Von Trier's epic journey across Europe, from Denmark to the Riviera, reportedly took four days. Von Trier watchers, looking out for his old jalopy,  phoned in progress reports at regular intervals. He was spotted in Avignon on Friday and seen again at various other key points on his journey. Now he is safely holed up in the Hotel Du Cap. 

But there's no guarantee that Von Trier will actually turn up at the competition screening of his new film, Idiots. The maverick Danish director not only fears flying: he's none too keen on tight spaces either. It is thought that the prospect of more than two hours cooped up in the Palais Du Cinema may be more than he can safely stomach. 

Katrin Cartlidge, who co-starred in Von Trier's last Cannes competition entry, Breaking The Waves, is back in town starring in Lodge Kerrigan's Claire Dolan. It's a US indie film with a differenceÉ made with French money. Paris-based MK2 are the financiers. 

The recent death of Pol Pot lends an extra resonance to Rithy Panh's Une soir apres la guerre, which was shot on location in Cambodia. Panh's film (screening in Un Certain Regard today) explores the plight of survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Geoffrey Macnab