Friday, May 23------The whooshing sound that you hear is the rapid departure of film professionals leaving in droves as the Cannes Film Festival enters its final weekend. In fact, professionals have been leaving en masse since Wednesday, with film sales offices at the Marche du Film and the local hotels virtual ghost towns. The American distribution contingent, which were on the Croisette in great numbers, have left Cannes without many major acquisitions. The tepid Cannes market continued what...

The film: Premiering in Competition, Two Lovers by James Gray is the third film the American director has brought to Cannes, eight years after The Yards and one year after We Own the Night. Set in Brooklyn, it stars Joaquin Phoenix, a frequent presence in Gray's films, playing a man named Leonard Kraditor who has returned to live with his family after a traumatic romantic disappointment. There, he meets two women: Michelle, the new neighbor, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sandra, the daughte...