Today the mayor of Cannes hosted a lunch in the old city for festival attendees; journalists who knew to ask in advance were furnished with invitations. A first Cannes Film Festival is essentially a tutorial in learning all the tricks of the Cannes Film Festival. Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned here is that one needs to be aggressive about getting into parties. (Note to self: Know someone who knows someone.)  

It’s fitting, then, that this morning’s Competition film should be a movie that argues that living is a process of learning how to live.

Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York is a surprisingly melancholy directorial debut for the maverick screenwriter, the story of a Schenectady, New York, theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who endeavors to stage his life story on an enormous set of New York City—a staging that takes up the better part of his life. The narrative takes its lead from the fissuring mind of its protagonist, who suffers from a neurological disorder, and the audacious freefall structure is reminiscent of Kaufman’s Adaptation. He could use a Spike Jonze (less so a Michel Gondry) to rein in his indulgences, but this is a funny, self-lacerating film; think of it as Kaufman’s 8 1/2.

There are only two Competition films left to screen (Wim Wenders’s Palermo Shooting and Laurent Cantet’s The Class), and tomorrow I hope to post a full rundown of my awards predictions. In the meantime, outside of the would-be-masterpiece department, time is running short to stroll through the Market, where one can see ads for the latest wares in Genghis Khan biopics and posters for pregnancy comedies starring Heather Graham. Ads for a mysterious film called The Third Nail are so ubiquitous throughout Cannes that it’s become something of a running joke with my roommate.

In the Market, there’s also a poster for Albert Serra’s Directors’ Fortnight entry Birdsong (El Cant dels Ocells), which tells the story of the three wise men in the same style as Serra’s Don Quixote gloss Honor of the Knights. (It’s something like Bresson meets Gerry.) The film was shot in improvised Hebrew and co-stars Cinemascope film critic Mark Peranson as Joseph; among other delights, the movie features a long, long take of Mark petting what he describes as a “very well-behaved lamb.” As comedy and as visual poetry, it’s been one of the festival’s most enjoyable films.