Why is the premiere film at Cannes a Disney / Pixar production? I'm looking forward to seeing Up!, but it seems like an odd choice for a festival that's dedicated (at least I thought) to independent cinema.

This article really seemed to lack a point. Hobel says that Cannes is struggling but the reasons (the Internet and the struggling economy) aren't any different for Cannes than they are for your average multiplex. It sounds like Cannes is suffering from the delusion that there's a large, paying audience for truly independent cinema? There isn't.

The organizers would do better to focus on films that are still artistic but maybe include some genre elements that make them watchable? Taxi Driver and Wild At Heart were two very good examples from the article. That, or start a "branch" of the festival that's a sure money maker. The Philadelphia Film Fest features a series of independent horror films called Danger After Dark - I'm sure that it's funding many of the worthwhile but not necessarily profitable films in the rest of the festival.

See above.

All this silly CGI shit is gonna spend its wad so very fast, that before long it all will seem a sweet novelty, lost back there in a quaint cozy of our collective cultural past.

It's simple really. Cinephiles are older and more discerning. They don't get out as much because they're well, older and under served. In addition there just aren't that many of them and too many young people today, especially in America, equate "art" with boredom.

Independent film as spawned by the culture of Sundance is a black hole of quirk, unable in all these years to introduce a single serious auteur to the world stage.

As for the art film itself. It peaked with Tarkovsky the greatest film maker (and one of the greatest artists, period) who ever lived.

I'd rather see me some Pier Paolo Pasolini

Than some more

Apey, improvy

Indie shit

That looks more like

Tim Burton's

Silly ass

Franken Weenie