It’s been revealed here and there that Brett Ratner‘s X-Men 3: The Last Stand (20th Century Fox, 5.26), which will show at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, 5.22, is quite violent. I learned a bit more last night upon speaking to a European exhibitor source who said he’s seen it, and that the final violent sequence at the end is a bit reminiscent of the finale of Sam Peckinpah‘s The Wild Bunch (1969). It also resembles that western classic in the sense that two or three “good guys” — i.e, mutant heroes — buy the farm. Obviously we’re not speaking of Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine, who may return in a film of his own down the line. The guy wouldn’t tell me who buys it and I didn’t want to know anyway.

I still think Tom Hanks would have been a more appealing choice to play Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism expert in Paul Haggis ‘s forthcoming film version of Against All Enemies, which is based on Clarke’s book. I’m saying this because ABC News’ Christopher Isham reported yesterday that the always superb Sean Penn has been cast in the role. A great actor, yes…but an activist anti-Bush lefty, which will probably make the film seem like more of a hard-core political piece than it would if Hanks or some congenial nice-guy actor had the role.

The first profoundly good film of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival screened early this morning — Ken Loach ‘s The Wind That Shakes the Barley . A complex but cleanly told drama about violence, death and warring Irish blood, it’s one of the finest films ever made about the Irish rebellion of the early 1920s…or about political unrest and revolution in any culture or time period. (There are strong echoes of the U.S.-British Iraq occupation, needless to add.)

I enjoyed and respected Neil Jordan ‘s Michael Collins (’96), which dealt with the same period in Irish history, but it delivered a moderately slick Irish-Hollywood sensibility…whereas Loach’s film smacks of visual simplicity and the cultural real deal . I’ll bang out a longer review in a couple of hours (probably), but to my mind Loach’s left-wing social realist brush has never rendered anything this stirring or flat-out masterful. It’s a love story, a family tragedy story. Each and every Irish-to-the-core performance is honest and rooted, with Cillian Murphy‘s, Padraic Delaney‘s, Liam Cunngham‘s and Orla Fitzgerald‘s at the top of the list. There’s no U.S. distributor at this stage. I recognize the (unfortunate) likelihood that mainstream U.S. audiences will not support this film in massive numbers when it opens in the States, but a film of this quality needs — demands — to be seen and respected. Cheers to Loach’s longtime screenwriting partner Paul Laverty for the discipline he showed in writing Barley — a script that gets right down to it, tells it straight and doesn’t mess around. He and Loach have made a political film that plays in obviously authentic terms from start to finish.

I was sent this list just before leaving for Cannes with strict orders to share it with no one. And now Nikki Finke has posted it…funny.

What’s everybody thinking about the World Trade Center trailer? I for one hate the music. It reeks of blah-blah reverence and soulful uplift and sensitivity. Parts of it feel almost Bruckheimer-ish in the worst syrupy way.

Beware, I say, of any film about a horrific situation — a film that wouldn’t have been made, let’s face it, were it not for the death and destruction backdrop — that has footage of husbands, mothers and kids hugging each other in bed while heartfelt “love is forever” music plays on the soundtrack. Beware of this! A friend wrote this morning and say the “who’s with me?” scene made him laugh out loud. The slow-motion “runnnn!” scene was a bit of a problem for him also. It looks like a professionally made A-level film, yes, but I’m getting a really funny feeling about this one…I really am.

Angry, bitter and thoughtful words from Dave Kehr, one of the culture’s finest film critics, about the gradual disenfranchising of the film-critic elite (the recently booted Jami Bernard, the downgraded Michael Wilmington, et. al.) by their editors and publishers, presumably to save money (print ad revenues are down all over) and to allow younger, less cranky critics to be heard.

In his just-up review, New York Times critic A.O. Scott tears into Dan Brown ‘s DaVinci Code prose style with more relish than he does Ron Howard‘s new film. He doesn’t like it, but there’s no sting in his words. There’s a shark-tank feeding frenzy going on over here…the word on DaVinci is bad, bad, bad all over…a perfect opportunity for the less discriminating to buck the tide…and Scott doesn’t seem to be feeling the spirit.

L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas says that there seems to be a general downgrading of press passes this year. One senior-evel critic who’s always rated an elite white pass has this year been given a pink-with- yellow-pastille pass, and some in the pink-with-yellow-pastille fraternity have been downgraded to straight pink. (That’s me…pink all the way.)

The next level below pink is blue, and the lowest-of-the-low are the yellow passes. Richard Schickel is here doing a Cannes documentary and not a a Time critic, so he has a yellow pass. (I saw him waiting last night to see The DaVinci Code and I went over and said, “Hey, Dick…is this the pink-with-yellow-pastille line?” Schickel kind of half-scowled in his usual charming way and said, “Uhnn…no.”)

Dreamgirls director Bill Condon and producer Larry Mark just poked their heads into the Orange Cafe and ducked out. I ran out and chased them down. Condon said he’d read my DaVinci pan earlier today, and noted I was bit kinder than most. They’re on their way to the DaVinci Code premiere and then to the party. (TV coverage of the red-carpet arrivals is on the flat screen as I write this.) This is piffle…not even a digression… but it’s fun to see friends and familiar faces wherever you turn.

I’ve just been flopping around today in my black suit. Flopping and filing. I can’t afford to eat anything except mozarella and tomato and lettuce sandwiches, so I’m loading up on the free cappucinos at the Orange Cafe. I like free things…freedom. I want everyone to be free. I’d like to free myself, actually.

There’s nothing much to do except say hello to friends and strangers, and hang out at the American Pavillion and see Lou Ye’s Summer Palace tonight at 9 pm. The DaVinci Code premiere is about an hour away, and the post-premiere party — which will probably be an emotionally muted affair, given the reviews — starts tonight at 11 pm at the Quiaz Laubeuf, Vieux Port Cannes, under the big pyramid.

Last year the American Pavillion had extended plug-in outlets on the floor near the tables so laptoppers could plug in and work for a long while, if needed. This year…no outlets. So unless you have a fully-charged battery that last a few hours there’s not much point in writing and posting there. I’m sorry to be the sorehead dart-thrower, but this kinda strikes me as unhelpful and ungracious. (I assume the decision not to offer plug-ins was deliberate, as a way of keeping journalists like myself from hogging the seats at the eating tables for too long.) Ah, well…there are plug-ins at the Orange Cafe and at the Palais press room, which have struck me this year as much warmer and folksier places to hang.