“The thing to remember about the Cannes press, especially the film critics, is that they are global, sophisticated, pretentious and quite often vicious. They love to slam the seats at a press screening, or hiss a movie during the closing credits. That level of rejection did not occur [at Tuesday night’s DaVinci Code press screening]. But there were uncomfortable waves of titters throughout the film tonight, and when the BIG REVEAL comes, there was outright laughter.” — Anne Thompson on her RiskyBiz blog…and I have only this to add: Anne’s descriptions of the visiting Cannes press omits the fact that most of them are quite perceptive, selectively or otherwise. I’ve never known the Cannes gang to dump on a movie for the sheer perverse joy of dumping on a movie. If a movie has anything impassioned or startling or subversive to offer, somebody here will pick up on this and run it up the flagpole. But there’s nothing in The DaVinci Code that raised anyone’s temperature. It has one notable offering — Ian McKellen‘s 15-minute explanation scene (it’s nearly a soliloquy) of the biggest coverup of all time…but that’s it. All to say that the pans that came out of last night’s screening were not a result of temperament or pissy attitudes or predispostions.