I mentioned intense jet lag in my day one Cannes dispatch, and while an early press screening of Wes Anderson’s heartfelt Moonrise Kingdom found me relatively fresh, if disoriented, from a day-and-a-half without proper rest, an evening screening of Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle saw me finally succomb to the laws of nature. Sure enough, I was dozing during the opening credits, and from there was forced to submit to my body’s need for sleep. From the sound of it, I didn’t miss much. Indeed, After the Battle has been roundly maligned, and judging from the over half dozen folks who kept waking me up as they walked out on the film, my body may have made the proactive choice, particularly with a day two slate of films holding interesting potential waiting in the wings.

Along with the new film by the legendary Alain Resnais, France itself is represented in the Competition strand at Cannes by the increasingly popular Jacques Audiard, who’s last film, A Prophet, set the Croisette alight in 2009 and turned out to be quite the crossover success in the States. Audiard’s new film, Rust & Bone, parlays some of that goodwill into his first star vehicle of sorts, with Oscar winner Marion Cotillard co-starring in his latest machismo-infused melodrama, which lends some much needed estrogen to his decidedly muscular filmmaking style. Beyond that, however, Audiard stays the course with his latest. Blunt, wrenching, and about as subtle as a brick to face, Rust & Bone embodies it’s title in both style and substance. It’s a film even my energy-sapped self would find difficult to sleep through.

I’d imagine the trip to Cannes isn’t the most convenient trek for even the most knowledgable resident of its parent country’s closest surrounding cities. More or less isolated along the coast of the French Riviera, the port city of Cannes transforms once a year from simply one of the more beautiful of coastal locales into a melting pot of industry and journalistic humanity gathered in the name of international cinema’s most prestigious film festival, which just so happens to take place along Europe’s most sun-kissed beach communities. With the closest airport located well enough outside it’s hill-shrouded borders, Cannes is limited to vehicular and nautical access, its narrow streets overflowing with scooters, buses, taxi cabs, and, during these two weeks in particular, thousands upon thousands of tourists and film fans.

Electric Guest had made their NYC debut back in October during CMJ. Since then, they’ve come out with their debut album Mondo which features production from Danger Mouse (Mr. Mouse penned a letter about his reason for the collaboration in case you want to check it out). The pop group, consisting of Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton, is in a similar vein to bands like Passion Pit. They brought a full band with them on their recent tour across the East and down into Texas selling out shows all along the way.

It can be a tough proposition to attend a show by a band that hit it big through licensing a song to a commercial. That’s not a comment on “selling out” or the politics of such a decision—bands need to get paid, and it’s become more difficult than ever for them to make that happen in a big way. No, I’m talking about snobbery of a different sort. When you put hundreds of people into a room whose greatest shared interest is less listening to music than watching television, you’ll likely get a live atmosphere of, shall we say, a different sort. Less watching, more talking; fewer sensible shoes, more stilettos.

Chairlift, whose Brooklyn-by-Boulder synthpop reached the masses in the vessel of an Apple ad soundtracked by their “Bruises”, made the most of a tough situation. In fact, vocalist Caroline Polachek seemed oblivious to the chattering crowd, repeatedly lavishing those at DC’s U Street Music Hall with the title of ‘Best Crowd Ever’. One would hope not. But for those paying attention above the din of clinking drinks and giggling young professionals, Polachek and her band gave an ebullient, engaging performance.

The Occupy movement rallied up thousands of people in New York (and in other cities) for a march on May Day. The event brought together different groups that had arrived at different midtown Manhattan locations including the Guitarmy in Bryant Park. Students were supposed to walk out of classes, consumers were asked not to shop and workers were told to gather and highlight the plight of the 99%.

In Union Square, before the groups marched on towards Zuccotti Park, there was a stage set up for performances and personalities. Tom Morello, Das Racist and Immortal Technique were among just a few of the names that were scheduled for the stage. But the south end of the park was packed with demonstrators and personalities. PopMatters was there to capture some of those crowd images.