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.

Trishna is director Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles, his third Hardy adaptation following Jude (1996) and The Claim (2000) (none of which I have read). This new movie stars Freida Pinto as Trishna, the lower class maiden and hired help, and Riz Ahmed as Jay, a privileged British chap who maintains his father’s hotels in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Pinto and Ahmed carry most of the weight of the film, but there isn’t a whole lot of depth to their characters. Jay is more insipid than interesting and he is unaware of his major misdeed. He’s much more unaware or careless of his actions than he should be, though his wealthy background is the likely explanation. He does earn some respect for his willingness to handle family obligations and manage a hotel in some less trendy areas of India. However you feel towards him at the beginning, likely ambivalence, once you dislike him, nothing will change that view. He can’t branch out in enterprise so he instead satiates his libido.