Writing his third diary from the Cannes Film Festival for TIME Online, critic Richard Corliss didn't find much to cheer about yesterday, dissing Cannes entries "Last Days", "Where the Truth Lies" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." The subheadline to his story reads, "Showbiz legends are fodder for failed art film".

This was to be the day that high art met low trash on the Cote d'Azur, with two quirky North American directors offering analyses of death-love in the cult of showbiz. Today's prestige items: Gus Van Sant's Last Days, an imagining of the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, and Where the Truth Lies, Atom Egoyan's film of a murder case involving a comedy duo not unlike Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Because Van Sant, from the U.S., and Egoyan, the Canadian, are revered for their elaborate, eccentric visions, we figured we would not get simple tabloid tattle. We came expecting an upscale approach that would anatomize the tawdry headlines and view the sordid spectacle from a remote, ironic height. Art-film gossip is dish best served cold.

Well, forget it. The films were both busts.