Oh look, a Clint Eastwood movie with an Oscar-friendly release date. That's new. Actually, it is relatively new, if you look over the man's directorial career. Sure, he's had a number of films come out in the fall time, but not with the same consistency we've seen since 2003, when Mystic River arrived in a few theaters on October 8 then went on to receive six Academy Award nominations the following winter.

Then in 2004, his Million Dollar Baby opened in limited release December 15 and went on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Finally, in 2006, two of his films were released in the fall, Flags of Our Fathers in October and Letters from Iwo Jima in December. Both went on to receive Oscar recognition, the latter garnering major noms, such as Best Picture and Best Director.

First, let's recap: On May 21, Eugene posted about Spike Lee's continued criticism of Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima for not including African Americans. Lee was asked why Eastwood did it as he did, and I have to say, I don't blame him for responding: "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that -- that was his vision, not mine..." Today, we got word that Eastwood has responded, with the eloquent "A guy like him should shut his face." He then went on to talk about revisionism.

So, MTV went back to Lee, who is taking, and I quote: "the Obama high road." (New political slang alert! What's next?) He continued: "I've said my statement. I have no ill will towards Mr. Eastwood. What I said to him was not a personal attack, it was an observation. So that's really the end of it."

Think what you will of Lee, but this whole thing is a little ridiculous. If you head back to Erik's 2007 post about Miracle at St. Anna, Lee discussed how he'd met a black veteran who fought at Iwo Jima and was disappointed in Eastwood's portrayal, and how this inspired him to make the film and pay tribute to African American soldiers. Now he's getting crap thrown at him about revisionist history, and all of this is stemming from people asking him to talk about it, and him saying he couldn't answer for Eastwood. Lee might say some controversial things sometimes, but he was really backed into a corner this time around.

A little bit ago I posted regarding Spike Lee's comments at Cannes, accusing Clint Eastwood of tacit racism because no black actors appeared on screen in Flags of Our Fathers or Letters from Iwo Jima. "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why," he told reporters. "There's no way I know why he did that -- that was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

That post touched a nerve and elicited a barrage of comments from you folks, some of them nasty, but many interesting and thoughtful. So I figured I'd be remiss not to report Eastwood's recent response in a Guardian article to Lee's remarks.

Earlier today, Laurent Cantent's The Class became the first French film in 20 years to win the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the 2008 Festival de Cannes. Coincidentally, we have James' review of The Class scheduled to run in just a little while; in it, he says of the film: "The Class may very well wind up taking home a nod or two from the jury here in Cannes; rest assured, if that happens, it'll represent more than just sympathy votes for a local favorite."

The grand prize went to Gomorra, which James called "a sweeping, stirring drama that has the shoot-and-loot tension of the best crime cinema but also has the scope and serious intent of great drama." Special Prize went to Catherine Deneuve (A Christmas Tale) and Clint Eastwood (Changeling); the latter of which was a favorite heading into the awards (as was Waltz with Bashir, which, surprisingly, did not take home one of the top awards). Jury Prize went to Il Divo, while Nuri Bilge Ceylan took Best Director for Three Monkeys. Additionally, Benicio del Toro won Best Actor for his performance in Soderbergh's Che, Sandra Corveloni took Best Actress for Linha de passe, and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne won Best Screenplay for Lorna's Silence.

For reviews of most of these films, head on over to Cinematical's official Festival de Cannes hub. We'll be rounding out this year's coverage over the next few days.

The Changeling press conference the other day was, not surprisingly, a packed affair, with throngs of journalists crowding in to get a look at Clint Eastwood, Angelina Jolie, and the Jolie baby bump. Honestly, I've never seen so many people so fascinated with the silhouette of a pregnant woman -- the Jolie frenzy here has been interesting to watch. She looked, also not surprisingly, glowingly fantastic. Also on hand to field questions were producer Brian Grazer and his famously spiky hair, and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski.

At a Cannes press conference for his WWII drama The Miracle at St. Anna, controversy hog Spike Lee took some swipes at Hollywood darlings Clint Eastwood and the Coen Brothers. Talking about the way he treated death in his first war film, Lee said: "I always treat life and death with respect, but most people don't... Look, I love the Coen brothers; we all studied at NYU. But they treat life like a joke. Ha ha ha. A joke. It's like, 'Look how they killed that guy! Look how blood squirts out the side of his head!' I see things different than that." And he targeted Eastwood for failing to put any black soldiers on screen in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima: "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that -- that was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

This morning saw the world premiere of Changeling, Clint Eastwood's new film, which may even be called The Exchange -- reports are murky and muddled as to what, in fact, the final title of the film is. The plot revolves around mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) whose son Walter goes missing; when police bring her found son back after weeks of fear and heartbreak, glad for a moment and then she's insistent: That's not my child.

Based on a true story, The Changeling is most definitely going to get Jolie an Oscar nomination, and may even earn her the win; aside from that, frankly, there's not much else in the movie. I know Kim liked Changeling a lot more than I did -- you can read her review at the link above; for me, it was just more of the massive, ham-fisted manipulation Clint Eastwood's brought to the screen in the over-praised, clumsy, phony Million Dollar Baby. There's no ambiguity in Changeling-- Jolie is a suffering, strong saint, the cops who have brought her the wrong child and refuse to acknowledge they've done wrong are moustache-twirling bad guys out of a silent film. And even when it's broad, it's bland -- there's no pulp or muck to it that might make it more than just a showcase for Jolie's misty-eyed maternal majesty on the big screen.

I'll have a full writeup from the Changeling press conference later, but wanted to quickly post this little tidbit for you: Clint Eastwood confirmed there will be no more Dirty Harry films, which presumably means his newest film, Gran Torino, will not star everyone's favorite badass cop. Asked whether it's true that we'll see more of Dirty Harry, Eastwood said definitively, "That is not correct." Angelina Jolie then quipped, "I am!" and Eastwood fired back with a laugh, "Yeah, Dirty Harriet, starring Tomb Raider."

Eastwood said that for one thing, he's just too old to be believably playing the role of a working cop at this point, and that while he enjoyed the role and saying "do I feel lucky?" he's more interested in being behind the camera at this point than in front of it, which is just where he is now at this point in his career. Not sure if that means that he's not, in fact, starring in Gran Torino (as reported); they were pretty iron-fisted about keeping the press conference questions related to Changeling.

So, there you have it, folks. Sorry to disappoint, but if you want to see Dirty Harry, you'll just have to rent the DVDs.

Clint Eastwood's Changeling (which may or may not be now known as The Exchange), is a riveting drama about a missing boy and the undying constancy of a mother's love. Angelina Jolie excels in a powerful performance as Christine Collins, whose nine-year-old son, Walter, disappeared in 1928. Five months later, police returned to her a boy they said was Walter; Christine alleged that the boy was not her son.

At the time, the Los Angeles police department was under considerable pressure due to the efforts of a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malcovich), to expose corruption within the police force. Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan), who heads up the investigation, doesn't particularly care whether the boy is or isn't Walter Collins; he has a publicity campaign to manage that's all about making himself look good, so he tries to convince Christine to accept the found boy as her son. When she fights back by going to the press, Jones has her committed to the psycho ward.

When you're dealing with one of the most controversial figures of 20^th century counterculture, it's important to take your time and get things right. That's exactly what Steven Soderbergh appears to be doing with his two upcoming Che Guevara biopics, The Argentine and Guerilla. While both movies looked like they were set to premiere at next month's Cannes Film Festival just a few weeks ago, Variety now reports that Soderbergh is still tweaking the final cuts-and doesn't want to unveil one movie without the other.

Judging by the polarizing figure at the center of the story, that's probably a good thing. Since Soderbergh envisioned these two films as a single unit, it wouldn't make sense to reveal one half of the saga and let people start tearing into it. Considering Fidel Castro's recent retirement, this essential component of Cuban history seems especially relevant, but that's not enough to develop interest in it (topicality didn't help Steven Spielberg's Munich). It's hard to keep audiences interested in a story that stretches across two movies, as we learned with the muted reaction to Clint Eastwood's second Iwo Jima film. Soderbergh will need to get strong reactions to both movies early in the game if they're going to have any success in theaters.