Cannes killers

A theme runs through some American films at Cannes, and Abel Ferrara makes an out-of-competition comeback. (NY Times)

Viewed alongside some other American entries here — David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and Joel and Ethan Coen’s “No Country for Old Men” — “Death Proof” provides one of those festival coincidences that can sometimes be taken for a theme. All three films have at their center a serial killer who acts without apparent motive or sense — a manifestation of pure evil beyond the reach of reason and, in two cases out of three, of justice. In contrast with their Asian and European counterparts, American filmmakers in Cannes seem to operate in a Manichean moral universe. Perhaps our role is to keep the world supplied with bad guys. But only in the movies, right?