Cannes, France: The 67th annual Cannes Film Festival featured a number of remarkable performances, many of them from big-name stars. These were among the actors that had Cannes buzzing:
— Steve Carell: It was an open question which star of Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" turned in the most impressive performance. There's Channing Tatum as Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz, a physically potent but emotionally stunted man. And as his older sibling and mentor, Mark Ruffalo's brotherly physicality is also essential. But Carell, with a prosthetic nose and grayed hair, was the one to cause the biggest stir at Cannes for his dramatic turn as the creepy multi-millionaire John du Pont who's obsessed with the other two.
— Kristen Stewart: There's a clever irony to casting one of the most famous American actresses as the assistant to a European star, played by Juliette Binoche. But in Olivier Assayas' "Clouds of Sils Maria," Stewart does more than wink at her fame. She's natural and intelligent in a way she hasn't been perhaps since the 2009 "Adventureland."
— Timothy Spall: Great artists have often been given majestic big-screen incarnations. In Mike Leigh's biopic of British master J.M.W. Turner, Spall takes another route. His Turner is a humble, grunting worker whose grand artistry is hidden beneath his gruff manner.
— Marion Cotillard: The Dardenne brothers have never before cast a major star as a protagonist, but they said they were smitten by Cotillard after a brief encounter. In their "Two Days, One Night," Cotillard proved (to most, although not all) that her stardom didn't interfere in telling a story about a working class woman trying to convince her co-workers to vote against a raise that will eliminate her job.
