Buyer feeding frenzy at Cannes

IFC snaps up 'Four Weeks;' who will ring 'Bell'?

By ELIZABETH GUIDER, DADE HAYES

As the hoopla at Cannes finally shows signs of peaking, a number of U.S players came up for air, either to announce pictures they've bought or to trumpet pictures they've sold.

With so much money pouring into the international film business, and with the competition for top titles so intense year-round, most outfits that can afford to are stepping up to acquire product before it's even made.

A half-dozen of the top U.S. players -- Summit, Par Vantage, Picturehouse, the Weinstein Co. and Sony Classics among them -- have been circling a handful of fest titles, with various degrees of "must-have" enthusiasm.

Cocktail scuttlebutt here has almost always included the Competition title Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," whose distrib Pathe put on another screening for buyers at 4 p.m. Tuesday. No deal was expected before that.

Other fest titles that attracted more than nibbles include the Romanian title called "4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days."

Directed by Christian Mungiu, pic had its gala unveiling Thursday and has since set cinephile tongues wagging. IFC bought the picture for an undisclosed sum Tuesday.

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