Kara Hayward in "Moonrise Kingdom."

Credit: Focus Features

CANNES - It's not often that a filmmaker's cheerleaders and detractors alike can agree upon a single convenient adjective. But for better and for worse, "precious" has been a defining term for Wes Anderson's unapologetically affected filmography ever since "Rushmore" dressed up the grainy funk of "Bottle Rocket" into something a little more preppily composed.

From any perspective, "precious" covers the thematic and aesthetic delicacy of his films, their exactingly designed construction and perennially nostalgic gaze. Whether that degree of refinement is something cherishable or enervating, however, is in the eye of the beholder. To say, then, that "Moonrise Kingdom" -- a neurotically designed and almost exhaustingly cute return to the pre-adult concerns of 1998's "Rushmore" -- is Anderson's most precious film to date scarcely qualifies as a value judgment. But it is, and you can attach to it what value you will.

Wes Anderson on the set of "Moonrise Kingdom"

Credit: Focus Features

Filmmaker Wes Anderson is back this year with his first live action film in five years, "Moonrise Kingdom," premiering today as the opening night film of the Cannes Film Festival. In typical Anderson fashion, it features an ensemble of actors, though many of them are working with him for the first time. Over the years, Anderson has established an impressive stable of acting talent, a dedicated troupe of personnel that can slip right into his singular world with ease. Will first-timers Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban, Frances McDormand and Harvey Keitel join the crew after "Moonrise Kingdom?" Time will tell, but for now, here's a look at the house that Anderson built. Click through the gallery below for a quick refresher.

A typically lush frame from "Barry Lyndon"

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

It's been a while since I last saw Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon." It's a film that demands attention be paid, and I so rarely find that I can sit down and settle in with it. But it's a masterful piece of work that deserves a couple of looks over the years, to be sure.

The Academy is offering one such look as part of its "Member Selects" series on Monday, May 21 at the Lighthouse International in New York City. "Capote" and "Moneyball" director Bennett Miller will be on hand to introduce the film (as "Member Selects" is a series where Academy members introduce one of their favorite films).

"Barry Lyndon" landed at an interesting time in film history. It was part of a dying breed of film, done with a certain magnificence that was becoming rarer and rarer (and, indeed, is one of a kind for the way Kubrick approached the material). It landed seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

A scene from "Margaret"

Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

I'm not sure we could write much more about "Margaret" in this space. Last December, filling in the gaps with the rest of a press corps hammering out their top 10 lists for the year, I caught up to Kenneth Lonergan's embattled film at one of two screenings Fox Searchlight politely scheduled for those who had missed it during its fleeting September release.

I loved it. I loved it so much it became, for me, the best film of 2011. I talked at length with Lonergan, who was unable to do press due to necessary legal hand-tying regarding lawsuits involving the studio and financier. Roth (also a fan of the film) talked at length with star Anna Paquin, a surreal experience for the "True Blood" vixen, given that she had worked on the film so long ago. And Guy, too, fell in love with it and ranked it pretty high on his list of the year's best.

No, I don't think there's much more we could write…about the theatrical cut, anyway. But with a new extended assemblage finally coming to DVD/Blu-ray on July 10, you can bet we'll find something!

Kim Basinger in "L.A. Confidential," which won no prizes at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

I can hardly believe it's snuck up on like this, but today I jet off to the south of France for the Cannes Film Festival, which officially kicks off tomorrow with the premiere of Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom." Currently, we're in the exciting night-before-Christmas stage of the festival. 22 Competition films (among a buffet of others in secondary strands) lie unseen ahead of us: all of them have serious artistic intentions and creditable names attached, and have been hand-picked for the programme by the powers that be.

Yet there will be successes and there will be failures: predicting the annual critical disaster as much a sport as handicapping the jury awards. We have no idea what the prizewinners and/or future classics from the lineup might prove to be -- and that "and/or" is crucial, since the two don't always overlap. Cannes juries are no less capable than the Academy of missing the boat with their choices, of passing over long-haul masterworks for short-lived sensations. Will future generations care about Palme d'Or winner "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" -- any more than people today care about "The Mission?"

Colleen Atwood with her designs for 'Snow White and the Huntsman'

Credit: AP Photo

Three-time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood has been designing costumes for some of the most elaborate Hollywood productions for the better part of three decades. Perhaps best known for her singular collaborations with director Tim Burton (another of which, "Dark Shadows," is currently in theaters), she has made her career working with seasoned directors like Jonathan Demme, Michael Mann, Andrew Niccol and Rob Marshall.

But for "Snow White and the Huntsman," Atwood found herself working with debut feature director Rupert Sanders on a large-scale endeavor bursting at the seams with design elements. And she came away impressed with the the first-timer's ability to channel the stress and be all the stronger for it.

"I knew him from commercials and I always thought he had kind of a good quality to him," Atwood says, surrounded by a gallery of costume elements from the film. "This is a lot of movie for a first-time director. He did all the right things. He kept enough strength up to make the film, where sometimes on a movie like this even a seasoned director by the end is just baked. I thought he really managed his energy and his focus in a great way and he just got stronger and stronger as the movie went on, and he got more confidence."

A scene from "A Cat in Paris"

Credit: GKIDS

One of the few surprises of last season's Academy Awards nominations announcement was the fact that the animated feature category made room for not one but two of the fringe indie titles doing battle with big guns like Disney and DreamWorks. Both films -- "A Cat in Paris" and "Chico & Rita" -- were distributed by little engine that could GKIDS.

The studio has just announced the voice cast for the English language version of the film, which will release in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego on June 1. The stars include Marcia Gay Harden, Anjelica Huston and Matthew Modine (who will be seen in "The Dark Knight Rises" late this year).

Further dates for the film will be set for Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, St. Louis and other major and secondary markets throughout the summer.

Sam Riley in "On the Road"

Credit: IFC/Sundance Selects

The director: Walter Salles (Brazilian, 56 years old)

The talent: As if the long-awaited adaptation of Jack Kerouac's Beat classic wasn't going to attract enough eyeballs already on the Croisette, it comes packed to the gills with star names: Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst (who, of course, is the festival's reigning Best Actress), Steve Buscemi, "Mad Men" star Elisabeth Moss, Terrence Howard and, most excitingly to the red-carpet hordes, Kristen Stewart, whose prominent role here should hopefully remind "Twilight" sceptics of the form she's displayed in such smaller projects as "Adventureland" and "The Runaways." 

Against all this star-wattage, the film's co-leads, Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund, are comparatively low-profile -- probably a cunning choice for two roles where decades of casting speculation (and any number of megastars attached over the years) has amped up the pressure on whoever plays them. Both men come with points to prove. "TRON: Legacy" was supposed to do more for American hunk Hedlund's brand than it eventually did. Meanwhile, the wiry, offbeat Riley made a startling breakthrough five years ago in "Control," but hasn't consolidated it since -- we'll put his badly misjudged turn in the badly misjudged "Brighton Rock" behind us.

A scene from Carlos Reygadas's "Post Tenebras Lux."

Credit: NoDreamsCinema

The director: Carlos Reygadas (Mexican, 40 years old)

The talent: As usual with writer-director Reygadas, non-professional actors are the order of the day here -- performance doesn't tend to be a driving factor in his filmmaking, and here, human figures appears more assimilated into the mix than ever before. More important to note is that cinematographer Alexis Zabe, who conjured such astonishing imagery in Reygadas's previous film "Silent Light," is back on board here -- as is that film's editor, Natalia Lopez. More so than most auteurs in Competition, however, Reygadas is overwhelmingly the dominant presence in his work.

The pitch: Reygadas's fourth feature is being talked up as his most non-narrative effort yet -- which, considering the fluid structures of his previous works, is saying something. The title is Latin for "light after darkness," which suggests a certain continuity with "Silent Light" -- certainly, to judge from the many luscious stills floating around online, we're in similarly painterly, ethereal atmospheric territory to his last film.

Michael Mann (far left), Steven Waddington and Daniel Day-Lewis on the set of "The Last of the Mohicans"

Credit: 20th Century Fox

Michael Mann's 1992 colonial epic "The Last of the Mohicans" will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, if you can believe it. The film -- an adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's novel -- has remained a highly regarded effort in the director's filmography, which mostly consists of modern urban yarns concerned with the law and order imposed by man.

But it's the law and order of nature -- as it gives way to the impositions of occupiers -- that largely governs the tone and atmosphere of his fourth feature. The film is unique in Mann's canon for its period trappings, but of a piece with his penchant for deep emotional currents that announce themselves only in the nuance of performance.

Indeed, it is still the film's sweeping romance, its epic sadness, its viscous sense of honor that resonates emotionally to this day.