Mexican film star Gael Garcia Bernal would be willing to throw his formidable talent, not to mention his piercing gaze, into the Hollywood blockbuster...

You know those films that turn up and shine a light on a pocket of world history that you kind of knew a tiny bit about before...? Yes, like 'Argo'...

London is usually known in the film industry as the Hollywood capital of Europe as all the big studios have their European headquarters here. Our multiplexes are full of American movies and we generally hold the European premieres of big blockbusters in London (and there's normally a lot of media coverage about them!). But for two weeks, we're kicking back at our commercial reputation by hosting a celebration of non-formulaic movies and that, in my eyes, is worth celebrating. Most importantly, it's a film festival aimed at the public so even you can get tickets.

I've just seen Spanish director Iciar Bollain's remarkable También la Lluvia (Even the Rain). Some critics have compared it to Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, with its theme of monomaniacal obsession and vainglory in a Latin American context. But Even the Rain is far more textured and more political film.

It's Day 10 of Cannes and the annual festival fatigue has well and truly set in. I arrived at the press junket for the new HBO movie Hemingway and Gellhorn to find most of the other journalists there acting like doped up zombies. Even Nicole Kidman tells me how exhausted she is before my interview starts...

One week in and the team are still bearing up... just! We decided to have a night off - which in Cannes meant we watched a film. So we ordered pizzas and sat down to watch iLL Manors - Ben Drew aka Plan B's new film. Maybe not the wisest film choice for a night of switching off/escapism.

It's not uncommon to be asked what it's like to work at the Cannes film festival, and I usually reply that "it's really quite exhausting." However, what I'm reminded of today is that it's also completely weird in an insane banana type way.