It took from Wednesday til tonight but we’ve finally seen the first great movie of Cannes. Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis is just wonderful, a quirky massively likeable ode to folk music in Greenwich Village 1961. Oscar Isaac has a breakout role as the title character and may wind up with an Oscar (let the puns begin) nomination. Llewyn is the quintessential loser musician who’s so talented but will never catch a break himself. He’s so self involved he can’t get out of his own way and yet he’s incredibly sympathetic.

The supporting cast: Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan are his married pals, a folk duo named Jim and Jean. Mulligan is a no brainer–she’s good here as always. Timberlake is extremely endearing and funny in his limited role. John Goodman and Garrett Hedlund have extended cameos that may unintentionally send up On the Road–which Hedlund starred in last year.  Great to see Robin Bartlett, too, and Max Casella. There are als one or two scene stealing orange tabby cats.

The music–curated by T Bone Burnett– is perfect, mostly old folk songs reworked and played and sung by Isaac so sensationally people may forget he’s a serious actor and not a pop star.

In the end though it’s the Coens. they’ve been at this almost flawlessly for 30 years. Remember “Blood Simple”? What a ride it’s been. Their fans will rank this among their best, a little like A Serious Man, with elements of Barton Fink. But it’s also far more accessible. A few times tonight I checked my watch– not because I was getting fidgety but because I didn’t want Llewyn Davis to end. Expect big things when it’s released December 6th.

more to come….

Say what you will about how great the Rolling Stones are or aren’t as they continue to roll on their 50 & Counting tour, but don’t forget they’re not alone among ancient British Invasion acts out there. Indeed, Eric Burdon, who performed this week at a special invite-only birthday celebration at the John Varvatos store in the former CBGB’s showed at least as much life as Mick and the lads–not to mention the ghosts of all the punk rock acts entombed in the Varvatos location that once was the historic club.

Burdon, who just turned 72, is back in full force following full recovery from the back surgery that sidelined him last year, holding back his acclaimed new album ‘Til Your River Runs Dry until January—coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Burdon’s own historic band The Animals. The album also returns Burdon to the ABKCO, home of both the early Stones and Animals catalogs; Burdon considers it one of his most personal albums ever, containing songs that reflect his unwaveringly progressive commitments politically, socially and especially environmentally.

His hour-long career overview set even had him wearing a gray peace sign on his black t-shirt to go with his usual color scheme (offset only by rainbow shades) His voice remains, in Varvatos’s own introductory words, “one of the greatest in the history of music.”

Burdon opened with his autobiographical late-edition Animals hit “When I Was Young,” which segued directly into the early Animals classic “Inside Looking Out.” It seamlessly flowed, after a one-second pause, into the new album’s impassioned lead track/first single “Water.” The song, Burdon says, came out of a conversation a few years ago with Mikhail Gorbachev, who has devoted himself to promoting water awareness; as Burdon has lived in the desert regions of Southern California since the 1970s, water conservation was already near and dear.

Eric Burdon & War’s warhorse “Spill The Wine” followed and showcased Burdon’s band made up of two guitarists, two keyboardists (one playing flute for “Spill The Wine”), two drummers and one bassist. He also performed the new album’s two Bo Diddley tributes: “Bo Diddley Special,” a “farewell song” he wrote to honor one of his blues/r&b idols, and Diddley’s own “Before You Accuse Me,” which closes the album. Another debt was paid to blues-boogie king John Lee Hooker via an acoustic slide guitar version of “Crawling King Snake,” a blues standard associated with Hooker, who gave The Animals songs including their cover hit “Boom Boom,” and Burdon a lasting memory—which he recounted—of wearing a “Hooker” t-shirt as a kid.

Burdon pulled out the stops on The Animals’ signature hit “House Of The Rising Sun” and also performed two other early Animals classics in “It’s My Life” and encore “I’m Crying”—for which he got the crowd moaning along. And while he notably neglected another Animals anthem in “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” (characterized by Bruce Spingsteen as “every song I’ve ever written”), he did perform it Monday night when he sat in with the Letterman band, other highlights there including his rewrite of “Rising Sun” to honor fellow guest Mark Harmon, and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (not to mention Paul Shaffer’s use of “Sky Pilot” as intro for “The Top 10 Things You Don’t Want To Hear From The Person Sitting Next To You On A Plane”).

For the record, Burdon sounded way better than bland balladeer Luke Bryan, the official music guest (and 2013 Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year), and afterward marveled at seeing a Frank Lloyd Wright building in Mason City, Iowa, when he stayed over there while performing at the annual Buddy Holly tribute show in nearby Clear Lake in February.

Meanwhile, Burdon is finishing up a memoir, “Breathless,” for publication late this year. He was greeted backstage at Varvatos by The Dictators’ Handsome Dick Manitoba, wh kvelled over both Burdon and fellow attendee Lou Christie. Christie, who’s readying the next two episodes of his periodic oldies show on SiriusXM’s ‘60s On 6 channel, recalled headlining shows in the Deep South in the mid-‘60s with bands like The Animals and The Who (“I was wearing white pants and fringe before Daltrey!”).

Birthday boy Burden was only concerned that his show was too loud—which it wasn’t.

EXCLUSIVE: Two time Oscar winner had the shock of his life tonight in Cannes. While he and fellow juror Daniel Auteil were being interviewed live on talk show “Grand Journal,” an audience member shot a gun twice into the air–but kind of in the direction of Auteil. The gunman was wrestled to the ground quickly but not before shouting “I have a grenade.” No one was hurt and Waltz joined other diners immediately after at the Hotel duCap’s Eden Roc restaurant for an annual A list dinner hosted by publisher and filmmaker Charles Finch.

Waltz spoke to me exclusively at the dinner. He didn’t seem much fazed by what had happened, and hadn’t told anyone at dinner until I asked him. Maybe he was in shock. He recounted the events for me coolly. “I had a very good bodyguard who moved fast and got me out of there,” he said. Auteil did too.

The gunman was apprehended. “He was shooting blanks,” Waltz said. “We thought maybe it was a joke or something to do with Occupy Cannes. I think he was just crazy.”

The shooting was the second strange occurrence in two days in Cannes. It came after the much discussed Chopard jewelry heist, in which the famed jeweler reported that $1.4 million worth of their was ice was taken from the Novotel– an off the beaten track business hotel not on the Croisette. Reports are that thieves sawed through an adjoining room and removed an entire safe.

The Chopard story was the talk of the Finch dinner which counted luminaries like famed directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Wim Wenders, Harvey Weinstein, Liv Tyler, Waltz, rock star Bryan Ferry, director Paul Haggis, super producers Jeremyy Thomas, Cassian Elwes, and Eric Fellner, and so on. Many wondered why Chopard would have jewelry in a safe at the unglamorous Novotel in the first place. The answers were unclear, the gossips wagged that the whole thing sounded like a p.r. stunt.

The beloved head of Chopard, Caroline Scheufele, told the diners at her table that it was good p.r. but that it wasn’t a stunt.

Only in Cannes: while Sofia Coppola’s movie “The Bling Ring” about teenage jewel thieves was premiering at the Palais, thieves stole $1 million worth of jewelry from Chopard at a local hotel. Yes, this is a movie. But no it’s real life. The jewels belonged to Chopard and were intended for movie stars to wear on the red carpet. The heist was from a business hotel, the Novotel, which is not on the Croisette but up in “real Cannes” in the city’s business center.

While the thieves– who may be connected to the hotel from the inside–were busy sawing a whole safe from the hotel room, a Cannes Film Festival audience was watching Coppola’s film about teen girls and one boy who looted the Beverly Hills homes of D list stars like Paris Hilton and Audrina Patridge. How utterly strange.

And at the same time, Chopard went on like nothing happened. Indeed, $1 million of jewelry is nothing in this town this week. Today, Chopard hosted a lunch to kick off its new campaign for “green” red carpets and making sure all the gold they use going forward is properly mined and registered.

At the press conference and lunch were Livia Firth, wife of Colin, who is leading the gold campaign, plus Colin, Marion Cotillard, and Jane Fonda, who came by as soon she arrived in town. Three Oscar winners in a small room, plus Harvey Weinstein, and all the heads of Chopard. The Chopard people were so call–bless them– you’d never have known anything had happened. Also, they were showing off several hundred thousand dollars worth of new gold jewelry in cases spaced throughout the small room adjacent to the terrace.

So c’est la vie life goes on. And Chopard is insured. The burglars will be caught. And meantime, the company is intent on making sure that gold, like diamonds, becomes legalised in new ways that will benefit small mining companies in impoverished countries.

PS During the lunch on a terrace to at the famed Martinez Hotel, the weather changed quickly from blue skies and sunshine to menacing black sorm clouds coming in over the Mediterranean. The wind whipped up and a spontaneous blast of severe rain moved the proceedings inside within seconds. It turned out to be a squall, but what a blast. A dozen or so hue huge yachts in the Cannes harbor bobbed up and down like bathtub toys.

It’s nice to see the trio of kid stars from Harry Potter succeeding as young adults, Now it’s Emma Watson’s turn– Hermione, that is. She’s listed as part of the ensemble in Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring,” which premiered here in Cannes on Thursday morning. And while all the cast members are quite good, Watson just pops out. She’s a star in the making, that’s for sure.

“The Bling Ring” is based on a true story– a bunch of spoiled middle class suburban Los Angeles teenagers broke into the home of C list celebrities–reality stars– and stole about $3 million in cash and other items including clothing and jewelry. Nancy Jo Sales wrote about in Vanity Fair, and now it’s a big screen movie.

This might be a throwaway film if it weren’t for Coppola’s exacting eye, and her precision in capturing a brain dead culture. This is Southern California at its worst. The parents are clueless and into cult like religions and faux spirituality. The kids aspire to nothing more than owning brand name items, becoming famous, having to work for nothing.

Watson plays Nicole who is not the ring leader of the group. That would be excellent newcomer Katie Chang as Rebecca. She’s a real find. Watson, however, is just a member of the group. But she plays the part as if she were Nicole Kidman’s daughter from “To Die For” with the same kind of unabashed venal enthusiasm for celebrity without substance.

Sadly, “The Bling Ring” saga– which happened in 2009– is no different than Less than Zero” or “Thirteen.” This chapter just notches it up a bit thanks to the internet and social networking. Coppola is like Joan Didion capturing not only the kids’ idiocy, and their parents’ but the studpidity of the celebs involved who left keys under their doormats, left doors unlocked,  and didn’t have alarm systems.

More bizarrely, Nicole–who along with the others is finally arrested and sent to jail–comes to do her sentence in the same cell block as one of her victim–Lindsay Lohan. This neat twist isn’t lost on Coppola, who knows exactly how to turn the knife.

Yes, “The Bling Ring” is a morality tale, but it’s also beautifully deadpanned satire. Coppola tells the story efficiently and never stops to pat herself on the back. There’s no winking. And as usual Leslie Mann, as Nicole’s mother, is kind of a divine being sent from comedy heaven. Because she’s Judd Apatow’s real life wife Mann doesn’t get enough credit. She really is Julie Hagerty’s Hollywood younger sister. They’d be hilarious in a movie together.

Little A24 is releasing “Bling Ring.” They made a nice hit out of “Spring Breakers.” This should do even better.

At the Cannes jury press conference today, Steven Spielberg let it be known he’s happy about one thing here. No campaigning. Spielberg just came through a brutal Oscar campaign for “Lincoln” and lost. “I think the great thing is that there’s no campaigning,” Spielberg said. “We’re going to be caucus-ing and deliberating and meeting. As you know, awards season in America is like a political cycle. We had the campaign for president of the United States of America. And the campaign for the Academy Award. There’s no campaigning here and that is like a breath of fresh air for me.”