Cannes '08: Shopping? Proceed with caution

It's not just the $100 T-shirts along Cannes' crowded shopping streets that have buyers guarding their money. Rather, it's the apparent short supply of potential breakout movies available for sale at this year's film festival.

While Hollywood's biggest distributors of specialized film all have representatives in town, some of the most senior executives have remained back in Los Angeles, and a few already have plans to leave the festival several days early. Others say the pickings this year look surprisingly slim.

Nonetheless, the buyers will assemble en masse for four films debuting at Cannes, hopeful there's a critical and commercial hit in the bunch.

Here's the short list:

"Synecdoche, New York."  The first film directed by "Adaptation" screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, the film follows a theater director's (Philip Seymour Hoffman) coming unhinged.

"Two Lovers." Director James Gray's "We Own the Night" sold to Sony at last year's festival for $11.5 million but did average business. His new film stars Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow.

"Che." Director Steven Soderbergh's epic (4 1/2 hours) look at the Cuban revolution stars Benicio del Toro. It's clearly no "Ocean's Eleven,"  but is it his next "Traffic?"

"Linha de Passe." The Portuguese-language drama is the latest South American story from Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries"). It stars unknown Brazilian actors as four brothers.

-- John Horn

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images