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Séamas McSwiney is our guest film correspondent with decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in some top international publications. Here he looks at three difficult but brilliant films that have perfectly matched this year's dark, wet Cannes film festival:

"After a somewhat stuttering start, over the weekend, the Cannes Competition delivered three hard-hitting quality films from three directors who have also shone darkly in the past. Their individual subject matter springs from the banal and the quotidian, but is cruel and sometimes difficult to watch. There is hardly a joke made or a smile raised during their combined running time of over six hours.

It is Day 3 of the Olympic torch's relay through the UK, and already over 250 people have carried the torch as part of its 70-day relay for the London Olympics 2012. Today the torch will be passed between 113 torchbearers, including triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and cricketer Marcus Trescothick, as it travels between Exeter and Taunton.

The Journey So Far

After travelling around Greece for a week, the lit torch was flown over to Britain in a special gold-painted plane with a rather unusual set of passengers. Amongst others, the passengers watching over the torch included London mayor Boris Johnson, Olympic organiser Lord Seb Coe, David Beckham and Princess Anne.

There's a new face on the internet who is taking the student blogging world by storm. IntProblems.com has a selection of brilliant images pointing out the common problems and differences that international students face in a new country (just like the ones above). It seems other foreign students can relate to the amusing observations and every new post is being reblogged around the world, with the online community growing all the time.

After spotting the blog, we had to know who was behind it, and discovered 20-year-old Boston University student Tessa ten Cate. We spoke to Tessa to find out her background and why she created IntProblems.com.

Séamas McSwiney is our guest film correspondent with decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in some top international publications. Here he previews this year's Cannes film festival. 

"Moonrise Kingdom is this year's Cannes opener. It also opens in UK cinemas on May 25th, giving a welcome opportunity to keep up with the latest buzz from planet cinema, a world that systematically migrates to the French Riviera once a year in May. As usual it will have a Cannes competition programme that goes beyond the standard all-American multiplex fare and will again provide a wide range of celluloid offerings from the planet's finest filmmakers.

American Offerings

This said, Cannes 2012 also offers a particularly fine crop of quality contemporary American movies. For starters there is the afore mentioned opener, Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson. On the surface it tells an all-American simple story of a little boy who loves a little girl in 60s USA, all trammelled with scout camping trips and indulgent parents, too dim to understand the essence they lost by growing up. But add the oddball, the quirky and surreal, the habitual tones of Wes Anderson's cine-palette, and you have quite a different and hilariously memorable experience.

A railway company has come up with an unusual way of improving their customer experience. Chiltern Railways have hired a top British sitcom writer to create comedy announcements that customers will hear on their trains. They then went one step further, by hiring TV comedian Tony Robinson to teach the staff how to deliver these new announcements.

Writer Richard Preddy, who wrote the series Green Wing, was hired by the company after research showed that commuters unsurprisingly found their journeys depressing. The new announcements will hopefully soon be putting smiles on commuters' faces on trains between London and Birmingham, as well as at London Marylebone Station. Preddy explained:

"We have all waited for a train or a bus into work as the rain pours down and bustled our way to a seat and I think comedy can help to alleviate that stress. It's important to note that we aren't trying to turn everyone into a comedian. Rather we are hoping to bring out a little more of the staff's personality and humour via their day-to-day announcements and help cheer up the commuters along the way."