Go commercial by MATTHEW HAYS This is the space that gets set aside every year for the obligatory joke about people paying to see commercials. Yep, that's right, the annual roundup of award-winning ads, The 1999 Cannes International Advertising Festival, begins this Friday, August 18 at Cinéma du Parc. And as expected, they're great fun to watch, like a series of short films set up specifically to get us to consume something. My picks of the best in the series: Tulipan Condoms has a hilarious gender-switcheroo ad; Evian water has some computer-generated babies who are delightful; there are some brilliant anti-tobacco lobby spots, which feature the testimony of cigarette company execs at senate hearings, who tell the senate various lies about the risks of smoking, all enhanced by an added sitcom laff-track; Chanel's plug is gorgeous, featuring Danny Elfman's inspired musical score to Edward Scissorhands; and Guinness beer has a gorgeous computer-generated segment in which horses ride along surfers on giant waves. Perhaps the best ad is one most appreciated by the jury as well--they gave it top prize--for the British newspaper The Independent. Its cleverness is pretty much undeniable. One complaint about this year's ad anthology: this time around, the creators of the feature-length collection decided to open the thing with a 10 or 15 minute segment made up simply of footage of the various juries and people accepting their ad awards, plus various scenes around Cannes. We really don't need to see this; people line up for the ads, not some home movies of ad execs whom none of the audience will recognize, accepting their awards for the commercials we came to see and wish were playing instead. A bizarre opening and an unfortunate first for this otherwise enjoyable ad series. Other Parc picks: Targets, Peter Bogdanovich's '68 suspense film about a gun-happy madman who goes on a shooting rampage. Meanwhile, Boris Karloff, playing a horror actor much like himself, announces his retirement from the film biz. It's one of those films that ripened perfectly, evolving into equal parts real suspense and kitsch. The film was handed inadvertent timeliness when, upon its release, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. An odd gem which screens both Friday and Saturday (Aug. 18-19). Meanwhile, the Cinémathèque québécoise continues its excellent series of vacation movies. This weekend includes screenings of The Comfort of Strangers, Paul Schrader's obtuse and harrowing little four-hander which stars Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren and Rupert Everett (the screenplay was supplied by none other than Harold Pinter). Plus there's Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, with James Stewart and Doris Day. Hey, this is the movie that introduced Day's trademark song, "Que Sera, Sera" to the world (which won an Oscar). It's definitely worth seeing in all its Technicolor glory on the big screen, but in fact, Hitch's earlier version of the same film, made in '34, is the superior take (it's also available at La Boite Noire). COMMENTS: matt_hays@babylon.montreal.qc.ca