The fans awaiting the premiere of Rude Boy at Cannes were impatient, loud, and rowdy outside the theatre, but except for jeers at some well-integrated footage of Margaret Thatcher, there was little response throughout except stunned silence.

The Sex Pistols have a double autopsy in D.O.A.--the Last Tour in America (which, appropriately, failed to arrive in time for a Cannes screening), sub-titled, in mock self-denunciation, The Great Rock-and-Roll Swindle. The latter goes through agonized, pornographic, animated, insistent, transcontinental, and terminal lengths to prove that the Sex Pistols were nothing more than a "Cash from Chaos" scheme of their kilted manager Malcolm McLaren. It is not only fascinating, but convincing. Like the film's beleaguered production, its distribution is currently haltered, but you'll probably get a chance to see it someday. It's slick revisionism.

The belated appearance of punk movies will likely perpetuate the musical momentum of the old New Wave for a while. Other projects, planned or underway, include Times Square (promised as New Wave Saturday Night Fever, argh, by producer Robert Stigwood), and Urgh: A Music War, concerts of Magazine, Pere Ubu, X, Dead Kennedys, and Wall of Voodoo, the new New Wave.

Credit the Cannes moguls for one thing. They know when to drop a cold potato. Except for The Apple, an Israeli version of The Wiz, and a pathetic promotion for Can't Stop the Music, there was no mention of disco at all.

P. Gregory Springer is writing a novel about a gay soccer team.

OUT OF THE BLUE

Robson Street Productions, director Dennis Hopper

BREAKING GLASS

Allied Stars, dir. Brian Gibson

TELEPHONE PUBLIC

Ossard-Bernart-Gaumont, dir. Jean-Marie Perier

SPETTERS

Seawell Films, dir. Paul Verboeven

CHA CHA

Black Tulip Filmprod, dir. Herbert H.A. Curiel