This year has already seen at least one great movie about the entertainment business and the promise and appall of Hollywood, namely Joel and Ethan Coen's spectacular Hail Caesar! Most years, you hardly get one of these inherently fascinating works but now it looks like we're getting a second one with Woody Allen's Cafe Society, the legendary, troubled filmmaker's follow-up to last year's superb Irrational Man. As was reported a month or so ago, the film is set to open the 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival, out of competition. This will not be a new experience for Allen, as his equally exquisite Midnight in Paris also opened the international festival a few years ago. You can check out the first trailer for the film right below:

Here's the first trailer for Cafe Society:

First of all, the whole thing looks great. The shots all look gorgeous, and the dialogue recalls prime late Allen with his acerbic wit and wise observations about a life as both an artist and something of a criminal, a character type personified by Corey Stoll's role. Stoll plays the older gangster brother of Jesse Eisenberg's character, whose adventures in Hollywood under the tutelage of his power-broker uncle (Steve Carrell) include a romance with Kristen Stewart's apprehensive secretary and some exchanges with a variety of Hollywood who's who, most prominently represented by Parker Posey. It's even more reassuring that Cafe Society will be released by Amazon Studios, who are also currently developing a TV series with Allen, and who put out Spike Lee's Chi-Raq last year, when no other studio was interested in such bold, uncompromising political filmmaking. With this, and Whit Stillman's upcoming Love & Friendship, Amazon Studios is now looking like the go-to place for adult-oriented, narratively audacious pictures. Now, let's just hope these movies are as good as they look and sound.

Here's the first poster for Cafe Society:

---