Stars tread the red carpet as Cannes opens
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-12 11:45

The curtain went up on the Cannes film festival, the world's top showcase of cinema, with a red-carpet screening of a surreal French drama -- one of 21 pictures lining up for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize.

Festival jury member and Mexican actress Salma Hayek waves during the opening ceremony of the 58th Festival de Cannes, May 11, 2005. German-born director Dominik Moll's film "Lemming" is screened out-of-competition on the opening night of the 12-day film festival. [Reuters]

European and US celebrities posed before hundreds of cameras in black-tie and elegant dresses before heading in for the opening ceremony and the premiere of the movie, "Lemming", directed by Dominik Moll.

US actor Dennis Hopper, French actresses Catherine Deneuve and Carole Bouquet, Indian star Aishwarya Rai, French model Laetitia Casta all swept up the carpet.

They were followed by this year's Cannes jury: the president, Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica; Spanish actor Javier Bardem; Mexican actress Salma Hayek; Hong Kong director John Woo; Nobel prize-winning US author Toni Morrison; Indian actress Nandita Das; French directors Agnes Varda and Benoit Jacquot; and German director Fatih Akin.

Their job will be to select a winner of the 58th edition of the festival from a strong field dominated by Cannes veterans, with only a few new faces.

Most entries upheld the event's emphasis on auteur cinema and the line-up was in strong contrast with last year's uneven selection, over which Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" triumphed in a politically-charged atmosphere informed by the Iraq war and US President George W. Bush's re-election campaign.

Directors Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant, Michael Haneke, David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan will all be presenting their latest movies.

One of the few wild cards in the pack is a film directorial debut by the US actor Tommy Lee Jones, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada".

The hottest ticket in town, though, is for a film that isn't vying for the trophy: "Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith", George Lucas's prequel to his celebrated series that started back in 1977.

Indeed, Hollywood, as usual, has gone all-out to exploit the media glare at Cannes for its commercial products.

"Sin City", an ultraviolent flick starring Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke, is in the running for the Palme, but most of the other billboards announcing US fare in Cannes were for films that won't be released for weeks or months after the festival has closed.

Among them is the much-anticipated "War of the Worlds", a remake of the H.G. Wells classic directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, due for worldwide release on June 29.

Beyond the glamour and the hype and the parallel competitions taking place in the Palme d'Or's shade, there is also the business side of Cannes. In the market section of the festival, some 35,000 movie industry types are gathered to buy, sell and plan celluloid releases.

And of course, in and around all the activity of Cannes are the tourists and star-gazers drawn to the trade of illusion that is cinema -- 250,000 of them, hoping for a glimpse of their screen idols, and taking in the spectacular craziness that has transformed this corner of the French Riviera.

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