60th Cannes Film Festival opens amidst usual glitz, hoopla

Cannes, France, May 17 (UNI) A story of losing and finding love set in New York and across the United States opened the world's most famous international film festival on Wednesday at the renowned French beach-resort of Cannes, amidst the usual glitz and hoopla.

The crowd, both within and outside the main festival venue at the Palais, was greater this year on account of this being a special event: the 60th anniversary of the filmfest.

The opening ceremony as always was a formal affair, compered by the German actress, Diane Kruger. The male guests were in the mandatory bow-ties, but the ladies were decked up in a wide variety of dresses-from the evening gowns to ethnic chic ( including an occasional sari)- as they trod up the red carpet leading to the steps of the Palais, the cynosure of photographers flanking both sides of the approach and clicking away furiously.

As in the recent years, a regular (and popular) attendee at the Inaugural was Aishwarya Rai, newly-married and with her spouse Abhishek Bachchan as her escort. Rai first came to Cannes five years back when her film "Devdas" was accorded a special screening in Cannes, 2002. The next year, she returned as a member of the festival's main Competition Jury. Since then, her presence here has had much to do with her duties as a 'beauty ambassador' of the famous French cosmetic firm, L'Oreal (which is also a main sponsor of the Cannes Festival). This time, Aishwarya, in a white dress and laden with diamonds, walked right behind the bevy of the other L'Oreal models on the red carpet, so as to get the exclusive attention of the crowd. She with Abhishek are here for a very short stay.

The only other major Indian celebrity seen on the opening day of the Festival was actress, Preity Zinta, who is here as the brand ambassador of the French jewellery firm of Chopard. She was thus repeating her visit to Cannes Festival, having come last year in the same capacity. She wore a bright yellow, frilly dress as she walked up the red carpet for the Inaugural. Also attending was an advance guard of the Indian delegation to this year's fest. It included film -producer Bobby Bedi alongwith a couple of middle-rung officers of I&B Ministry.

A big team from India, comprising both government and industry representatives, is to be present in Cannes this year for promoting Indian Cinema. A 7-film package of recent Indian films, called "India Focus", would open the 'Cinema of the World' section of the Festival, with shows scheduled for May 19-20. Tomorrow, May 17, the Indian Pavillion at the 'Marche', the big film-market in the Festival, would be formally inaugurated.

OPENING FILM OF THE FESTIVAL The opening film of the 60th Cannes shown at the Inaugural was "My Blueberry Nights", directed by Wong Kar Wai from Hong Kong.

Wong, like some other directors whose films are to be screened in the Competition section this year, is considered a Cannes favourite.

One of his earlier films had won him the top award as the best director at Cannes, some years back. He was also the head of Cannes' main jury, last year.

The leading lady of Blueberry is Norah Jones, who makes her film debut with it, and she walked the red carpet (along with the Director and some other leading actors of the film) at its premiere screening. Norah has given a subdued but impressive performance in the movie.

Norah is a professional singer and song-writer, and is the past winner of Grammy Awards in USA. She is better known in India as the love-child of Pt. Ravi Shankar with an American woman. However, Norah has revealed that for the first few years of her life, she was not told who her father was, nor did she get to meet him. Thus she does not feel any great affinity with her father, though she is quite pally with her sibling, Anoushka Shankar (who is also into music).

Norah is the nearest thing to what may be called an Indian interest in the Competition at Cannes this year. Twenty two films were short-listed for that section, including 4 films from Asia (representing China, Japan and South Korea). Once again, no film from India could make the cut.

HONOUR TO THE OLDEST FILM-MAKER At its inaugural ceremony held yesterday, Cannes Festival honoured the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, by requesting him to formally declare the Festival open. He has been a versatile film-maker, having also been producer, actor, writer, cinematographer, even a sound recordist. The reason is that he had started making films way back in the 1930s during the Silent Era - the only maker of that era who is still alive and active - when a film-maker used to be quite a few things rolled into one. He continued his multi-tasking in the later years. Inaugurating the 60th Cannes yesterday in a packed (and admiring) hall, he remarked in a sly reference to his own advanced age: "Cannes Festival today is 60 years' ...young ! " Oliveira is now 98 years' old (shown in his bio' as born in December 1908), but is still making movies. He is currently having two new pictures under filming. As such, one could hardly think of a person more deserving of that honour.

UNI