Allen flick to kick off Cannes fiesta
Source: Agencies |
May 11, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HOLLYWOOD'S big guns and some of independent cinema's heavyweight directors will share the limelight at this year's Cannes film festival, which opens with Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" today.
At what critics expect to be a vintage edition of the world's biggest cinema showcase, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Penelope Cruz, Robert De Niro, Mel Gibson and Johnny Depp are all expected to walk the red carpet.
There they will be joined by darlings of the European circuit - Pedro Almodovar, Nanni Moretti, the Dardenne brothers, Aki Kaurismaki and Lars Von Trier - who are all vying for the coveted Palme d'Or prize for best picture.
And American veteran Terrence Malick is finally back in the main competition with only his fifth feature, the eagerly anticipated "The Tree of Life" in which Pitt and Penn star in a family saga set in the Midwest during the 1950s.
"There is a very strong buzz and great expectations," said festival general delegate Thierry Fremaux, who has come under fire in recent years for what some considered to be below-par, line-ups light on star power.
For three years the global financial crisis has dulled Hollywood's appetite for expensive marketing trips abroad, but studios appear to be hungry to wheel and deal in Cannes again. "America is very present this year. The studios are back - professionals, agents," he said.
As luxury yachts bobbed in the harbor of the French Riviera resort under clear blue skies, last-minute preparations for the May 11-22 movie marathon were under way.
Movie posters adorned five-star hotels along the palm-lined Croisette waterfront and bars, restaurants and nightclubs geared up for a hectic two weeks of late-night, big-spending revelry.
Allen's romantic comedy stars Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard as well as French first lady Carla Bruni. Cannes also includes biopic "La Conquete" (The Conquest), which portrays Bruni's husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during his 2007 poll win and the collapse of his previous marriage to Cecilia.
At what critics expect to be a vintage edition of the world's biggest cinema showcase, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Penelope Cruz, Robert De Niro, Mel Gibson and Johnny Depp are all expected to walk the red carpet.
There they will be joined by darlings of the European circuit - Pedro Almodovar, Nanni Moretti, the Dardenne brothers, Aki Kaurismaki and Lars Von Trier - who are all vying for the coveted Palme d'Or prize for best picture.
And American veteran Terrence Malick is finally back in the main competition with only his fifth feature, the eagerly anticipated "The Tree of Life" in which Pitt and Penn star in a family saga set in the Midwest during the 1950s.
"There is a very strong buzz and great expectations," said festival general delegate Thierry Fremaux, who has come under fire in recent years for what some considered to be below-par, line-ups light on star power.
For three years the global financial crisis has dulled Hollywood's appetite for expensive marketing trips abroad, but studios appear to be hungry to wheel and deal in Cannes again. "America is very present this year. The studios are back - professionals, agents," he said.
As luxury yachts bobbed in the harbor of the French Riviera resort under clear blue skies, last-minute preparations for the May 11-22 movie marathon were under way.
Movie posters adorned five-star hotels along the palm-lined Croisette waterfront and bars, restaurants and nightclubs geared up for a hectic two weeks of late-night, big-spending revelry.
Allen's romantic comedy stars Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard as well as French first lady Carla Bruni. Cannes also includes biopic "La Conquete" (The Conquest), which portrays Bruni's husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during his 2007 poll win and the collapse of his previous marriage to Cecilia.
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