Glitzy Cannes film festival opens teeming with stars

By: Aurélie Mayembo and Fiachra Gibbons via Agence France-Presse

 

The Cannes film festival opened Tuesday with one of the glitziest line-ups in years as Hollywood stars and studios return in strength to the world’s biggest film jamboree.

 

French actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg (L) and Spanish actor Javier Bardem pose as they arrive for the screening of the film “The Dead Don’t Die” during the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 14, 2019. (Photo by CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP)

Spanish star Javier Bardem and French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg declared the 12-day marathon open, before sitting down to watch the first movie — “The Dead Don’t Die” — with it’s small army of A-list stars led by Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton and pop idol Selena Gomez.

 

The cast of the zombie flick send-up of Donald Trump’s America by arthouse favourite Jim Jarmusch also takes in Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover and music legends Iggy Pop, Tom Waits and Wu-Tang Clan guru RZA.

 

(From L) US actor Luka Sabbat, US singer and actress Selena Gomez, US actor and comedian Bill Murray, British actress and model Tilda Swinton, US film director, screenwriter and actor Jim Jarmusch, his partner US actress and film director Sara Driver and US actor Adam Driver arrive for the screening of the film “The Dead Don’t Die” during the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 14, 2019. (Photo by Antonin THUILLIER / AFP)

Having watched its Tinseltown thunder stolen in recent years by Venice, which US studios have used as their Oscars launchpad, this time Cannes is putting its much smaller rival back in its place.

 

Quentin Tarantino brings auteur heft and star power to the party with the premiere of his epic “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” a quarter of a century after he lifted the Palme d’Or — Cannes top prize — for “Pulp Fiction.”

 

The panorama of Charles Manson-era Los Angeles stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a television Westerns star and Brad Pitt as his stunt double. Margot Robbie also appears as actress Sharon Tate, who was murdered by the cult leader’s followers.

 

US actress and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Elle Fanning (L) and Mexican director and President of the Jury of the Cannes Film Festival Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu arrive for the screening of the film “The Dead Don’t Die” during the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 14, 2019. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

 

‘Rambo V’ and ‘Rocketman’

Almost as big a coup was persuading Elton John to launch his warts-and-all musical biopic “Rocketman” on the Croisette out of competition, with festival director Thierry Fremaux hinting that the singer will perform on his grand piano at the premiere.

 

The screening on Thursday is the first big blockbuster event at the festival, where Sylvester Stallone will also unveil a teaser for “Rambo V: Last Blood.”

 

Another headline-grabber, soccer legend Diego Maradona, is sure to create a stir when he turns up for a documentary on his rollercoaster career by the maker of the Oscar-winning “Amy”.

 

The festival has sparked controversy by giving a prize to veteran French star Alain Delon, with the Women and Hollywood group saying honouring a man who has admitted to hitting women “sucks.”

 

Tempers also flared after French taxi drivers protesting about online ride-hailing rivals blocked traffic at nearby Nice airport, holding up movie movers and shakers trying to reach Cannes.

 

Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who heads the jury that will pick the Palme d’Or winner, also struck a political note Tuesday by condemning populist leaders like Trump, but without naming names.

 

“The world is melting and these guys are ruling with rage and anger and lies and making people believe that they are facts,” he told reporters.

 

“This (is a) dangerous thing we are returning to, to 1939,” he added, referring to World War II. “We know how this story ends if we keep with this rhetoric.”

 

Analysts, meanwhile, were upbeat about this year’s offerings.

 

US actress Julianne Moore arrives for the screening of the film “The Dead Don’t Die” during the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 14, 2019. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

 

British-Thai actress Araya Hargate poses as she arrives for the screening of the film “The Dead Don’t Die” during the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 14, 2019. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

 

The Oscars? Who cares?

“That Cannes has managed to get ‘Rocketman’ is a very big coup because Paramount was historically one of the studios who were the most reluctant to show films at the festival,” said Christian Jungen, author of the book “Hollywood in Cannes.”

 

Studios have often been reluctant to risk their big-budget productions, fearful of a savaging from critics.

 

Cannes got “Rocketman” thanks to Fremaux’s friendship with Paramount boss Jim Gianopulos, Jungen said, who was head of Fox when it took “Moulin Rouge” to the Croisette in 2001.

 

(From 2ndL) French director and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Robin Campillo, Greek director and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Yorgos Lanthimos, Polish director and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Pawel Pawlikowski, Italian director and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Alice Rohrwacher, French director and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Enki Bilal, Burkinabe director and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Maimouna N’Diaye, US director and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Kelly Reichardt, Mexican director and President of the Jury of the Cannes Film Festival Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, US actress and member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival Elle Fanning pose with the President of the Cannes Film Festival Pierre Lescure (L), French Culture Minister Franck Riester (2ndR) and the General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival Thierry Fremaux (R) as they arrive for the screening of the film “The Dead Don’t Die” during the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 14, 2019. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

It’s precious breathing space for the festival, which is stuck in a stand-off with Netflix over the streaming giant’s refusal to release its films in French cinemas.

 

Yet Netflix has far from turned its back on Cannes.

 

Jerome Paillard, the head of the festival’s vast market, where deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars are done, said it has sent a team of around 25 buyers and executives.

 

That is even bigger than it was last year, he told AFP.

 

“More than ever the whole world comes to Cannes, particularly the Americans. They are still the biggest group overall, and their numbers remain stable,” Paillard added.

 

Even so, the last big Cannes Oscar success was the comedy “The Artist” in 2012, which won five gongs after being premiered on the Croisette.

 

Fremaux — who had only two US films in the main competition last year — claimed that Cannes is above “this general obsession about the Oscars.”

 

The festival, which calls itself the “Olympics of film”, is “about world cinema”, he said, and giving a platform to new voices and auteurs.

 

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Alain Delon hit women. Will Cannes withdraw his honorary award?

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