Cannes kicks off Wednesday with a 3D crowd-pleaser cartoon as a bevy of auteur directors and megastars, from Quentin Tarantino to Brad Pitt, jet in for the annual film festival frenzy. The notoriously extravagant event has toned down the glitz for this year's crisis-era bash, but a galaxy of top-notch movie celebrities are expected to walk up the red carpet by the palm-fringed beachfront over the next 12 days.
Tarantino's long-awaited "Inglourious Basterds" - a blood-and-guts World War II tale of Jewish-American soldiers on a mission to murder Nazis - is one of the 20 films vying for the Palme d'Or top prize to be handed out on May 24.
But before the serious stuff, the festival strikes a light note by kicking off - for the first time in its history - with a 3D animated film, a Pixar production titled "Up" and directed by Pete Docter. The lofty tale of an elderly balloon-seller and a chubby eight-year-old embarking on a barmy Latin American adventure gets its official screening late Wednesday when the festival officially opens.
But the hundreds of journalists who donned 3D spectacles for a morning press projection gave a resounding round of applause to the 150-million-dollar film which many industry figures say heralds a brave new world. "If Cannes are making a statement, they're betting on the future of cinema - which is digital and 3D," said trade magazine Variety's Anne Thompson as she emerged from the screening of a film she said was "another winner from Pixar."
The 20 films in competition for the Palme - by both big-name directors and obscure auteurs from across the globe - start screening on Thursday. From "Brokeback Mountain" Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, to veteran "New Wave" icon Alain Resnais, at a ripe 86 back behind a camera, the world's grandest film-makers are competing to take home the coveted prize They include four previous Palme winners - Tarantino, Jane Campion, Lars Von Trier and Ken Loach - who will line up alongside Pedro Almodovar, Johnnie To, Marco Bellochio, Elia Suleiman, Lou Ye and Park Chan-wook.
Lee takes a humorous look at the 1960s Woodstock festival, Suleiman offers a Palestinian family saga, while in an out-of-competition movie, Anne Aghion's "My Neighbour, My Killer" recounts the chilling aftermath of the Rwanda genocide. The late Heath Ledger's unfinished stint in Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," being screened out of competition, is also guaranteed to create a buzz at the festival which ends May 24.
The film was almost abandoned when the Australian died from an accidental prescription drug overdose, but was saved when actors Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell were brought in to play his character in the unfinished scenes. Star power and prestige have helped Cannes - which organisers say is the biggest global media event after the Olympic Games - limit the damage from the global economic slowdown compared to some other big industry events.
But belt-tightening is in the air, with industry players trimming back on champagne-fuelled parties and expensive extras, advertisers and local professionals said. The most high-profile sign of cost-cutting came when Vanity Fair magazine called off its exclusive party. And at the Cannes Market, the movie world's biggest deal-making forum, executives are sounding a note of caution. But the mega-yachts are still anchored in the bay and palaces along the seafront are booked out for A-listers like Penelope Cruz, Pitt, Depp and Law.
In Paris fashion houses, Dior's John Galliano and Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld had scrambled to drape Charlize Theron, Eva Green, Asia Argento or Robin Wright Penn. The last two are part of the glammed-up 2009 jury headed by French star Isabelle Huppert that will award the prized Palme at the gala close of the festival.
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