Godzilla treat to Clinton8217;s Primary Colours at Cannes

CANNES FRANCE, May 13: The Cannes Film Festival, the premier showcase for world and independent cinema, opened on Wednesday with a classic...

CANNES FRANCE, May 13: The Cannes Film Festival, the premier showcase for world and independent cinema, opened on Wednesday with a classic Hollywood tale of ambition and betrayal, lust and devotion.

More than 4,000 journalists are expected to descend on the southern French resort during the two-week festival, many of them to attend the European premiere of Primary Colours, a lightly disguised account of Bill Clinton8217;s 1991 campaign for the US Presidency.

The festival will close on May 24 with another Hollywood-designed crowd-puller, Roland Emmerich8217;s multi-million dollar monster-mash Godzilla.

In between, movie-goers will be able to view offerings in the official selection from 14 countries, with films from countless other horizons on view in the parallel sections.

The normal Cannes population of 70,000 is expected to swell to three or four times that number during the festival, an event that costs around 60 million francs 10 million dollars to stage but brings in around 10 timesthat amount in economic spinoff.

After the hoopla of last year8217;s 50th birthday celebrations, the festival, this year, will bring the focus back on film with what director Gilles Jacob promised would be a programme of quot;better, gentlerquot; movies.

The comings and goings along the Croisette will, as ever, form a part of the spectacle.

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The lobbies of the luxury hotels will buzz with wheeling and dealing as producers and directors haggle and schmooze in the hope of getting a long-cherished project off the ground. The festival will certainly produce at least one madcap publicity stunt aimed at promoting a heavyweight Hollywood production. The glitter brigade have already started arriving, and for many festival-goers the highlight will be the opportunity to gaze at the likes of John Travolta and Emma Thompson, stars of the festival opener, as they make their way up the steps of the Palaisdes festivals, along with scores of other luminaries of the film world.

Besides, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will ascendthe steps in the company of Culture Minister Catherine Trautmann. Other stars due in town include Andie MacDowell, Johnny Depp, Cameron Diaz, Charlton Heston, Irene Papas, Ewan McGregor, Janet Leigh, Harvey Keitel, Gong Li, Nathalie Baye and Mira Scorvino.

The festival jury, headed this year by filmmaker Martin Scorsese, comprises a female majority, including actresses Sigourney Weaver, Lena Olin, Winona Ryder and Chiara Mastroianni. They may have interesting comments to make on an official selection which features not a single woman director.