Cannes Film Festival Prepares to Shine

This year, the frothy festivities that mark the Cannes Film Festival are unfolding against a backdrop of strained French-U.S. relations, international terrorism and SARS-related fears.

The deal making, star-gazing, and above all film watching -- more than 1,500 projections are planned for this year -- will go on for 12 days. A remake of the famous 1952 Christian-Jaque feel-good film Fanfan la Tulipe, starring Penelope Cruz, kicks off the event; its closer will be a showing of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.

Mad Over Matrix

Twenty films are competing for the coveted Palme d'Or award. American official selections this year are thin on the ground, but include films by Clint Eastwood, Gus Van Sandt and Vincent Gallo.

While Cannes is known for giving credence to deep-and-meaningful art films, this year's biggest event is pure Hollywood -- the much-hyped sci-fi sequel Matrix: Reloaded. The second installation of the philosophical-futuristic trilogy will be shown in concurrence with its world premiere.

Still, critics are keenly awaiting new offerings from Denmark's Lars Von Trier, known for his dramatic tearjerkers, and outlandish British art-house cult-filmmaker Peter Greenaway.

Referring to recently chilly Franco-U.S. relations over the U.S.-led war on Iraq, festival directors said "the current world situation won't have a negative effect on the tradition of friendship between American cinema and the Cannes festival."

Security Concerns

"A lot of things have happened in the past year, but life must go on," said Festival President Gilles Jacob, whose biggest headaches are late-landing films and last-minute withdrawals.

Organizers, edgy after a fresh terror attack in Saudi Arabia, played down safety concerns but nontheless beefed up the security team. This year, in addition to 600 local police, the festival hired several thousand security guards.

The crowd at Cannes will run to the tens of thousands, from actors and directors to fans coming to soak in the atmosphere and glimpse stars such as Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Taylor, Meg Ryan, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise (with Penelope Cruz, photo), Charlotte Rampling, and Keanu Reeves as they walk the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals or while strolling the waterfront Croisette.

Security was tight last year with even the stars undergoing body scans and bag checks.

In yet another instance of reality encroaching on fantasy, the festival had to deal with fears of SARS. The French Minister of Health attached a bulletin on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome to the welcome packets of attendees, asking them to be contactable up to ten days after the end of the festival. And industry players coming from Asia have agreed to undergo medical checks on arrival in France.

Honoring Eastwood

Along with Clint Eastwood's crime drama "Mystic River," five French directors and films from as far apart as Russia, Brazil, Iran and Japan will be competing for the Palme d'Or. Eastwood, who directed the film Unforgiven and who has already shown five films at Cannes, will certainly not walk away empty handed this year. He is slated to be given the "Carosse d'Or," a prize awarded by French film directors to another director in honor of his life's work.

For fans stuck outside, open air screens will pay tribute to the legendary Federico Fellini, whose reaction on winning the 1960 Palme d'Or for "La Dolce Vita" makes up this year's Cannes poster -- "Vive il Cinema."