Stars grace Cannes festival
2005-05-12 07:01
Cannes - A stream of celebrities swept up the red carpet on Wednesday for the opening ceremony of the Cannes film festival, kicking off a 12-day extravaganza of celluloid, hype and deal making.
US actor Dennis Hopper, French actresses Catherine Deneuve and Carole Bouquet, Indian star Aishwarya Rai, French model Laetitia Casta all stepped before the cameras in elegant evening wear.
They were followed by this year's Cannes jury: the president, Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica; Spanish actor Javier Bardem; Mexican actress Salma Hayek; Hong Kong director John Woo; Nobel prize-winning US author Toni Morrison; Indian actress Nandita Das; French directors Agnes Varda and Benoit Jacquot; and German director Fatih Akin.
And then came the cast of the opening film, Lemming, a French psychodrama starring bilingual British actress Charlotte Rampling and directed by Dominik Moll.
The line-up of 21 films competing for the Palme d'Or for the 58th festival was dominated by a slew of Cannes veterans, with only a few wild cards.
The hottest ticket in town, though, was for a film that wasn't even vying for the trophy: Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas's prequel to his celebrated series that started back in 1977.