THE 64TH Cannes Film Festival kicked off last night with a gala screening of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Speaking at the festival, the director said: "Now that I finally got a chance to do a film in Paris, I hope that I can repay the overwhelming support and loyalty that they have shown me over the years."
Last year, some eyebrows were raised when Cannes kicked off with a screening of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. That film featured countless scenes of English yeomen walloping cowardly French soldiers with broadswords. By way of contrast, Midnight in Pariscould not be more hopelessly enamoured with the French nation and its capital.
Owen Wilson stars as an American writer who moves to Paris in search of inspiration. Following some unexplained temporal aberration, he is transported back to the 1920s, where he communes with Ernest Hemingway, Picasso, Salvador Dali and TS Eliot. While not an Allen classic, the picture, which co-stars Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates and Michael Sheen, proved more charming than much of his recent work.
The organisers had hoped Carla Bruni, who has a modest role, would appear on the red carpet. But, last week, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife announced she would not be attending "for personal reasons" which has fuelled debate that she might be pregnant. It has also been noted the festival has chosen to screen Xavier Durringer's La Conquête,a satire on Mr Sarkozy's personal and professional affairs, as one of its featured out-of-competition presentations.
Domestic producers can celebrate securing two places in prestigious competitions. Paolo Sorrentino's This Must Be the Place, an Irish co-production starring Sean Penn, will play in the main competition. Rebecca Daly's The Other Side of Sleepcompetes in the prestigious Directors' Fortnight strand.