Cannes pits Hollywood against obscure arthouse
John Griffith Chaney (Reuters) - Hollywood legends and hide arthouse directors descend on Cannes from Wednesday for the world's biggest moving-picture show fete that combines edgy movie theater with A-list celebrities, glitzy parties and frenetic deal-making.
Clint Eastwood is in the briny competition with "Changeling", starring Angelina Jolie, indentation him against, among others, Kornel Mundruczo of Hungary in the sort of David-and-Goliath contest on which Cannes thrives.
Out of competition, Steven Steven Spielberg and St. George Lucas volition be on the famed redness carpet in the palm-lined seafront township with the latest Indiana John Paul Jones adventure featuring George Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett.
Woody Allen Stewart Konigsberg likewise presents "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" starring Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem.
The 61st variant of the super-charged 12-day picture marathon has a strong South American flavour, with two Argentinian and two Brazilian films in the briny competition lineup.
From Genus Argentina comes Pablo Trapero's prison drama "Leonera" and thriller "The Headless Woman" by Lucrecia Martel, and Brazil has Walter Salles's "Contrast of Passage" and "Blindness", directed by Fernando Meirelles of "Metropolis of God" celebrity.
"I think it reflects what citizenry possess been talking about, and that is the re-emergence of quality celluloid throughout Latin America, including United Mexican States, Genus Argentina and Brazil nut," said Jay Weissberg, Rome-based critic for swap issue Variety.
U.S. manager Steven Soderbergh besides presents "Che", his two-part, four-and-a-half-hour epic on Argentine revolutionary Che Ernesto Guevara, with Benicio del Toro in the title character.
