Cannes Opens End Of Millennium Edition With Russian Epic
by Jocelyne Zablit, Agence France Presse
May 12, 1999
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| Sinead Cusack and her husband, Jeremy Irons, arriving for the opening ceremony yesterday of the 52nd Cannes Film Festival. |
CANNES, France, May 12 (AFP) - The Cannes Film Festival, the world's paramount film event, opens its end of the millennium edition Wednesday with "The Barber of Siberia," Russia's answer to the US megablockbuster "Titanic."
The three-hour historical epic by Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov will officially kick off the 12-day extravaganza in which 22 movies are vying for the coveted Golden Palm award.
Among the film personalities dropping in during the fest will be Sean Connery, Faye Dunaway, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Susan Sarandon, Victoria Abril and Sissy Spacek.
The 10-member festival jury handing out the Golden Palm is headed by Canadian director David Cronenberg.
Programmer Gilles Jacob gave a distinctly British feel to the opening ceremony, having chosen English actress Kristin Scott thomas as master of ceremonies and by surprising Cronenberg with a special on-stage appearance of one of the director's favorite actors, Jeremy Irons.
Some things never change at Cannes, however, notably the refusal to make much of a linguistic concession to the non-French speakers attending the first night pic. Hence Scott Thomas, Irons and Dunaway -- who is presiding over a special retrospective of love films -- all delivered their speeches in various forms of French.
Meanwhile, in the hours before the launch, this normally sedate town was abuzz with activity as thousands of journalists, wide-eyed teenagers, shapely starlets and the would-bes and wannabes readied for the jamboree.
Police ringed the palm-lined coastal Croisette boulevard and security was boosted, especially in light of an explosive device discovered on another busy boulevard Tuesday.