Europe eclipses Hollywood in hot year for Cannes

Cast members Robert Downey Jr (L) and Keanu Reeves at a photocall for director Richard Linklater's film 'A Scanner Darkly' at Cannes. Picture / Reuters

CANNES, France - Veteran Spanish director Pedro Almodovar leads the early running in Cannes this year with his bitter-sweet comedy "Volver", as European cinema overshadows Hollywood at the world's biggest film festival.

Also catching critics' eye as the annual orgy of pictures, publicity and parties reached the halfway point is a first-time filmmaker from Britain, Andrea Arnold, with "Red Road" and Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan with "Iklimler" (Climates).

"America is really performing badly this year," said Mark Cousins, an author and commentator on cinema. "Asia is doing next to nothing in the competition, so it is really Europe that is shining with an old-fashioned approach to cinema."

While critics and the Cannes jury do not always see eye to eye, leading the pack in the hunt for the coveted "Palme d'Or" is Almodovar's Volver, a touching and humorous return to his beloved world of women.

Spanish star Penelope Cruz pairs up with another of the director's muses Carmen Maura in what has been described as the 32-year-old beauty's best performance yet, putting her in pole position to take the best actress award.

Her stiffest competition to date comes from the lesser known Kate Dickie, who plays a grief-stricken woman bent on revenge in Arnold's first ever feature film.

Set on a grim, windswept housing estate in Glasgow, the picture has won the British director comparisons with established names such as Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier, and uses security TV cameras to follow the characters' lives.

Screen International critic Allan Hunter said the film, the first of a trilogy involving the same characters, was "likely to emerge as one of the discoveries of this year's Cannes."

Also highlighted as a possible prize winner among the first 10 of 20 films in competition is Britain's Ken Loach with his Irish drama "The Wind That Shakes the Barley".

Along with "Summer Palace", set against the backdrop of social upheaval during the Tiananmen Square protests, and Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's "Lights in the Dusk", Cannes is eclipsing what some considered a weak 2005.

"So far what I've seen has been pretty good, and certainly better than the last two years," said Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter.

"The benchmark year recently was 2002, when Roman Polanski's 'The Pianist' won, although we are not at that level so far."

Hollywood falters

Among the disappointments was US director Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales", the follow up to his cult hit "Donnie Darko".

At two hours and 40 minutes, audiences complained it was too long, and the Variety trade magazine called it "a pretentious, overreaching, fatally unfocused fantasy about American fascism, radical rebellion, nuclear terrorism and apocalypse."

Also from the United States, Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation", based on the Eric Schlosser bestseller of the same name about big restaurant chains, won only mixed reviews.

The eagerly awaited "The Da Vinci Code", which opened the festival but is out of competition, was panned by reviewers, although its worldwide box office tally of US$224 million (NZ$359m) in only a few days was proof that the public was not listening.

Also out of competition, "X-Men: The Last Stand" is the final episode of the lucrative franchise, with more high octane action and a plot where love, not superhuman powers, conquers all. But again the reaction was cool.

Critics are hoping Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette", starring Kirsten Dunst, will restore some Hollywood pride.

Also still to come is Frenchman Bruno Dumont's "Flandres", which promises to bring more controversy to Cannes with his portrayal of an unspecified war and its aftermath.

Stars added to the lustre of the films, with Bruce Willis, Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Sidney Poitier and directors Oliver Stone and Ron Howard in town.

Animation films, from blockbuster to arthouse, are causing a stir, as is the amount of sex on screen, much of it real.

- REUTERS