65th Cannes Film Festival opens
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Author: By Nino Gelashvili
The 65th annual Cannes Film Festival kicked-off on May 16 and will run until May 27. The festival opened with U.S. director Wes Anderson’s movie Moonrise Kingdom, one of 22 movies that were nominated in the main competition this year.
The official selection also includes others including: Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Special Screenings, Cinйfondation, and Short Films.
Nanni Moretti heads the jury this year. She has brought six films to Cannes and won the Golden Palm in 2001. “Thank you to this country which, unlike others, always makes space for cinema,” Moretti said to the media.
Because 2012 is the 50th year after the death of Marilyn Monroe, the festival organizers decided to honor the Hollywood goddess by selecting a photo of her as the official face of this year’s Cannes Film Festival’s 65th edition. The poster shows the American actress in the back of a car, eyelids lowered and lips pursed, blowing out a candle on a birthday cake.
Rocker Beth Ditto performed a jazzed-up rendition of Candle in the Wind, during the opening ceremony, originally written by Elton John about Marilyn Monroe.
“50 years after her death, Marilyn remains one of the major figures of world cinema, an eternal and contemporary reference of grace, mystery and seduction,” the organizers said in a statement.
The festive spirit of the festival is felt around the whole city, which happens to be a cozy place during the other seasons of the year. Now the streets are full of tourists; there are little cameras in almost every shop to celebrate the long-awaited days. The roads were closed for the opening ceremony close to the Palais des Festivals et des Congrиs, the building which was built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival. The nearby areas were also crowded on the opening day, as people tried to see the ceremony from every possible place.
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