Cannes film festival kicks off

Cannes film festival kicks off with mix of serious films and antic

As the French Riviera blitz of movies, parties and industry schmoozing started Wednesday, the question was whether the independent movies beloved by Cannes critics could hold their own against the media bombast for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which plays here this weekend.

On opening day, the festival's dual nature was apparent for anyone strolling down Cannes' main drag, the Croisette. On one side is Cannes' official poster -- indie filmmaker David Lynch's arty photo of a mysterious blond bombshell. On the other is a hotel facade dressed up for "Indiana Jones" festivities to look something like a plastic temple of doom.

While critics may gripe that Cannes has succumbed to Hollywood, the festival prides itself on having something for everyone.

President of the Jury Sean Penn arrives for the screening of Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film entry "Blindness" on the opening night of the 61st Cannes Film Festival May 14, 2008.

Take Wednesday. The festival opens on a serious note with "Blindness," Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' tale of an epidemic that causes people to lose their vision, starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal and Danny Glover and based on a novel by Portuguese Nobel laureate Jose Saramago.

While critics pondered the symbolism of "Blindness" in a darkened cinema, paparazzi were hitting the beach to capture funnyman Jack Black pulling a publicity stunt for "Kuar at Cannes -- he led the jury in 1994 and showed films here including "Mystic River" -- but he has never won the top prize.

Jolie, Harrison Ford, Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Robert De Niro are among the stars expected in town during the festival. Madonna and Sharon Stone are to turn up at a benefit dinner on Cannes' sidelines for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

Other films in the running for prizes are James Gray's "Two Lovers," a romantic drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, and Steven Soderbergh's four-and-a-half hour marathon "Che," starring Benicio Del Toro as Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Guevara.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett arrives ......

Dark themes abound as usual in the competition films. Palme d'Or laureates Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who took top honors at the 1999 and 2005 festivals, are back with a gritty drama about an illegal immigrant and her sham marriage, "Le Silence de Lorna (Lorna's Silence)."

Israeli writer-director Ari Folman's "Waltz With Bashir" -- an animated film -- tackles the subject of war. And Italian film "Gomorra," by director Matteo Garrone, takes on the Naples-based Camorra mob.