Best and worst dressed at Cannes

Best and worst dressed at Cannes

Best: Mommy-to-be Angelina Jolie glowed in a gorgeous green Max Azria gown, while her main squeeze Brad Pitt picked a classic Tom Ford tux.

Worst: We applaud fashion-forward stars who take risks, but Madonna's outrageous octopus-inspired Chanel creation crashed on the red carpet.

Best: Silver fox Harrison Ford and his honey Calista Flockhart impressed in simple yet chic ensembles.

Worst: Julianne Moore proved that few women look yummy in yellow. The 4-time Oscar nominee disappointed in haute couture courtesy of Christian Lacroix.

Worst: Apparently aging action star Jean-Claude Van Damme raided Sonny Crockett's closet. The kickboxer's retro ensemble, which consisted of a pastel tee and a stark white Italian sport coat, screamed Miami circa '85.

Best: Armani muse Cate Blanchett got gussied up in a sophisticated strapless gray gown.

Worst: Eva Longoria Parker should have kept it sleek and slim; however, the diminutive diva's cascading tulle was an absolute catastrophe.

Worst: Gwyneth Paltrow's status as a fashion icon was jeopardized when she debuted this bow-trimmed hip-hugging Chanel tragedy.

Best: Bollywood box office queen Aishwarya Rai exemplified true elegance in her bejeweled champagne-colored gown and matching heels.

Worst: Linda Evangelista glittered in a gold Alber Elbaz potato sack that she quite possibly stole from Linda Evans' "Dynasty" dressing room.

Best: Natalie Portman looked cute as a button in her flirty blue cocktail frock designed by one of Europe's oldest fashion houses, Lanvin.

Worst: Salma Hayek typically rules the red carpet in masterpieces from the world's leading fashion mavens, but this matronly green mess was far from regal.

Worst: The woman best known for solving paranormal crimes on The X Files, Gillian Anderson forgot to solve her own fashion faux pas. Even Dana Scully wouldn't be caught dead in this boring bath mat.

Best: Despite her wild mane and unnecessary shades, the gorgeous Goldie Hawn put women half her age to shame in sexy white chiffon.

Worst: Talk show troublemaker Star Jones didn't exactly shine upon arriving in Cannes. Her heinous multi-colored halter dress lacked class... and enough fabric!

Best: Burlesque beauty Dita Von Teese embodied old Hollywood glamour in her exquisite Christian Lacroix invention.

Worst: F-lister Phoebe Price, whose biggest role to date was a guest spot on the now defunct "Arli$$," made the worst dressed list in a matter of minutes thanks to this venomous gown.

Worst: Former supermodel Eva Herzigova turned heads -- in a bad way -- in this gaudy and gauzy floor-length flop.

Best: Spanish siren Penelope Cruz showed off her best assets in an ivory Marchesa frock.

French Classroom Film

French classroom film wins top prize in Cannes 61st

"Entre les murs" (The Class), a film set in a tough Parisian high school, won the Palme d'Or for best picture at the Cannes festival on Sunday.

Directed by Laurent Cantet, the picture based on an autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau was the first French winner in Cannes since 1987.

It is likely to be a popular choice with critics, who praised its naturalistic portrayal of the energy and high tension of the classroom as well as its exploration of universal themes of race, individuality, and truth.

The Class comes at time when problems in overcrowded French schools and youth violence have become hot political issues.

"I think it would be good for all those people who claim to be able to judge youth ... in two or three aphorisms to learn something new about youth," said Begaudeau, who also plays the central teacher in the film.

"It's essentially a film for adults even though I hope young people will also enjoy the film."

The Class was one of 22 movies in the main competition in Cannes, and Sunday's glamorous red carpet prize ceremony ended 12 hectic days of screenings, interviews and late night revelry for actors, producers, directors and journalists.

Big names like Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Penelope Cruz, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford as well as sports stars Mike Tyson and Diego Maradona all trod the famous red carpet this year.

Jury President Sean Penn (R) and actor Robert de Niro pose beside actress Catherine Deneuve after she receives the Special Mention from the jury for her film 'Un Conte de Noel (A Christmas Tree)' during the award ceremony at the 61st Cannes Film Festival May 25, 2008

The Grand Prix runner-up prize went to Italy's "Gomorra" (Gomorrah), Matteo Garrone's hard-hitting film about the world of the Camorra Naples crime network whose empire extends from waste disposal to haute couture.

Garrone was lauded for his courage in tackling the subject, especially since the author of the bestseller on which it is based has lived under police protection for the past two years.

ITALIAN DOUBLE

The second Italian competition entry, "Il Divo," a satire on the life of former prime minister Giulio Andreotti and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, won the jury award.

A special prize was given to Catherine Deneuve and Eastwood, whose film "The Exchange," starring Jolie, was in competition.

The Best Director award went to Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan for "Three Monkeys," a dark tale of family secrets.

Benicio del Toro was named Best Actor for his portrayal of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's epic four-and-a-half hour "Che."

"I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara," del Toro said.

The Best Actress award went to Sandra Corveloni, who plays an overworked mother in the popular Brazilian drama "Linha de Passe" (Line of Passage), set in the slums of Sao Paulo.

Belgium's Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, have won the Palme d'Or twice but this time took away the prize for Best Screenplay for "Lorna's Silence," and Britain's Steve McQueen won the Camera d'Or, given to debut directors, for "Hunger."

The visually stunning film portrays Bobby Sands' 66-day hunger strike in 1981 which ended in his death and made him a potent symbol of opposition to British rule in Northern Ireland.

Jury president Sean Penn had been expected to favor a film with a social or political slant, and the only big surprise on the night was the fact that Israeli animated documentary "Waltz With Bashir" went unrecognized.

Critics believed the film was a contender for the top prize due to its innovative techniques and for its haunting retelling of an Israeli conscript's efforts to dig up buried memories of the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut's refugee camps in 1982.

Cannes balances glamor with `Blindness'

Cannes balances glamor with `Blindness'

Fernando Meirelles did boys with guns in "City of God" and murderous corporations in "The Constant Gardener." With "Blindness," the opening night entry at the Cannes Film Festival, the Brazilian director exposes the world's ultimate savages: your friends and neighbors.

A terrifying fable about how low people might go to stay alive when a plague of blindness turns them into helpless internees, "Blindness" presents an unnerving reflection of real tragedy and bureaucratic heartlessness, from Hurricane Katrina to global food shortages to the cyclone in Myanmar, where the military government has severely restricted relief efforts.

"There are different kinds of blindness. There's 2 billion people that are starving in the world," Meirelles said in an interview Thursday, a day after the film's Cannes premiere. "This is happening. It doesn't need a catastrophe. It's happening, and because there isn't an event like Katrina, we don't see."

American actors Angelina Jolie and Jack Black touch bellies........who is bigger?

Opening in U.S. theaters Sept. 19, "Blindness" is adapted from the novel by Portuguese author Jose Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

The film chronicles the panic, disorder and barbarity that erupts after a contagion spreads "white blindness" throughout an unspecified city, with people's vision replaced by a milky cloud.

Victims are crammed into decrepit, filthy wards and left on their own, with no medical care. Scant food is provided, and trigger-happy soldiers gun down anyone they think might make a break for freedom, though all the afflicted can do is stumble about aimlessly.

The inmates include an eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife (Julianne Moore), who inexplicably retains her sight but feigns blindness so she can accompany her husband into detention. Among their roommates are an old man (Danny Glover), a prostitute (Alice Braga), a thief (Don McKellar) and a married couple (Yusuke Iseya and Yoshino Kimura).

While that group tries to maintain a degree of order, their neighbors in another ward declare themselves "Lord of the Flies"-style rulers, led by a man (Gael Garcia Bernal) with a gun and a willingness to let bullets fly blindly. His thugs take over the food supply and force the others to pay with jewelry, and later, with their women.

"The other day, I heard somebody say, `It's inhuman. It's not human.' No, it is. The movie, it is about human beings, and how in a way, we're animals," Braga said. "If you're put in a situation, that's what would happen."

The action sinks to its most brutal in a gang-rape scene, which precipitates violent retribution and an unexpected escape for some victims, who emerge into a city overrun by staggering, starving survivors, the blind literally leading the blind to scavenge for food.

Could so many people descend so completely into bestiality?

"Look at what happens in war, and how whole towns are raped," Moore said. "We have this idea that we've got it together, but you see what happens when there is a natural disaster. Things crumble. Things literally crumble. So the sense that, oh, we have secured this, we have taken care of this, we know how to do this. In fact, we're just a step away from chaos."

"We've seen food riots in Egypt, food riots in Sudan, food riots in Somalia, food riots in Haiti. Is that a test to see where we're going?" Glover said. "Do we have the political will worldwide to come to grips with that?"

Meirelles said the depravity in the story could go even lower.

"I think the next step would be cannibalism. Rape? How can you go lower? There's no food, so it could turn to cannibalism."

The film also incorporates wickedly dark humor, including a zinger that could be interpreted as a jab at President Bush and U.S. militarism after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"How lucky we are to have a leader with vision," one of Moore's charges remarks as she leads them through the horror of a city that has fallen apart.

"It has something to do, yeah, with the Bush administration," Meirelles said.

Amid the bedlam, glimmers of hope appear as the main characters forge a clan and reclaim a piece of their humanity.

"Toward the end of `Blindness,' they're reaching that point where they're redefining family and redefining civilization," said co-star McKellar, who also wrote the screenplay. "You give them time, and they would deal with it. If they were to remain blind, they would be all right."

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.