CANNES -- Gilles Jacob, president of the Festival de Cannes, used to think that cinema could change the world. Now the world is changing cinema, at least in the way it is being presented in Cannes, with the growing emphasis on mainstream entertainment.
Here are five selected highlights from this year's festival, which launches today and runs through May 24:
Inglorious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino, who won the Palme d'Or in 1994 with Pulp Fiction, pulps it up again with a violent Second World War film about renegade Jewish-American soldiers who savagely assassinate German Nazis in a reign of terror. The story is fictional but the film could turn into a cause celebre. It also promises to attract the biggest parade of Hollywood stars to the red carpet this year. The cast includes Brad Pitt (who rarely attends Cannes without Angelina Jolie and the kids) plus Diane Kruger, Mike Myers, Maggie Cheung, Eli Roth and Julie Dreyfus. It plays in the official competition.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: The last big-screen footage of Heath Ledger is preserved here in Terry Gilliam's adventure fantasy. This is the film the young Australian was shooting when he took a holiday break and died at home in Manhattan of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. That was 16 months ago. Ledger was playing a character named Tony at the time. With the approval of the Ledger clan, Gilliam then cast Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law to finish the Tony role in surreal fashion. It plays in Cannes as an out-of-competition entry.
Polytechnique: Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has already galvanized audiences at home with his stunning re-creation of the infamous Montreal Massacre. While the film has made some people uncomfortable, it also had earned praise for its tasteful, thoughtful and sensitive treatment of the incident. While characters have been "fictionalized" in the screenplay -- to lessen the impact on victims' families -- the film is based on meticulous research. It plays in the Director's Fortnight as one of three Quebec films to earn passage into this prestigious festival-within-the-festival, which has its own independent selection process. Also chosen are Denis Cote's Carcasses and Xavier Dolan's J'ai tue ma mere. Dolan is eligible for the Camera d'Or, which goes to the director of the best first film screened in any of the official programs at Cannes.
Broken Embraces: Almost all of the films of colourful Spain master Pedro Almodovar now play in Cannes. But he has never won the Palme d'Or for best film. The best he has done in the awards is best screenplay for Volver and best director for All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre). While insiders do not think he will make it all the way to the top with his new dramatic thriller, he is at least in the running. And he brings Penelope Cruz, whom he helped to develop as an international movie star, back to Cannes. She shared the best actress prize three years ago with five of her co-stars in Volver. The new film plays in competition.
Tetro: Francis Ford Coppola's drama was touted as a probable contender in the competition -- and as a possible comeback film following the abject failure of Youth Without Youth. But Coppola, who turned 70 last month, instead steered Tetro off to the Directors Fortnight, where films are treated differently than in the main competition. The film -- written and directed by Coppola and said to be partially autobiographical -- follows an American as he travels to Argentina to try to find his long-lost brother. Vincent Gallo, known at the Cannes film festival for headlining an infamous semi-pornographic road movie, The Brown Bunny, is featured as the title character.
