DiCaprio, Spielberg open a stormy Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival got off to a blockbuster, if stormy start, as Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby opened on a soggy French Riviera.

Amid heavy rain, dancing flappers flocked down the Cannes red carpet, bringing a touch of the Jazz Age to the Croisette. Gatsby stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire helped give the festival's opening day a strong dose of star power.

At the opening ceremony, DiCaprio, joined by his Gatsby co-star, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, declared the 66th Cannes officially begun.

Over the next 12 days, dozens of the world's most artistically ambitious films will premiere on Cannes' global stage. But Wednesday (Thursday NZT) was a day for blockbusters - both the big-budget Gatsby and Hollywood's most accomplished director of spectacle: Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg is serving as jury president at this year's Cannes. His presence here is a rarity (he's had films at Cannes before, including E.T. and Sugarland Express, but never had a movie in competition), and he was received like a visiting head of state, a king of cinema.

The Lincoln director received a standing ovation at the opening ceremony and was serenaded with a performance of Miss Celie's Blues from his 1985 film, The Color Purple.

He heads the jury that will decide the prestigious Palme d'Or, given to one of the 20 competing films, with entries ranging from the Coen brothers (Llewyn Davis), Alexander Payne (Nebraska) and Steven Soderbergh (Behind the Candelabra).

This year's jury is an intimidating, starry bunch, including Nicole Kidman, Ang Lee and Christoph Waltz.

"Everyone sits in judgment of us," Spielberg said. "So it's our turn."

Luhrmann's 3-D adaption of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is this year's festival opener, a choice that surprised many since the film opened last week in North America. Cannes typically takes precedence over release schedules, but Gatsby sails to the Croisette after a robust weekend haul of US$51.1 million.

After Luhrmann noted in a news conference that the film had pushed Fitzgerald's novel to the top of the bestseller list (selling more copies in a week than in the author's lifetime), DiCaprio added with a grin: "And a little film adaptation is doing quite well at the box office."

But while Gatsby is getting a victory lap on the Cannes' red carpet, it comes to the festival with the sting of mixed reviews. Many film critics have taken issue with the movie's stylistic flourishes.

"I knew that would come," said Luhrmann, noting Fitzgerald's 1925 novel was also initially received poorly. "I just care that people are going out and seeing it. I really am so moved by that."

Gatsby plays out of competition at the festival, but Spielberg should have his hands full with a slate lacking any obvious favorite. Internationally-respected filmmakers like Roman Polanski (Venus in Fur), Asghar Farhadi (The Past) and Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive) are to premiere their films in competition.

Every year, the Cannes jury president is psychoanalyzed to help predict the Palme d'Or winner. This year is no different, with onlookers guessing that Spielberg will either gravitate toward the kind of warm-hearted films he's best known for, or seek to deliberately contradict that assumption with a more audacious choice.

The international jury also includes Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, Japanese director Naomi Kawase, French actor Daniel Auteuil and Bollywood star Vidya Balan.

"I'm going to have to look at the Sidney Lumet film 12 Angry Men, again as a tutorial to prepare myself for the final day of deliberation," Spielberg said with a smile.

- AP