Courtesy of Festival-cannes.fr

Drinking champagne in Air France‘s business class en route to the Cannes Film Festival is how most days should be. Ah, but the French are notorious for all things “Franchie-fabulous,” just like their elegant welcome and superb service on their flights. A graciously tasteful presentation with a touch of perfection, unparalleled personal attention, and that special European etiquette is the sweet prelude of the next two weeks in France. The food alone is magnifique and makes the choice of flying the official airline of the festival more than worthwhile. Air France is really the best: their world of elegance and gracious hospitality goes really well with the exquisite yet flirtatious glamour of Cannes.

It was good to see that there was little sign of economic hardship along the French Riviera. The place was buzzing busy, with local scooters zipping around everywhere, limos dropping off celebs creating the aura of glitz and glamour brought to the world’s most famous film festival by the international film community. The French are famous for lots of things, but their espresso is an important accompaniment to the hundreds of parties starting in the late afternoon and ending in the wee hours of the morning with champagne and wine flowing like the body of water holding up the multi-million dollar yachts that are home to most cocktail receptions.

The Festival opened, in a big break from tradition, with the Premiere of a delightful animated Pixar production. The studio responsible for Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo was given the honor of showing Up, a heartfelt film enhanced with 3D technology. The French have always been great admirers of animation, and their instincts were right on this one–it was a real crowd pleaser. John Lasseter, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer confirmed that all new Pixar and Disney animations will be made in 3D going forward adding an additional “wow” factor to the impressive visuals. Another interesting development based on animation was the announcement of a six-country effort to produce a live-action version of the Japanese anime series Bubblegum Crisis, a popular cyberpunk, sci-fi-style anime set in the distant future. It will be the first ever Singapore-Japan-Australia-Canada-China-United Kingdom co-production. Could not be more international.

The press screening of Up was followed by the first competition entry, Spring Fever, which depicted complicated sexual relationships with a realism that ensures it certainly won’t be released in the country in which it was made: China. Afterward, Director Lou Ye preferred to talk about free artistic expression, and not so much about the commercial market for his film in China. The dark film set the tone for what was to be a fairly dark slate of entries at the Festival.

Other highly anticipated films shown during the festival were Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which clocks in at 2 hours and 40 minutes. It’s an ambitious film that reinvents history with a plot about Jews killing Hitler, and has added star power with the comic acting of Brad Pitt as an Army Lieutenant, and Christoph Waltz as his SS nemesis. It was the only American film to win an award at Cannes, with Waltz taking the award for top actor.

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