CANNES FILM FESTIVAL, 16/05/2007
Tim Walker

The Independent – United Kingdom
Published: May 17, 2007

The Front Page

The media turned out in force for yesterday’s photo call to mark the
opening of the 60th Cannes Film Festival. The most glamorous date
in the cinematic calendar boasts some of the film world’s brightest
talents on its jury. They will have to decide between them which of the
21 films in this year’s 60th festival receives its highest accolade,
the Palme d’Or.

The China Syndrome

Juror Maggie Cheung has over 80 films to her name and has worked with
an assortment of China’s most celebrated directors, including Jackie
Chan and Wong Kar-Wai. One of the stars of Wong’s Palme d’Or-nominated
"In The Mood For Love" (2000), she won Cannes’ Best Actress award
for her 2004 performance as a recovering addict in "Clean".

Frears and Loathing

Jury president, director Stephen Frears, has spent the past
quarter-century chronicling some of the most pressing issues in British
life, from the racial and sexual politics of the Thatcher years in "My
Beautiful Laundrette" (1985), to the underworld of illegal immigration
in "Dirty Pretty Things" (2002), to the role of the monarchy in last
year’s "The Queen".

Wizard of Oz

Since she first came to public attention as ugly duckling Muriel in
"Muriel’s Wedding" (1994), Australian Toni Collette – more swan than
duckling – has cornered the kind of character roles that every actress
in Hollywood craves, and left a f lurry of awards and nominations in
her wake. She missed out on a Best Actress Bafta for last year’s hit,
"Little Miss Sunshine".

The Italian Job

Italian director and actor Marco Bellocchio has long been an active
player on the French political scene, supporting socialist Lionel
Jospin’s 2002 campaign for a term in the Elysee Palace. He also holds
the dubious honour of having garnered five Palme d’Or nominations
for his films, without ever having taken home the top gong.

The French Connection

Michel Piccoli is a darling of the French political left, and was
also a vocal supporter of socialist Lionel Jospin. A Cannes festival
veteran, he gave his breakthrough performance in "Le Mepris" in 1963,
courtesy of director Jean-Luc Godard, and won Best Actor award at
Cannes in 1980 for his turn in "Salto nel Vuoto", directed by fellow
juror Marco Bellocchio.

Along Came Polley

In 1999 child star Sarah Pol-ley turned down a role in "Almost Famous"
to star in Canadian indie-f lick "The Law Of Enclosures"(1999). She
has impressed audiences in "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997) and "My Life
Without Me" (2003).

Last year, she coaxed Julie Christie out of semi-retirement to star
in her directorial debut, "Away From Her".

Maria Full of Grace

She may be most familiar to British and American audiences as Butch’s
girlfriend Fabienne in "Pulp Fiction", but in her native Portugal Maria
de Medeiros is known as an actress, director and scion of a family
of accomplished musicians, thesps and movie players. Among her other
roles was a hairdresser in Canadian film "My Life Without Me" (2003).

Out of Africa

Abderrahmane Sissako is the Mauritanian-born, Malian-bred,
Moscow-trained maker of "Bamako", a movie set in the Malian
capital. Sissako’s f ilm balanced its depiction of everyday life in
a West African city with the kind of political content that Cannes
audiences lap up – a debate over who to blame for the continent’s
problems.

Talking Turkey

Bit of a cushy number for Orhan Pamuk, this Cannes lark. The Nobel
Prize-winning Turkish author of "Snow" and "My Name Is Red" spent 2005
with the threat of a prison sentence hanging over him, after commenting
on the massacre of the Armenians. The Croisette certainly makes for
more comfortable surroundings than the inside of a Turkish jail cell.