ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: ENT5-CANNES
TAPE_NUMBER: EN9920
IN_TIME: 10:13:53
LENGTH: 10:00
SOURCES: APTN
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FEED: VARIOUS (THE ABOVE TIME-CODE IS TIME-OF-DAY)
SCRIPT: xfa
Story: Cannes Festival
Location: Cannes
Date: May 13th
SEAN CONNERY and CATHERINE ZETA JONES stepped out in Cannes as British stars continue to fly the flag for glamour at a largely Hollywood-free festival.
The thriller "ENTRAPMENT" has been selected as the star-studded special screening chosen to brighten the official festival this year. EWAN McGREGOR will also due fly in today, while ALL SAINTS in film-making mode did their best to stop traffic on the Croisette.
Last night saw the first of the festival's many parties thrown by stars and producers of "A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE". The film's star JOAN COLLINS could not be there because she is currently filming a Flintstones movie in Hollywood, but co-stars SIR NIGEL HAWTHORNE, NATASHA LITTLE and PAUL NICHOLLS, former star of British soap opera EastEnders, were in attendance.
After a glittering opening night, the jury at Cannes got down to the serious work - viewing the twenty-two movies competing for the coveted Palm D'Or. First to hit the screen on Thursday was "Pola X," the latest offering from French director LEON CARAX.
The native contender gets a strong home advantage with a cast featuring favourite French sex symbol CATHERINE DENEUVE and GUILLAUME DEPARDIEU, son of Gerard Depardieu - the country's top actor and a national institution.
Expectation in Cannes has been high for the movie which is loosely derived from a story by Herman Melville. Sadly many critics have dismissed the movie as shallow, self-important and incoherent.
Guillaume Depardieu is Pierre, a young and celebrated debutant novelist
who lives in some patrician style in a chateau with his intensely protective widowed mother (Deneuve).
Pierre is engaged to be married to the shy and lovely Lucie, but breaks it off when he
meets a woman, Isabelle, who claims to be his forgotten sister, apparently the
product of a long-covered-up indiscretion from his diplomat father's past.
Pierre falls in love and the pair head off to Paris for a passionate life and end up living in the home of something between a cult and a terrorist training camp.
At a news conference, Carax was hopeful that his work would be seen by a wide audience. The film has a high sexual content and the director revealed that he is happier shooting sex scenes than any other type of scene.
The screening of "Entrapment" will see Connery and his glamorous co-star ascend the famous red steps of the Palais des Festivals. The film has already topped box office charts in the United States and opens in Britain soon. Connery, fresh from the Scottish elections, plays jewel thief Mac and Zeta Jones is the glamorous insurance investigator sent to trap him - except she has a few scams of her own.
Connery's kissing was rated "11-and-a-half out of 10" by his beautiful co-star. Asked how he felt about kissing Miss Zeta Jones for the action thriller, Connery smiled: "It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it."
Miss Zeta Jones, 29, wore a stunning lemon sequinned gown for the press conference. It was she who spoke up to answer the criticism that Sean Connery, who is 68, should not be partnered with such a young co-star. "If a relationship works on screen it does. He's Sean Connery, what can you say?" she said. Connery added with mock modesty: "I have had all the cosmetic surgery." Miss Zeta Jones said: "I just hope I have a career as long as Sean Connery's. I have an ambition to be Anne Bancroft in The Graduate." Recently Anthony Banderas's co-star in Zorro, she said: "I have had a great run of kissing men, really, and out of them all, on a scale of one to 10, he's 11-and-a-half." Connery said he wanted her in the film from the beginning. "When I met her in Rome, I knew she was the girl. "She's a tremendous girl. She has a great sense of comedy, and she's not bad looking."
A retrospective of his films is being shown at the festival, and he was asked how he felt about always being identified with the role of James Bond. "I can't sleep at night," he said. He rarely went to film festivals, although he visited Cannes privately from time to time, he said. "It is always very much a sounding board for people that make movies to get together en masse and hear something from people who know something about movies - hopefully, you know something about movies," he said.
Connery has high hopes for a rejuvenated Scotland with the arrival of a Scottish parliament. And he is backing plans to set up a Scottish studio in conjunction with Pinewood, Shepperton and international film companies. "The problem is that there is no British film industry as such, because it has no infrastructure. It has no foundation; it is not laid in anything and it is mainly American money that makes the movies."
Miss Zeta Jones said she was thrilled to be at the South of France festival. "I just saw Catherine Deneuve arriving last night, and I am freaking out to think that I am here too," she said. "She was my icon, I had to pinch myself."
She joked that she had been practising the walk up the red-carpeted steps on her staircase at home. "My main aim is to get up there with the dress and the shoes," she said.
Ewan McGregor, is due to fly in for the festival today. Shortly to be seen on screens worldwide in The Phantom Menace, he will be promoting a smaller project. "Nora" is a film about the marriage of Irish novelist James Joyce. Tim Roth is in town over the weekend to launch The War Zone, which he has directed.
All Saints were presented by former Eurythmic DAVE STEWART, who's directing them in a new movie, "HONEST". Three members from the hit band - NICOLE APPLETON, her sister NATALIE APPLETON and MELANIE BLATT - will star in the edgy black comedy set in London in the late 1960's. The film's scheduled to go into production in summer, and is the brainchild of the musician along with acclaimed writers DICK CLEMENT and IAN LA FRENAIS.
The girls - ex SHAZNAY , who is concentrating on writing tracks for their next album, - will star as GERRY, MANDY and JO, three street wise East End sisters who rob 'up west' disguised as men . When one robbery goes spectacularly wrong, the girls are plunged into a fast paced drama with surprising consequences.
The girls are following the lead of their rivals THE SPICE GIRLS whose foray into acting 'SPICE WORLD;THE MOVIE' was ridiculed by the critics but netted them a cool few million. All three girls were once pupils at the prestigious Sylvia Young drama school - along with Baby Spice - and have made no secret of their dramatic background.
SHOTLIST: AERIAL VIEW OF CANNES ; GVS CARS AND PEOPLE ARRIVING IN CANNES ; ; GVS STREET ENTERTAINER ; GVS ARTIST ; GVS STARLETS ON BEACH ; GVS LAETITIA CASTA IN BOAT P; CASTA WITH PRESS ; TV CREWS INTERVIEWING CLAUDIA SCHIFFER ; SOT GONG LI ; ARRIVALS AT STEPS ; ARRIVAL KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS ; CA PRESS ; ARRIVAL GUILLAUME DEPARDIEU ; ARRIVAL CATHERINE DENEUVE ; ARRIVAL LOEN CARAX ; CLIP FROM POLA X ; WS PRESS CONFERENCE ; SOT DIRECTOR (FRENCH) CARAX ; SOT GUILLAUME DEPARDIEU ; SOT KATARINA GOLDBEVA ; CLIP FROM FILM ; SOT CARAX ; SOT GUILLAUME DEPARDIEU ; PULL INTO DAVE STEWART ; SOT STEWART ; ALL SAINTS POSE FOR CAMERAS ; CA PRESS ; SOT NATALIE ; SOT NICOLE ; SOT MELANIE ; PULL INTO ENTRAPMENT PRESS CONFERENCE ; CA PRESS ; SOT SEAN CONNERY ; PAN FROM PRESS TO STARS OF CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE ; GVS PARTY ; CLIP FROM FILM ; MS NIGEL HAWTHORNE AT PARTY ; SOT TOM HOLLANDER ; PAN PARTY ; SOT NATASHA LITTLE ; GVS PARTY ?