Greenaway and Eastwood head list for Cannes festival
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Your support makes all the difference.Clint Eastwood and Peter Greenaway are among the directors of the 20 films chosen to compete in this year's Cannes Film Festival, it was announced yesterday.
Officials viewed more than 2,500 entries to make their selection notable for the absence of political statement in the chosen films, the festival's artistic director, Thierry Fremaux, admitted. M. Fremaux said: "The selection you are going to see this year is not political at all. There is no theme. The films we have chosen are not trying to say anything about the state of the world."
The content, he said, was very different from last year when powerful political statements were made by several films, including Roman Polanski's The Pianist, which was a portrayal of the Holocaust, and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, an indictment of American gun culture.
M. Fremaux said: "Paradoxically, given all the trouble going on in the world this year, last year was much more political." Fears that the film festival, due to open on 14 May, might be hit by a boycott by Americans, because of the French government's stand against the war in Iraq, have proved unfounded, according to organisers.
Greenaway has been chosen for his film The Tulse Luper Suitcases (The Moab Story) Part I. Eastwood, who last appeared at Cannes in 1994 when he was president of the jury, has been listed for his crime drama Mystic River, starring Sean Penn.
Other films competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or include Carandiru, a depiction of life in Brazil's prisons by Hector Babenco, and Il Cuore Altrove, a period piece on life in Italy during the 1930s, by Pupi Avati.
Hollywood stars expected to attended the 56th Cannes Film Festival will include Nicole Kidman, James Caan and Meg Ryan – the latter is on the nine-member jury presided over by the French director Patrice Chéreau. This year's event will also honour the French actress Jeanne Moreau and the late Italian director Federico Fellini.
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