"Blindness," a Fernando Meirelles movie starring Julianne Moore, will open
this year's Cannes Film Festival, organizers said yesterday.
Based on a novel by Nobel laureate Jose Saramago, it's about a city where
inhabitants inexplicably go blind, one by one. Moore stars as the sole person to
keep her sight during the ordeal. Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia
Bernal co-star.
Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened?," about a Hollywood producer struggling
to make a film, is scheduled to close the festival. It stars Robert De Niro,
Bruce Willis, Robin Wright Penn, John Turturro and Sean Penn.
Festival organizers said Tuesday that De Niro also is slated to present the
top Palme d'Or prize at the end of the festival May 25. It kicks off May 14.
Organizers also said two additional movies had been added to lineup, bringing
to 21 the number of films in competition: James Gray's "Two Lovers," a romantic
drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, and "Entre les murs"
("Between the Walls") by Laurent Cantet.
Other films in competition - announced at a Paris news conference last week -
include Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," a mystery starring Angelina Jolie, and
Steven Soderbergh's "Che."
Overall, the 61st edition of the Riviera festival features fewer big-name
directors and more emerging voices from across the globe than in previous years.