Through a Cannes Darkly

Cannes has turned to the dark side--and not simply just because George Lucas is screening Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith at the film fest.

Aiming to avoid the kind of controversy sparked by Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which won last year's Palme d'Or, organizers of the 58th Cannes Film Festival are instead offering a competitive slate of 21 films that feature auteurs waxing cinematic on the go-to themes of death and sex.

"Michael Moore's talent is not in doubt," festival director Gilles Jacob told the Associated Press of last year's competition "But in this case, it was a question of a satirical tract that was awarded a prize more for political than cinematographic reasons, no matter what the jury said."

And what better way to set the new mood than with a brooding French drama: the fest kicked off Wednesday night with Dominik Moll's Lemming, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg in the cheery tale of seduction and suicide centering around a rodent trapped in a kitcken sink.

"It has a dark atmosphere, but I don't see it as a pessimistic film," the filmmaker told reporters.

For that, festgoers will have to wait for the sixth and final Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith, which is getting its world premiere out of competition on Sunday. Lucas will also be turning up to accept the rare Festival Trophy aboard Queen Mary 2, the huge ocean liner moored along the coast.

As this is Cannes, there'll be no shortage of star gazing along the French Riviera. Among the slew of celebs expected to grace the red carpet over the next 11 days: The trio of Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba and Rosario Dawson, whose film Sin City is screening out of competiton, Salma Hayek, Ewan McGregor, Jessica Lange, Bill Murray and Julie Delpy.

To temper the glitz, veteran filmmakers like Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, David Cronenberg and Wim Wenders will offer new films.

Another film screening Wednesday was Iraqi filmmaker Hiner Saleem's Kilometer Zero, about the tenuous relationship of Kurds and Arabs during the Iran-Iraq War. But most of the works unspooling this year focus on more personal suffering.

Canadian director Atom Egoyan, whose 1997 flick The Sweet Hereafter was a festival favorite, returns with Where the Truth Lies, a drama about a female journalist probing the breakup of a celebrated comedy duo whose career came to an abrupt end when a dead girl was found in their hotel room. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth and Alison Lohman.

Meanwhile, Cronenberg's A History of Violence stars Viggo Mortensen as a father whose family falls apart after he kills a burglar in self-defense in the brood's diner.

Heading up this year's jury is Bosnian director Emir Kustirica, a two-time Palme d'Or (1985's When Father Was Away and 1995's Underground). Joining him as jury members: Hayek, Javier Bardem, Toni Morrison and John Woo who, as reported by the French press, has agreed to join forces with France's Studio Canal to redo a number of French thrillers, including 1968's Honor Among Thieves, which originally starred Charles Bronson and Alain Delon.

Also on the docket: Woody Allen will be popping up on Thursday to screen Match Point out of competition. The story of British snobbery is Allen's first film shot entirely in Britain; Scarlett Johansson stars.

Legendary James Bond director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever) will be appearing at a special screening of Shadowing the Third Man, a documentary about the making of The Third Man, the 1949 classic that starred Orson Welles--and on which Hamilton served as an assistant director.

Even the Hollywood blockbusters getting play are darker. Aside from Sith, there are several big-budget films getting a big promotion push along the Croisette, including Christopher Nolan's dark Batman Begins and Steven Spielberg's apocalyptic War of the Worlds.