At Cannes, it’s about film, not French fries

Despite the absence of such festival favorites as the Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantino, American films will be about as well-represented this year as they ever are at the Cannes Film Festival.

The festival’s lineup for the official competition, announced Wednesday, include three U.S. entries: Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River,” Vincent Gallo’s “The Brown Bunny” and Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant.”

In light of recent frosty relations between the U.S. and France, festival officials went out of their way at the news conference in Paris to emphasize the level of U.S. participation.

Flanked by festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux and managing director Veronique Cayla, Cannes president Gilles Jacob noted, “A lot of things have happened this year, but life has continued.”

Asked specifically about U.S. attendance, Cayla replied that Americans were expected in larger numbers this year at both the festival and the concurrent film market.

Officials said Americans who appear in each of the U.S. entries were expected to attend the festival, including Eastwood and his stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins (both of whom have drawn some ire in the U.S. for their antiwar positions), Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne.

Others expected to attend include Nicole Kidman, James Caan, Vincent Gallo, Chloe Sevigny and the cast and directors of “The Matrix Reloaded,” which will screen out of competition May 15, the second night of the festival.

The rest of the 20 films in the official competition represent a mixed bag of usual suspects, including Alexandre Sokourov and Lars von Trier, and also some first-timers.

Selections were culled from screenings of 908 feature films, an increase of 10% over 2002. In the end, 13 countries, out of 81 submitting entries, are represented in the competition, with France and the U.S. leading the pack. One of the French films, Francois Ozon’s “Swimming Pool,” is in English.

In addition, Oliver Stone will present this year’s annual “Film Lesson,” in which filmmakers address film buffs. Past lecturers include Italy’s Nanni Moretti, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai, Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky and Milos Foreman.

Actress Meg Ryan and director Steven Soderbergh also will make Cannes their home during the two-week event as members of the jury, of which French director Patrice Chereau is president.

Students from four U.S. film schools, including Michael Schwartz from USC and Nirvan Mullick from Cal Arts, have been selected as part of the Cinefondation competition, a yearly sidebar devoted to cinema students.

Other U.S. participants include HBO’s Sundance entry “American Splendor,” from Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” and Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Intolerable Cruelty” were not ready in time to present at Cannes.

Jacob cited the American presence as proof “that the current state of the world will not have a negative effect on the friendly tradition between American film and the Cannes Festival.”

Officials downplayed the potential for terrorist attacks. And with respect to SARS, Cayla said the festival would follow whatever restrictions local local health authorities recommend regarding attendance from Asia and elsewhere. No restrictions are currently in place.

On the artistic side of things, Fremaux pointed out there was no thematic trend to this year’s selections. Early favorites for festival awards would seem to include Von Trier’s “Dogville,” with a stellar cast led by Kidman; Ozon’s “Swimming Pool” and Lu Ye’s “Purple Butterfly.”

The French, as usual, have a strong presence. Films from such veterans as Andre Techine, Claude Miller and Bertrand Blier will all screen in competition. And although his film is classified as Swiss, Chilean elder statesman and French transplant Raoul Ruiz marks a return with “Ce Jour-La.”

Other notables include the British film from Peter Greenaway, “The Tulse Luper Suitcase,” the first in a trilogy that stars a roster of international talent including Madonna, Kathy Bates, Victoria Abril, Franka Potente and Isabella Rosselini. Samira Makhmalbaf, who carries on a Cannes family tradition started by her father Mohsen, also brings some controversy to the schedule with a film shot in Afghanistan.

In all, films from Russia, Brazil, Iran, Japan, the U.K., Switzerland, China, Canada, Denmark, Turkey and Italy are in official competition. Although the festival is dedicated to the late Federico Fellini, Italy has only one entry, Pupi Avati’s “Il Cuore Altrove.”

Jeanne Moreau will be the subject of a tribute and receive a special award May 24. The festival runs May 14-25.