- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday May 12 2004 10.18 BST
Empire (June) was over-excited about "the world's most glamorous film festival", which opens today, with the screening of Pedro Almodóvar's Bad Education, the first Spanish film ever to open Cannes. Festival organisers have taken the historic decision to revamp its final weekend by awarding the Palme D'Or next Saturday, a day earlier than usual, at a ceremony presided over by jury head Quentin Tarantino.
Empire reported that Cannes will close with the world premiere of the "daring musical" De-Lovely. Produced and directed by Irwin Winkler, the film charts the life and times of Cole Porter, and stars Kevin Kline as the composer/writer and Ashley Judd as his wife Linda.
Other films that Empire predicted would cause a stir included The Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles's "superb account" of Ernesto "Ché" Guevara's road trip around South America as a young man. "This moving and surprisingly powerful film will get a strong reception in Cannes," said the magazine, "where Salles is seen as a player since his stint on the jury and close association with City of God."
Also keep an eye on Shrek 2 and the US remake of The Ladykillers, which "brought the Coen brothers the worst reviews of their careers" but whose star, Tom Hanks, is likely to attract attention as he is making his first official trip to the festival.
Bad Education also seduced Sight and Sound (June). It explained that the film was "a dark melodrama on the topical theme of the Catholic clergy's sexual abuse of children" and "confirms the mastery of cinematic time and space Almodóvar displayed in Talk to Her" (2002).
However, Bad Education's Spanish release in March could not have come at a worse moment, said Sight and Sound: just a week after the terrorist attacks in Madrid. Following the bombings, the film's publicity drive was halted and Almodóvar was forced to apologise for saying at a press conference that the then governing Popular party had been planning a coup d'état. It lost the election a week later. In spite of that, over 250,000 people in Spain saw the film during its opening weekend.
Wolfgang Petersen's epic, Troy, inspired by Homer's Iliad, is set to become one of the most expensive movie shoots ever, reported Total Film (June). "One insider puts the production costs at $700,000 [£400,000] a day. Add the $30m (£17m) cost of relocating production from Morocco to Mexico because of terrorism fears "and you've got something like a $200m [£110m] price tag".
But Troy, which opens next week in Britain, has an ace up its sleeve in its bid to become this summer's movie blockbuster, revealed Empire - Brad Pitt. "This is the Pitt formed into the demigod Achilles, all flowing blond hair, rippling muscles and rather fetching leather skirts," it panted.
And if that wasn't enough, Petersen is prepared to put his neck on the line over the four-minute climactic showdown between Achilles and Hector. "I can promise you that it's the most amazing, unusual and exciting fight that you'll ever see ... but it took us three months to film," said the director. Ironically, Pitt had to take time off after damaging his Achilles tendon during the shoot.
Sean Bean however, who plays Odysseus, took the filming in his stride. He told Film Review (June) that he had only one thing on his mind - the football scores for his beloved "Blades", Sheffield United. "A stunt arranger friend of mine ... kept getting texts through telling me about 'the Blades'. That was great. I'd be listening to her, spear in hand and then go into battle." But Bean's tattoo '100% Blade' left some of his American fans confused. "They often think I'm part of some street gang, like the Bloods or the Cripps," he laughed. "I have to explain that it harks back to cutlery."
