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Cannes lanced the battlefield world of 'Troy' set for worldwide release on Friday, following suit with "Matrix Revolutions" of last year. The event of the day was of course the arrival of Brad Pitt, nicely snagged, with the woman who snagged him Jennifer Aliston. It is Brad Pitt's first time in Cannes, and he hoped to visit 'the haunts of old artists". Question from a critic at the press conference: "is your Greek wife as difficult as fighting a Trojan war?" "She liked the pith helmet and asked me to bring it home", reported Brad. " He also avoided questions about the Iraq war, answering with perfect diplomacy "when I did research scholars had discovered that Homer wanted more from the Iliad than just writing a drama - an acceptance of a greater humanity - an erasing of the lines that separate me from you--we're all after the same thing". As another member of the Troy ensemble put it at the press conference, "The eternal quesion is the futility of war--the deja vu we're facing now ".
Director Wolfgang Petersen said he was lucky enough have such a fantastic script and that Brad Pitt already wanted to play Achilles. He regards the battlefields of Troy as realistic "with blood sweat and tears"-- not fantasy battlefields, perhaps referring to "Lord of the Rings" or "The Scorpion King". Orlando Bloom who played Paris was enthralled with bringing historical figures to life and said he saw his character more as a lover not a figher.

In "Consequences Of Love" (Italy), Paolo Sorrentino's film about a well-dressed Italian man who spends eight seemingly idle and silent years in a nondescript hotel in Switzerland is not what it seems. The young Italian director is tired of Maffia dramas and intends to show how boring life on the skirts of Costra Nostra really is, featuring the young relatives of famous Italians: Adriano Giannini (son of Giancarlo Giannini) and Olivia Magnani (great niece of Anna Magnani). According to Sorrentino he thought of the script when spending time in hotels which seemed 'impenetrable' with the superficiality of business. Anna Magnani claimed that she had little to do in the film but that it was hard. As a character she helps the protagonist express his solitude.

Kore-Eda Hirokazu poetic 'Nobody Knows' (Japan) was well received- his fourth feature which treats the true story that took place in 1988: "Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo",where four children fathered by different men and abandoned by their mother learn how to survive and talk care of each other. The theme of abandonment consistent with his previous 'Distant'. Child abuse is growing in Japan said Hirokazu. You who plays the mother 'Keiko' and whose children are left on their own said that "she doesn't do it to abandon them, but to survive".

And although people squirmed in their chairs after ten minutes of Abbas Kiarostami's10 X Ten (Iran) the poetic film about ten car journeys between a Tehrani woman and the passengers she picks up is a film worthy of attention. Kiarostami's digital camera was stationed in the front seat of the car for the entire shoot. On May 14, Kiarostami will take 'Five' in the out of competition screenings.




Moira Sullivan