Cannes Film Festival

The 43rd Cannes Film Festival opening Thursday offers a world view of the cinema that reflects rapidly changing events. Movies from Eastern Europe, the Far East and Africa are among the 19 films competing for the Golden Palm award during the 12 days of competition. Saturday will be devoted to "Europe 90, Cinema Without Borders" for meetings and discussions between filmmakers from East and West, marking new freedoms enjoyed by Eastern Europe's film industry.

A roundup of this morning's arts and entertainment headlines: The 2010 Cannes lineup is unveiled. (24 Frames) Critics pan "The Addams Family Musical," which does huge box office on Broadway anyway. (Sci Fi Wire) Larry King's on to divorce No. 8. (TMZ) Details on the new Eminem album, which is due out in June. (Entertainment Weekly) Zac Efron will play a drug runner in a remake of a Swedish film called "Snabba Cash." (24 Frames) Production halted on "Steven Seagal: Lawman" in light of sexual allegations.

You don't have to walk too far into the market section of the Cannes Film Festival to learn how wide a range of product is on sale here. The first kiosk on your left, just past the basement entrance in the festival's Palais headquarters, is that of Sovexport Film. On sale are 30 Soviet movies, most of them historical dramas. Just a few yards away is the booth of the Van Nuys-based Cal Vista International Ltd. Here, buyers can select from more than 200 movies, all of them hard-core pornography.

It was hard to believe that a world-class film festival could emerge from the behind-the-scenes shambles that was Cannes just two nights ago. But old hands only laughed at what seemed to be major demolition still in progress backstage, and predicted that by Wednesday night at 7:30 the annual Cannes miracle would take place.

David Lynch's "Wild at Heart," an erotic and violent black comedy about a young Southern couple's attempt to escape the woman's mother and an assortment of hired killers, was named the best picture of the 43rd Cannes Film Festival on Monday night. It was a good day all around for the director. News of Lynch's Cannes win came at about the same time that ABC-TV announced that his quirky prime-time soap opera "Twin Peaks" will be returning in the fall.

When Carolco Pictures Chairman Mario Kassar cruised into last year's Cannes Film Festival on a 203-foot yacht stocked with the best food and drink, he instantly became everyone's favorite party animal. The Gatsby-like goings-on aboard the boat earned Kassar nearly as much attention as the picture he had come to promote. And that's saying a lot, since the movie was "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."

You can tell by their titles — the Oscar-nominated "No End in Sight" and "Inside Job," which is having its world premiere at the Festival de Cannes — that the documentaries Charles Ferguson makes are not heartwarming documentaries. But that isn't what sets him apart from other filmmakers and isn't what makes his films so extraordinary. Because of his personal and professional background, his intelligence and his inclinations, Ferguson is especially well-suited to creating knockout documentaries that cogently and carefully lay out all the particulars of a significant situation.

Color faxes from Cannes. . . . Day 1 Bonjour, Mes Amis: Well, as you can see from the postcard photo below (does she have an "all-over" tan or what!!!), I'm here. First day Cannes '95 and it is gorgeous on the Cote d'Azur (especially on the beach, if you get my drift). Flying into Nice was breathtaking. Beautiful green hills rolling down to a turquoise sea, and the taxi ride over to Cannes was like drifting through a lush landscape painting. What a dream spot!

Jane Campion has been many things, including the only woman to win the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and an inspiration, she only recently found out, to Quentin Tarantino, who confided that her success with "The Piano" emboldened him to feel "you could keep your own voice and find an audience." But she never thought she'd end up as a disappointment to the video split operator on her latest film, "Bright Star."

Cassian Elwes and Rena Ronson, who head the independent film finance packaging division of the William Morris Agency, have two operating speeds: turbo and light-speed. Turbo means that a meeting lasts 20 minutes, while light-speed suggests that business can be transacted in less than five.