(13 May 1999) Russian/Eng/Nat

The Cannes International Film Festival has opened on Wednesday to a degree of controversy, but this time it's not about movies.

On the first day of Cannes '99, Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov has given the festival a political slant, using the official news conference to criticise the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

For most of the year, Cannes is a quiet resort town on the French Riviera.

In May it comes alive to movie stars, models and art world notables.

But already this year, before the first film - the three hour epic The Barber of Siberia - had hit the screen, director Nikita Mikhalkov had caused a stir.

At home in Russia, Mikhalkov is touted as a future potential president, and on Wednesday he wasted no time putting forward his views on the conflict in Yugoslavia

He used the platform of the official press conference to criticise NATO - and especially the United States - over the airstrikes on Yugoslavia.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian with French translation)
"I believe that the NATO action is a tragic error, it is more or less the same tragic error as in Chechnya a few years ago."
SUPERCAPTION: Nikita Mikhalkov, Film Director

Whatever his future political fortunes, Mikhalkov's cinematic endeavours have already drawn him acclaim.

He won an Academy Award in 1995 for his movie Burnt by the Sun, and is said to have spent 10 years on The Barber of Siberia.

The film, is a lavish period drama in which the director himself plays Czar Alexander III.

It also stars British actress Julia Ormond and Russian star Oleg Menshikov.

It premiered in February at the Kremlin in front of some 5-thousand people, among them starlets, Cabinet ministers and tycoons.

In Russia, it took just days to become more popular that Titanic.

It recounts a romance between a Russian cadet, Andrei Tolstoy, later to become Russia's most famous novelist, and an American woman.

But the film isn't among the 22 to be considered by the ten member jury, which President David Cronenberg hopes will put artistic integrity before popularity when coming up with the winners.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I really want very much to respond directly to the films, and I've asked the jury as well not to worry about whether the films will be responsible outside of our own little room, our conference room where we discuss them. I don't see this festival as a popularity contest in the way the Academy Awards are.
SUPERCAPTION: David Cronenberg, Jury President

Not everyone on the jury hails from a cinematic background.

Lyric artist Barbara Hendricks is one who doesn't but she doesn't believe this will cause any significant problems.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think that the essence of the work is really the same, I think all art is really coming from the same place. I think that's one of the reasons we're on the jury is to bring in another "regard" as the French say that comes from art, comes from being creative, but is not a part of the movie business. So of course the difference in cinema is it is more popular, it reaches more people, it's a different technique."
SUPERCAPTION: Barbara Hendricks, jury member

Other jury members include, French actress Dominique Blanc, American stars Holly Hunter and Jeff Goldblum, playwright Yasmina Reza and directors Andre Techine of France, Maurizio Nichetti of Italy and Doris Dorrie of Germany.

APT

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