Cannes - The 2006 Cannes International Film Festival will open on Wednesday in a blaze of Hollywood hoopla with the world premiere of one of the most eagerly-awaited films in many years, The Da Vinci Code.
Passers by walk outside the exterior of the church of Saint Sulpice, one of the Parisian spots named in the book 'The Da Vinci Code', in Paris, France, Monday, 15 May 2006. EPA/HORACIO VILLALOBOS
With a budget of more than 125 million dollars, a tense controversy that is producing priceless publicity and a potential audience of more than 40 million - the estimated number of copies Dan Brown's book has sold around the world - The Da Vinci Code will turn the festival into the centre of global pop culture for at least 24 hours.
The publicity feast begins Tuesday, when the film's director, Ron Howard, and its stars, Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, arrive in Cannes on a specially-designed high-speed Eurostar train from London.
It continues through Wednesday evening, when a screening of The Da Vinci Code officially opens the 59th edition of the Cannes festival.
Trade professionals believe The Da Vinci Code could become the biggest-grossing film of all time, eventually surpassing the current champ, Titanic, which took in about 1.85 billion dollars at world box offices.
Because of the book's immense popularity and the free publicity generated by Christian leaders around the world denouncing it as perverse and anti-Christian, the film does not necessarily need the festival to enhance its box office appeal.
But the image of Howard, Hanks, Tautou and the other stars mounting the legendary red-carpeted stairway of the Palace of Festivals is sure to provide an elegant and formal curtain-raiser for the movie's openings around the world.
The film hits screens in France on Wednesday and in other countries on Thursday and Friday, with long lines expected to clog box offices from San Francisco to Moscow.
The moneyed glitz and publicity the movie will generate can only benefit the festival and the 20 films from 13 countries competing for the coveted Palme d'Or for best film.
While Cannes has long been the most prestigious festival of its kind in the world, it has generally been viewed by the public as an elitist affair intended for intellectuals, film connoisseurs and little-known directors making films short on entertainment and long on dialogue.
Since artistic director Thierry Fremaux took over film selection for the festival in late 2000, there has been a distinct tendency to make Cannes more open to popular tastes and to create an event which honours both well-made commercial and 'art-house' films.
'The particular alchemy of Cannes makes it possible for all kinds of cinema to live together,' Fremaux has said. 'It's just a question of dosage.'
In that regard, the films being shown in the festival will no doubt profit from some collateral exposure from the publicity blast sparked by The Da Vinci Code.
This will bring unexpected attention to young and relatively little-known directors, such as 31-year-old American Richard Kelly or Britain's Andrea Arnold, who will be competing for the Palme d'Or against such established film makers as Ken Loach, Pedro Almodovar and Aki Kaurismaki.
Other organizations will also be trying to take advantage of the Da Vinci Code's popularity.
For example, the Louvre museum, which features prominently in the film, will be offering a 'Step Inside the Da Vinci Code' audio tour for 10 euros (about 13 dollars).
'One of our goals is to attract people who are not used to museums,' the Louvre's general administrator, Didier Selles, told the New York Times. 'We want to reach people from blue-collar families and the suburbs.'
Even the religious groups complaining that the film (and the book) blasphemes Christianity and the Bible are benefiting from the 'Da Vinci Code effect.'
The Catholic group Opus Dei, which is depicted as villainous in the film, admitted that the controversy has fuelled interest in it, and now boasts an astonishing 3 million visits a month to its website.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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