May 14, 2008, 16:45 GMT
Cannes - Even Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles admits that his apocalyptic movie about a town ravaged by an outbreak of blindness was an unlikely choice to open a film festival.
US actress Julianne Moore poses for photographers during a photocall for Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film 'Blindness' running in competition at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 14 May 2008. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
But Wednesday's premiere of his movie Blindness officially launches the main competition for the 61st Cannes Film Festival with 22 movies vying for the world's leading movie fest's coveted Palme d'Or.
While acknowledging both the pressure and the honour of opening the festival in Cannes, Meirelles told a press conference ahead of the film's premiere that he did not think it was 'the film to open a festival.'
The director of The Constant Gardener and City of God, Meirelles' latest film stars American actress Julianne Moore as the only person able to see in a town where the normal rules of society quickly break down as the disease spreads and the strong move to exert themselves over the weak.
Meirelles' film was also part of a big contingent of films from Latin America in Cannes' main competition this year, which also includes movies from Asia, Turkey, Israel as well as Hollywood.
Moreover, a line up of A-list celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Harrison Ford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joaquin Phoenix, Clint Eastwood, Shia LaBeouf and Scarlett Johansson are expected to turn up for gala screenings in Cannes.
But then, for 11 days the small Cote d'Azur resort town and its famous beachfront promenade become the centre of the global movie universe.
While a highlight of Cannes is likely to be the premiere Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Steven Spielberg's fourth movie about the archaeologist-turned-adventure hero, this year's festival is also placing an emphasis on new upcoming directors.
Heading up a nine-head jury, American actor-turned-director-and- screenwriter Sean Penn said all jury members were conscious of the chance for those in the film business to have their movies shown in Cannes.
Based on Jose Saramago's acclaimed book, Meirelles' Blindness comes against the backdrop of a string of natural disasters and global catastrophes including the Tsunami that swept across Asia, cyclone Katrina and the threat posed by diseases such as SARS.
'It was the first thing that attracted me to the story,' said Meirelles, adding that he wanted 'to see the fragility of civilization.'
'We really are skating on thin ice,' said 55-year-old Meirelles.
Indeed, Moore admits that her character, a doctor's wife, is no heroine.
'She is quite brutal and vigilante-like', said Moore adding that movies are often made more to reflect rather to predict the current world. 'We are feeling anxious,' she said. 'We are reflecting what we are feeling.'
Meirelles' movie also seeks to delve into both the political as well as psychological impact on people, who as a result of a major catastrophe try simply to fight and preserve their dignity before being forced to rethink and to rebuild the foundations of a society.
This also includes touching on the failure to deal with the disaster by the official level of a community, who in Blindness begin to withdraw and abandon those hit by the illness.
As is often the case in natural disasters and conflicts around the world, said American actor Danny Glover who acts as a narrator in the film: 'These people are invisible. We don't see these people.'
Blindness has an international cast including Americans Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover along with Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal and Japan's Yoshino Kimura and Yusuke Iseya.
Blindness was also one of the first times that Kimura and Iseya have spoken English in a movie.
'At first I was nervous,' said Iseya, but he said he often finds it more comfortable to speak English. 'Sometimes Japanese hides some emotional things,' he said.
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