Meirelles' apocalyptic movie Blindness opens Cannes

agency@trendaz.com (Trend) — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:41:15 +0300

n apocalyptic movie about a town ravaged by an outbreak of blindness opened the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday with even the director admitting the pic's subject made it an unlikely choice to launch the world's leading film fest. Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' movie Blindness officially launched the main competition for the 61st Cannes Film Festival at a star-studded opening ceremony with 22 movies vying this year 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." However, in the key publicity battle for profile at Cannes, American directors' Mark Osborne and John Stevenson's animated Kung Fu Panda seemed to get a head start on some its rivals at the festival. Large movie billboards have helped to turn the Croisette, the boulevard which cuts through the heart of the festival, into something resembling New York's Times Square. The entrance to one of the wedding cake-style hotels lining the Croisette has even been transformed into a special Indian Jones gateway to mark the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, US director Steven Spielberg's fourth movie about the archaeologist-turned-adventure hero. But an early festival screening of Kung Fu Panda about a panda chosen to help a group of animals when their way of life is threatened meant that the film's producers could launch an early marketing drive including a big group of people dressed as pandas and acting out the part of the kung fu panda. With stars such as Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Lucy Liu, Jacky Chan and Dustin Hoffman supplying their voices for the film's animal characters, Kung Fu Panda also brings considerable star power to the festival. Their appearance in Cannes is expected to be followed by other A- list celebrities Harrison Ford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro, Joaquin Phoenix, Clint Eastwood, Shia LaBeouf and Scarlett Johansson turning up for gala screenings at the festival, dpa reported.

Advocaat: Russian footbal must build on Zenit victory

agency@trendaz.com (Trend) — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:51:14 +0300

utch coach Dick Advocaat said that Zenit St Petersburg's 2-0 UEFA Cup victory against Glasgow Rangers Wednesday in Manchester would be "incidental" if it did not bring changes. During the match in the City of Manchester Stadium, Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyrianov stunned the massive travelling Scottish support with two clinically taken second-half goals to secure the club's first European trophy with a 2-0 win. Advocaat said that the win would only mean something if it was the start of something more. "Hopefully this is the start for Russian football, and good stadiums and good facilities for kids are built. This prize should give Russians the belief that they can be a part of European football," he said. "If this does not happen, this win is incidental." Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was one of the first to congratulate Advocaat after the victory. The former president phoned the coach shortly after the victory and told him that he had achieved a great thing for Zenit St Petersburg and Russia. "The prime minister said that he was very happy, and I said that I was also very happy," Advocaat said. The 60-year-old coach said that winning a European competition was something that had previously elluded him in his career. "A prize like this does not come often in your life. We are very proud of winning tonight, and the way we played, I think we really deserved this." Although Zenit had knocked out competition favourites Bayern Munich in the semi-final, the former Dutch national coach said that Wednesday's game had been the most difficult. "Against Bayern we went into the games as underdogs, and we had nothing to lose, but against Rangers people expected us to win. That is why it was important to keep playing organized football," he said. "Rangers can score a goal out of nothing - it was open, but then we scored. Over 90 minutes, we were the better side and deserved the win." The players had tried to pour champagne over Advocaat, who does not drink alcohol: "But I was too quick for them." Advocaat, who previously had a successful stint as Rangers coach, said that he was impressed how much the club had achieved this season. "I was hoping to win a European title with Rangers - hopefully they can win the league and the cup - if you can do that with a squad of 20, then that is great.", dpa reported.

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Meirelles' apocalyptic movie Blindness opens Cannes

Advocaat: Russian footbal must build on Zenit victory