Cinema glory

The 62nd gathering of cinema's elite in the resort town of Cannes, which sits on France's Mediterranean coast, remains one of the world's most esteemed and prestigious film festivals. To win the coveted Palme d'Or prize for best film at Cannes could be described as a crowning achievement for any producer, director, actor or film studio involved in the production.

Unlike other well-known film festivals, such as those in Berlin and Venice, the focus at Cannes is usually on aesthetics: beautiful cinema. Though this year's 20 entries take on more brutal tones.

This includes American Quentin Tarantino's ultra-violent "Inglourious Basterds," about a group of bloodthirsty Nazi hunters, and Korean Park Chan Wook's priest-turned-vampire flick "Bak-Jwi" ("Thirst"), which has already been racing up the movie charts in his home country.

Maverick Danish director Lars von Trier also raises the horror notch this year with his "Antichrist," in which Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg find themselves confronting their inner fears and some dark forces in a deserted cabin in the woods.

German co-production

This year also sees a motion picture from Germany-born director Michael Haneke, who directed the 2001 Palme d'Or-winning film "The Piano Teacher." His latest Cannes entry, "Das weisse Band" ("The White Ribbon"), is set in a village in Protestant northern Germany in 1913.

Haneke's tale recreates a country on the eve of World War I, told through the lives of members of a youth choir run by the village school teacher and their families. Little more has been written about the film, the result of Haneke's strict policy of silence in the lead up to his films' openings. The film was a joint production between studios in Germany, France, Austria and Italy.

If "The White Ribbon" finds success at Cannes this year, it would not be the first German co-production to make a name for itself at the festival. In 1979, Volker Schloendorff's screen adaptation of "Die Blechtrommel" ("The Tin Drum") took the top prize, as did Wim Wenders' 1984 film "Paris, Texas."

New and old faces

These films went on to become part of cinematic history, as do most Palme d'Or winners. This venerated list includes Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," Bunuel's "Viridiana," Visconti's "The Leopard" and Scorsese's "Taxi Driver."

This year, all eyes will be on 3-D comedy "Up" from US director Pete Docter, which is the first animated film to open the 12-day festival. The story features an old man who ties balloons to his house in the hope of fulfilling a boyhood dream of flying to South America.

Meanwhile, a man bent on avenging the death of his daughter in Hong Kong director Jonnie To's "Vengeance" is also screening, and seven years after shaking up a storm in Cannes with his story of rape in "Irreversible," France's Gaspar Noe is back at the festival with "Enter the Void" about a brutal murder.

Belt tightening

With the economic crisis having cut a swathe through the world film industry over the last year, filmmakers from Hollywood through to Bollywood have faced cost-cutting, studio layoffs and an ever more cautious army of producers and movie financiers.

Already signs have emerged that the motion picture business has scaled back plans for the lavish parties and extravagant promotional events that have always been a feature of the festival.

But all bets are that whatever the economic climate, this year's gathering is still likely to celebrate movie-making and the cult of the celebrity with considerable style and flair.