The 62nd edition of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival launched on Wednesday with the premiere of Pixar Animation Studios' latest, the 3D CGI adventure Up. IGN were blown away by the film, describing it as "a near perfect feature, a thrilling combination of humour, pathos, action and drama... it may well be Pixar's finest feature yet".
Pixar really seem to have an uncanny ability when it comes to producing smash-hit blockbuster animation and it looks like their streak is set to continue with this latest offering. Check out the trailer for Up here, and a preview video here.
Most of the hype surrounding this year's competition is the premiere of the long-gestating World War II 'Men on a Mission' movie Inglourious Basterds from director Quentin Tarantino. The film stars Brad Pitt as the head of The Basterds, a group of Jewish soldiers hunting (and scalping) Nazis in occupied France, and also features Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Mike Myers, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson. View the trailer for Inglourious Basterds right here.Tarantino will face stiff competition for this year's prestigious Palme d'Or as he faces off against a host of respected filmmakers including Lars von Trier (Antichrist), Ken Loach (Looking for Eric), Pedro Almodóvar (Broken Embraces), Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void), Jane Campion (Bright Star), Ang Lee (Taking Woodstock), Park Chan-wook (Thirst) and Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon). Last year's Palme d'Or was awarded to French drama The Class, directed by Laurent Cantet.
Also premiering out of competition at the festival is Drag Me To Hell, which marks Evil Dead and Spider-Man director Sam Raimi's return to the genre where he made his name. It certainly looks promising from the trailer and will hopefully be a vast improvement over some of the dreadful horror entries Raimi has produced lately. It would be easier to answer the meaning of life than explain how Boogeyman ever made it to a trilogy.
Finally, another notable entry screening out of competition in the line-up this year is Terry Gilliam's latest fantasy The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, featuring the final screen performance from the late Heath Ledger. Production was halted midway after the star's tragic death in 2008 and resumed with Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law being cast as transformations of Ledger's character as he travels through a dream world.
The Cannes Film Festival runs until 24th May, and we'll have more commentary once the competition has closed.
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