Cannes’s Upbeat Opening

“Cannes 2004 may be only a few days old, but already, it seems, the winds are blowing in a different direction than Cannes 2003 — one of the more roundly criticized in many years. Last year’s Cannes was faulted, largely by American journalists, for slights to Hollywood and for too many lousy art films on the schedule — something the programmers, especially festival head Thierry Fremaux, seem to have taken to heart. Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and director Wolfgang Petersen of the multimillion dollar epic “Troy” have already provided much of the Hollywood star power critics said was missing in 2003.”