Cannes rolls out the carpet for a bumper 65th year

Like the Godfather of film festivals that it is, Cannes keeps its friends close and its enemies closer. Over the 65th edition's early days, Cannes clawed back any deserters or doubters with a storming selection, confirming it as the best showcase for challenging cinema from around the world.

Andrea Arnold, the British director whose career Cannes nurtured by promoting her films Red Road and Fish Tank, showed her version of Wuthering Heights at Venice last year. Cannes immediately installed her as a member of this year's jury.

Regulars such as Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, neither of whom have a film showing here, have instead been rewarded with warmly respectful documentaries, made and populated by high-profile friends and fans.
The festival president, Gilles Jacob, whose written memoir was entitled Citizen Cannes, showed a charming documentary called A Special Day, chronicling the festival's 60th anniversary when all extant previous winners of the Palme d'Or reassembled on the Cannes stage.
While celebrating its own rich history, it was also confirming the flourishing careers of Cannes "graduates", such as Matteo Garrone, Jacques Audiard and Apichatpong Weerasetakul (the Thai film maker who won for Uncle Boonmee in 2010). Cannes is facing the future by firmly restating its brand; one of the best films here, Rust and Bone, is even partly set in Cannes.
Opening with Moonrise Kingdom was a sweet move. A singularly distinctive film-maker such as Wes Anderson invites the viewer into his little worlds, like a lonely boy asking you to come over and play with his dolls. It's a tender tale at heart, one of young love between our two 12-year-old leads, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, with the boy splitting scout camp on a New England island to be with the girl of his dreams – with whom he fell in love after spying her playing a raven in a church production of Benjamin Britten's Noah's Flood.