CANNES, France: Woody Allen's “Midnight in Paris” provided just what organizers wanted to open the world's most glamorous film festival: Romance, fantasy, laughs and a whole lot of stars, both on screen and strutting the Cannes red carpet. Robert De Niro, fresh from his own Tribeca Film Festival in New York and now heading the Cannes Film Festival awards jury, marched the carpet before Allen's movie, Wednesday, along with fellow jurors including Uma Thurman and Jude Law. Allen was joined by “Midnight in Paris” cast members Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Brody and Michael Sheen. The film is the first Allen has shot in France. Among others attending the festival's opening night were Antonio Banderas, in Cannes to show off footage for his upcoming “Puss in Boots” animated adventure, and wife Melanie Griffith, along with “Puss in Boots” co-star Salma Hayek. The ceremony featured an honorary Palme d'Or, the festival's highest prize, for Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, whose films include 1988 Academy Award best-picture recipient “The Last Emperor.” He'd never, however, won the grand prize at Cannes. “I waited a bit, but here it is. I've received my Palme d'Or,” Bertolucci said. The director dedicated his award to De Niro and Allen, who was sitting in the audience with what Bertolucci called a “strange expression” on his face. Also outside the festival proper, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman came to Cannes for interviews on opening day, along with a news conference a day later, for their DreamWorks animated sequel “Kung Fu Panda 2.” Other stars on hand before the festival closes May 22 include Brad Pitt and Sean Penn for Terrence Malick's “The Tree of Life”; Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg for Lars von Trier's “Melancholia”; Ryan Gosling for Nicolas Winding Refn's “Drive”; and Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz for “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
