Cannes fest gets rolling

CANNES: Pedro Almodovar revelled on Wednesday in his opening act at the Cannes Film Festival, saying he felt like a puppet-master about to draw back the curtain on a 12-day burst of cinema.
Almodovar''s Bad Education, an intricate portrait of friends, lovers, film fanatics, transvestites and black-hearted Roman Catholic priests, was the 57th festival''s debut movie, the first time a Spanish film has opened Cannes.
The writer-director, who won Academy Awards for his last two films and took the directing prize at Cannes in 1999 for All About My Mother, is not competing for Cannes honours this time. Bad Education was screening outside the festival''s main competition of 19 films, but Almodovar said he felt like a winner, anyway.
"I''m not in competition this year to win a prize," Almodovar said. "To play the part of the person who opens the curtain is, as I say, a prize in itself. So what I feel is enormous joy."
Another Oscar-winning filmmaker — Quentin Tarantino, who heads this year''s Cannes jury — was joining Almodovar to officially open the festival on Wednesday night. The festival runs through May 23.
"For me, as a cinephile since as far back as my memory goes back, to me, Cannes is heaven," Tarantino said. "If you love cinema, this place is just heaven." AP