What’s one more trip to Las Vegas between friends? “The Hangover Part III” finds Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and loose cannon Alan (Zach Galifianakis) teaming up for one last road trip gone wrong. Only this time, Galifianakis’ Alan goes from comic relief to main character, which is a particularly risky proposition — at least according to Galifianakis.

Alan really takes center stage in this installment.
Yeah, as disheartening as that is. [laughs] No, I mean we’ll see if the audience thinks that an Alan storyline is sustainable for a movie — I mean a lot of Alan. There’s a lot of Alan in this. I was excited because we got to explore Alan a little bit rather than have him be just a one-dimensional character that’s kind of weird and saying random things. In this third installment I think there’s a little bit more of an emotional arc with him, which I appreciate. It’s more of a story than just jokes with Alan this time. I don’t know at the end of this where Alan goes. I think it’s kind of open-ended, but at least he seems like he’s on the right path.

I was going to ask where you see him five years from now.
Running The Tea Party. [laughs] No, that’s just a good-natured joke. I don’t know where Alan would be. Hopefully he’s married, and he probably drives by Phil’s house a lot and honks to see if Phil will come out, and then Phil maybe looks through his blinds to see who it is, if it’s Alan outside. Every other Thursday Phil will come out and say hi to him.

They’ve been billing this as the final installment. Why is the trilogy the standard for film series?
Well, part of it is overstaying your welcome, I think. After the first one I was fine with just leaving well enough alone, to be honest. But then it was so fun to do the movies, and I thought there was more to explore, ultimately. I’ve never really thought about the trilogy thing. The good thing about the third one is it allows kind of a nice goodbye. With the second one there’s no closure, really. There was an event, they’ll go on with their lives. This one seems like there’s a little bit of closure.

The “Hangover” films have been phenomenally successful. If this one follows suit, do you think you’ll have to try to talk them out of making a fourth one?
Well, I think it’s bad to do movies because of economic gain. As a entertainer or an actor, you want to try to do other things and challenge yourself to try other roles, and it’s time to move on. I think everybody feels that, the director and the other actors — and not out of anything but love. There won’t be a fourth.

Speaking of doing new things, you’re currently filming “Birdman,” a comedy from Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, who’s better known for heavier films.
It’s a comedy, and Alejandro hasn’t made one. He’s a great filmmaker, obviously. The little I can tell you about is you kind of know you’re in the hands of a really experienced technician and great filmmaker. It’s been a really great work experience for me. I’m there with really serious actors who’ve done really accomplished work. I think I’m the only one in the cast who’s never won a trophy — and it will probably stay that way for my whole career. But it’s nice to be mixed up with these serious actors doing a comedy.

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‘Before Midnight’
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Rating: R
5 (out of 5) Globes

Every seven years, filmmaker Michael Apted logs another entry in his “Up” documentary series, which has caught up with the same group of people since they were seven years old. The passing of time is seen in horrifying action, as dreams go up in smoke, relationships begin and die, youth decays into lumpy middle age. (“56 Up” came out earlier this year.) Provided he keeps at it, director Richard Linklater appears to be doing the same thing, only with fictional — but, in a sense, no less real — characters. In 1995’s “Before Sunrise,” Gen-X twentysomethings Celine and Jesse (Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke) met cute on the Eurorail, talked while strolling Vienna and engaged in hot outdoor sex (twice). They didn’t reconnect until 2004’s “Before Sunset.” The new “Before Midnight” reveals they stayed together since then, not marrying but still popping out twins. Toss in Jesse’s son from a marriage that ended apparently quite terribly, and the two have plenty to worry about — and little time to talk.

As fitting a film about early middle age, “Midnight” breaks from tradition, chiefly by keeping our leads surrounded by others for longer than expected. On a trip in symbolically bankrupt (but beautiful) Greece, they spend the first half hanging with others. Celine and Jesse only get alone time via an awkwardly scheduled “date night.” Where “Sunset” saw them trying to relive the glories of “Sunrise”’s to-them-historic night, “Midnight” finds them weary, burdened by all the anxieties, resentments and various pieces of baggage accrued by two people who’ve spent years, not just a night or two, together. They’ve had plenty of time to see past the idealism, to dwell on the things that bug them, or at least bury aggressions down deep, to emerge at the worst/best moment.

It would be cruel to say exactly where this goes, but one predictable development is how the series has aged and transformed as deeply as the “Up” series. Like those, it’s become a portrait of the apathetic nature of time and how it runs roughshod over hopes and dreams. No longer able to idealize each other from afar, our once-doe-eyed lovers are confronted with the very real possibility that their affections were misplaced, combined with a fear of realizing this mistake in early middle age. As Jesse wearily clutches on to remaining sparks, Celine relentlessly points out the cracks he’s ignoring, their row becoming a trial that pits delusional romanticism against cold rationality. (Delpy has never been more hilariously caustic, which is saying something.) Our protagonists openly cite Roberto Rossellini’s “Voyage to Italy,” also about a couple bickering while on vacation. Hopefully it’s not sacrilege to confess this is the more accomplished, more devastating, more knowing look at a couple on the verge of termination but, perhaps tragically, unable to stay apart.

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Berenice Bejo first came to American attention with “The Artist,” the retro silent Best Picture winner that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Now she’s in “The Past” (“Le Passé”), the latest from Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, who follows up his Oscar winning hit drama “A Separation.” Like that film, “The Past” — which just made its Cannes film festival debut, to almost uniform praise — concerns a looming divorce, this time between a French woman (Bejo) and her Iranian husband (Tahar Rahim), who has decided to return to his homeland.

“The Past” is about conflicts between family members and loved ones. Is this something that you can relate to?
This is a film that is so far removed from my life, from my everyday. But at the same time, it’s really interesting to play someone who is your total opposite.

It must be an interesting experience working with Asghar Farhadi, considering he requires that his cast begin rehearsing two months before the actual filming starts.
Yes, it’s rather destabilizing because after two months spent rehearsing, I felt like that was it. Our work was done. I didn’t think I would have anything left in me! But at the end, what it does is allow you to make it halfway in your journey. Marie was in me, and I was able to take her even further. It’s incredibly liberating.

Asghar Farhadi is known for getting exactly what he wants. Is that true?
Absolutely. Asghar is a choreographer. He carefully orchestrates every single movement, every gesture that would otherwise seem insignificant.

How do you manage on set when you don’t speak the same language as the director?
It’s rather particular but I really enjoyed the experience. Having a translator forces you to listen to what the other person has to say and think about their answer. There was a really agreeable atmosphere on set because we all spent a lot of time observing each other. By the end, Asghar and I didn’t even need to speak in order to understand each other.

What was the most difficult thing about doing this film?
To stop. Even though I was exhausted, it was hard to let go of this project, because a director that pushes your boundaries so [far] — it’s rare.

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“Star Trek Into Darkness,” the newest installment in the classic intergalactic franchise, blasted to the top of movie box office charts with $70.6 million in weekend ticket sales at theaters in the United States and Canada.

The new 3-D voyage for Captain Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise knocked mighty “Iron Man 3″ into second place, while the Marvel superhero sequel grabbed $35.2 million. Jazz Age drama “The Great Gatsby” finished third with $23.4 million, according to studio estimates.

Weekend ticket sales for “Into Darkness” failed to reach the level of 2009 movie “Star Trek,” which took in $75.2 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters without a lift from higher 3-D ticket prices.

However, its overall take from Wednesday through Sunday beat the 2009 numbers, with “Into Darkness” taking in $84.1 million. The 2009 installment took in $79.2 million for the same period, according to distributor Paramount.

“Into Darkness,” a $190 million production, opened late on Wednesday to grab a head start on the weekend. The take through Sunday was shy of the $100 million some box office analysts projected.

Paramount said the film’s audience was comprised largely of longtime “Star Trek” fans, but was optimistic that good reviews and word of mouth would bring in a broader audience in coming weeks.

Paramount also expressed satisfaction with the film’s performance abroad. 

“To a large extent, the last film was uniquely a U.S. and Canada event, but we’re really pleased that the foreign sales are neck-and-neck with the domestic market,” said Don Harris, president of domestic theatrical distribution at Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc.

The movie has rung up $80.5 million in international markets since opening outside North America on Thursday, Paramount said, for a combined global total of $164.5 million.

“Into Darkness” stars Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, the pointy-eared, human-Vulcan first officer. British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, best known as the detective Sherlock Holmes in the BBC drama “Sherlock,” plays a villain who launches an attack on Starfleet’s base in London.

The movie is the second “Star Trek” film directed by “Lost” TV show creator J.J. Abrams, who rebooted the Star Trek franchise with more action and has attempted to broaden it to a wider audience beyond hard-core “Trekkies” who were fans of the classic 1960s TV show and 10 previous big-screen adaptations.

Abrams’ 2009 installment was a critical success, though analysts were disappointed with foreign box office sales of about $130 million, just one-third of its global take of $386 million.

Critics have embraced “Into Darkness,” which as of Sunday had earned an 87 percent positive rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences responded with an “A” rating in surveys by CinemaScore.

“Iron Man 3″ added to its blockbuster sales around the world, reaching $736.2 through Sunday for a global total of $1.07 billion less than one month after its April 24 overseas debut, according to Walt Disney Co. The movie, from Disney’s Marvel Studios, stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a billionaire businessman with a superhero alter-ego.

“The Great Gatsby,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio in an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, brought its worldwide total to $132.3 million through two weekends, according to Warner Bros., the Time Warner Inc unit that released the film.

Rounding out the top five, dark action comedy “Pain & Gain,” released by Paramount and starring Mark Wahlberg, landed in fourth place with takings of $3.1 million. Animated family flick “The Croods” took the No. 5 slot with $2.8 million.

In the U.K. and Ireland, “Fast and Furious 6″ brought in $13.8 million (9 million pounds) this weekend, a record opening for distributor Universal in those territories. The film will open in the United States, Canada, and 59 international territories on Friday.

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President Barack Obama, under fire for security lapses at a U.S. mission in Libya, will in a speech on Thursday lay out his wide-ranging counter-terrorism policy, from the controversial use of drones to efforts to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Obama’s use of military drone aircraft to attack extremists has drawn fire and increased tensions in countries like Pakistan and been criticized by human rights activists in the United States.

His inability to follow through on a 2008 campaign pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay prison has been dramatized by a hunger strike among many of the terrorism suspects being held there.

And the resurgence in recent weeks of questions surrounding the deaths of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in an attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, last year has put Obama on the defensive.

In his State of the Union speech early this year Obama pledged to work with Congress to make certain that the U.S. targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorism suspects was consistent with U.S. law.

A White House official said Obama would address these issues in a speech on Thursday at the National Defense University in Washington. He will say that al Qaeda has been significantly degraded but remains a threat, along with its affiliates, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“He will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as al Qaeda’s core has weakened but new dangers have emerged,” said the official.

Obama also will discuss the policy and legal framework under which the United States acts against terrorism threats, including the use of drones.

“He will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and he will frame the future of our efforts against al Qaeda, its affiliates and adherents,” the official said.

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Oxbow, a 15-1 longshot ridden masterfully by 50-year-old Hall of Famer Gary Stevens, cruised to an easy, wire-to-wire victory in the $1 million Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

Itsmyluckyday, ridden by John Velazquez, finished second in the field of nine, while Rosie Napravnik guided Mylute to a third-place finish over a fast track at Pimlico Race Course.

Orb, the Kentucky Derby champion, tired badly and finished fourth, ensuring that a Triple Crown champion will have to wait at least another year.

The winning time for the mile-and-three-16th race was 1:57:54.

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The incident occurred in the Appalachian town of Damascus at the start of the annual Trail Days festival, as the main street was filled with hikers making their way from one end of town to a park at the other, volunteer fire department chief Ben Sanders told Reuters.

Sanders said investigators were uncertain what caused the collision between the automobile and the parade, but it appeared that the elderly man who was driving “passed out or had some medical issue, and he ran through the crowd with his car.”

None of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening, Sanders added.

He said the motorist told authorities afterward he did not remember what had happened.

Steve Webb, who helps run a backpacking and outfitters store in town, said a number of hikers he spoke with afterward told him they saw bystanders lifting the runaway car off a person who had been dragged under the vehicle.

Webb said amateur video footage he saw of the accident showed “the car coming up behind the hikers and running through them,” adding that the automobile in question appeared to have pulled around an ambulance before plowing into the crowd.

Sanders said three to four people who were the most seriously hurt were flown to hospitals by helicopter, and about six to eight others were transported by ambulance. Eight to 10 people with fairly minor injuries were treated at the scene, he said.

A spokesman for Johnston Memorial Hospital in nearby Abington confirmed his hospital had treated seven people brought by ambulance with injuries they received in Damascus.

The annual Trail Days festival draws thousands of tourists to Damascus for an event celebrating the town’s proximity to four scenic trails that converge there – the Appalachian Trail, U.S. Bicycle Route 76, the Iron Mountain Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail.

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Pope Francis speaks as he leads a Pentecost vigil mass in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican
Credit: Reuters

Pope Francis shared personal moments with 200,000 people on Saturday, telling them he sometimes nods off while praying at the end of a long day and that it “breaks my heart” that the death of a homeless person is not news.

Francis, who has made straight talk and simplicity a hallmark of his papacy, made his unscripted comments in answers to questions by four people at a huge international gathering of Catholic associations in St. Peter’s Square.

But he outdid himself in passionately discussing everything from the memory of his grandmother to his decision to become a priest, from political corruption to his worries about a Church that too often closes in on itself instead of looking outward.

“If we step outside of ourselves, we will find poverty,” he said, repeating his call for Catholics to do more to seek out those on the fringes of society who need help the most,” he said from the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.”

The crowd, most of whom are already involved in charity work, interrupted him often with applause.

“We cannot become starched Christians, too polite, who speak of theology calmly over tea. We have to become courageous Christians and seek out those (who need help most),” he said.

To laughter from the crowd, he described how he prays each day before an altar before going to bed.

“Sometimes I doze off, the fatigue of the day makes you fall asleep, but he (God) understands,” he said.

CRISIS OF VALUES

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, said the world was going through not just an economic crisis but a crisis of values.

“This is happening today. If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy and people say ‘what are we going to do?’ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing. This is our crisis today. A Church that is poor and for the poor has to fight this mentality,” he said.

Many in the crowd planned to stay in the square overnight to pray and prepare for Francis’ Mass on Sunday, when the Catholic Church marks Pentecost, the day it teaches that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.

On Saturday morning, Francis met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and discussed Europe’s economic crisis.

Apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless “dictatorship of the economy” earlier in the week, Merkel, who is up for re-election in September, later called for stronger regulation of financial markets.

On Thursday, Francis appealed in a speech for world financial reform, saying the global economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries.

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Malmo in Sweden was hosting the grand final of the 58th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday.

Here are some facts about the contest:

* The first contest took place in 1956. It was originally conceived in Monaco by Marcel Bezencon and based on the Italian Sanremo Festival, held since 1951. Switzerland won the first contest.

EUROVISION RECORDS:

* Ireland’s Johnny Logan won the contest three times. In 1980 and 1987 he sang the Irish entry, and in 1992 he wrote the winning entry for his compatriot, Linda Martin.

* ABBA is the winner that has gone on to have the most international success. The Swedish band won the contest in 1974 with “Waterloo”.

* Norway has come last most often – in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001 and 2004. However, it has also won three times – in 1985, 1995 and 2009.

* Ireland has won seven times; Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom five times; Sweden and the Netherlands four times.

* In 2008 and 2011, a record 43 countries participated. Morocco has taken part in the contest only once, in 1980.

* In 2011, Lena, the winner of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, decided to defend her title on home ground in Germany – something only two people have done in the history of the contest.

* The most covered song in the contest is Domenico Mudugno’s “Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu”, also known as “Volare”.

* English has been the main language of 24 winning entries. French is also popular, with 14 victories. Dutch and Hebrew songs have won three times each.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2012:

* Sweden’s Loreen won the 2012 contest in Azerbaijan before an international TV audience of 100 million, days after angering Azeri authorities by meeting rights activists critical of the host country’s human rights record.

* The 28-year-old won with the song “Euphoria”, dancing barefoot as she sang. After the show, traditionally heavy on kitsch, bizarre costumes and dramatic presentation but low on politics, Loreen steered clear of any controversial statements.

Sources: Reuters/Eurovision Song Contest Website

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Federal investigators on Saturday searched for the cause of a rush-hour train crash in Connecticut that injured dozens of people commuting home from New York City, three of them critically.

More than 60 people were hospitalized Friday night after an eastbound commuter train derailed and collided with a westbound passenger train on an adjacent track near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield.

Eight people remained hospitalized on Saturday, three in critical condition, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said.

The collision of the Metro-North trains forced Amtrak to shut down service indefinitely between New York and Boston.

The governor is encouraging commuters who normally use the line to find alternative ways to get to work on Monday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the scene on Saturday to determine the cause. There had been construction and repair work going on in the area and one question was whether debris was on the track.

“They can’t rule anything out,” said Malloy, adding that he wanted investigators to complete their work as quickly as possible so the busy commuter rail line could be reopened.

The eastbound train was headed to New Haven, Connecticut, when it collided with the train bound for New York’s Grand Central Station.

NTSB officials said several cars had derailed, not an entire train.

Malloy said the train cars were new and “designed to the latest standards” for safety and protection of passengers.

“To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that a car like this has been involved in this kind of incident and by all appearances they responded well,” Malloy said. “One of the things you look at, for instance – did the seats become removed and that sort of stuff. It is going to take some more investigation. That is why they are here.”

Metro-North is a commuter railroad serving the northern suburbs of New York City. It is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a New York state agency. Fairfield is about 50 miles north of New York City.

The rail line serves a major corridor between Boston and New York. The New Haven line operated by Metro-North is the busiest rail line in America and serves 125,000 commuters a day, said Judd Everhart of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Malloy said the state Department of Transportation already has ordered the large equipment needed to remove the cars, which will be picked up and put on flatbeds to be taken to another location for further investigation.

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Native American actress Misty Upham never dreamt she would be walking the red carpet at Cannes to showcase a film shot on her reservation.

Upham features in “Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian”, focused on the relationship between World War Two veteran Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot, and Georges Devereux, his psychoanalyst.

Upham said like Picard, played by Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, she is Blackfeet, the largest tribe in Montana state. She said she was a direct descendant of the last chief and grew up on the reservation where much of the movie was filmed.

“I had no dreams and no way to make a dream. I had to leave the reservation,” Upham, 30, told a news conference on Saturday ahead of the premiere of the film’s premiere by French director Arnaud Desplechin.

“So 18 years later … (I am) coming a full circle to the reservation I left to fulfil my dream.”

Upham says and another “Jimmy P.” actress, Michelle Thrush, a Cree from Canada, are the first Native American women in the official selection at Cannes, although organizers of the festival, now in its 66th year, were unable to confirm it.

One of 20 films competing for the main prize at the 12-day event on the French Riviera, the movie was inspired by a true story in Devereux’s 1951 book “Reality And Dream”.

Set in 1948, the film follows Jimmy as he checks into a military hospital in Topeka, Kansas, that specializes in mental illness for war veterans to be treated for numerous symptoms, including temporary blindness, hearing loss and dizzy spells.

The doctors are baffled by his psychological problems and decide to call in anthropologist and psychoanalyst Devereux (Mathieu Amalric) a specialist in Native American culture who spent two years living with the Mojave Native Americans.

Del Toro, who won the best actor award at Cannes in 2008 for “Che”, said it was important for him to understand the history of Native Americans to get to grips with his character.

The oppression of Native Americans remains a stain on the history of the United States following the seizure of land, removal of children from families, and violation of treaties.

The 2010 census found 5.2 million people in the United States identified themselves as American Indians and Alaska Natives, while government figures this year showed they had the highest poverty rate in the country, at 27 percent, from 2007 through 2011.

Upham, who plays the mother of Jimmy’s daughter, said the film recognized the different approach needed to treat psychological illness among Native Americans.

“We believe in spirits. We believe in ghosts. We believe in shape shifting. We believe in medicine and curses. We are very spiritual people,” said the actress, best known for the 2008 film “Frozen River”.

“What somebody else would call delusional, to us it is normal. That is why they had to create a new way to see what is going on in our minds without confusing the spirituality.”

“Jimmy P.” is Desplechin’s fourth film selected for the main competition at Cannes, with the prestigious Palme D’Or for best picture to be awarded on the festival’s final day, May 26.

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North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said, prompting Western powers to urge Pyongyang to exercise restraint.

Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions raise concerns about the region’s security.

“North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off its east coast,” an official at the South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman’s office said by telephone.

The official declined to speculate on whether the missiles had been fired as part of a drill or training exercise.

“In case of any provocation, the ministry will keep monitoring the situation and remain on alert,” he said.

A Japanese government source noted the three launches, but said none of the missiles had landed in Japan’s territorial waters, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month, having run high for several weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February.

The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States.

The United States declined to comment directly on the reported launches but said it was monitoring the situation.

“We continue to urge North Korea to exercise restraint and take steps to improve its relations with its neighbors,” the State Department and the Pentagon said in a statement.

Britain’s Foreign Office said: “We have been clear to North Korea that its long-term interests will not be served by threatening the international community and increasing regional tensions.”

North Korea conducts regular launches of its Scud short-range missiles, which can hit targets in South Korea.

It conducted a successful launch of a long-range missile last December, saying it had put a weather satellite into orbit. The United States and its allies denounced the launch as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead.

During the weeks of high tension, South Korea reported that the North had moved missile launchers into place on its east coast for the possible launch of a medium-range Musudan missile. The Musudan has a range of 3,500 km, putting Japan in range and possibly the U.S. South Pacific island of Guam.

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Director Amat Escalante (center) poses with cast members Armando Espitia (right) and Andrea Vergara during a photocall for the film ‘Heli’ during the 66th Cannes Film Festival
Credit: Reuters

A man stripped to his underwear, his mouth covered with duct tape, hangs from an overpass – the brutal opening scenes of the movie kick-starting the main competition for the Cannes film festival.

True to the variety on offer at the influential jamboree, the second picture on Thursday began with a shot of a nubile young woman sunbathing topless on a beach, watched by a voyeur.

“Heli” by Mexican director Amat Escalante and “Jeune & Jolie” by France’s Francois Ozon were the first two of 20 films competing for the event’s coveted Palme D’Or award.

Director and jury member Ang Lee praised the diversity on offer at the 12-day event on the French Riviera.

“There are different political, social issues, different styles, (the) different charm and charisma of certain filmmakers,” said Lee, who won the 2013 Oscar for Best Director with his “Life of Pi”.

“I hope that there is something that just wows us. Something that we cannot even verbalize and we’ll all look at each other: ‘Oh my God, that’s a Palme d’Or!’ I hope that happens,” he told reporters on Wednesday night.

“FEAR IN THEIR GUT”

“Heli” tells the story of a family dragged into Mexico’s violent drug war through the unwitting actions of a 12-year-old girl in love with a young police cadet.

Escalante’s atmospheric shots of wide Mexican landscapes ultimately give way to stomach-turning scenes of torture.

“My characters suffer violent acts and as a result find themselves under tension,” Escalante said in an interview in the festival program. “In Mexico, everyone lives with a kind of fear in their gut.”

Ozon’s “Jeune & Jolie” is a coming-of-age film featuring actress Marine Vacth in nearly every scene, often nude.

We first see Isabelle, 17, with her well-heeled family on summer vacation, where she has sex for the first time with a young man. Months later, she has begun a secret life as a prostitute.

“The subject of the film is, above all, what is it like to be 17 years old and to feel your body transforming,” Ozon said in an interview.

“All of a sudden, you assault your body in order to feel something and push the limits. Prostitution was a way to get at this aspect,” he added.

This year’s lineup includes five U.S. movies, the highest number in six years, including Steven Soderbergh’s eagerly awaited “Behind the Candelabra” about pianist Liberace, and “Inside Llewyn Davis”, the Coen brothers’ look at the early Greenwich Village folk music scene.

The jury, including famed director Steven Spielberg, Australian actress Nicole Kidman and French actor Daniel Auteuil, will choose the main winner on May 26.

The festival opened on Wednesday night with a film not competing for the top prize – Baz Luhrmann’s glamorous “The Great Gatsby”.

Heavy rain did nothing to stop the fans clamoring for autographs from stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan on the red carpet.

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‘Black Rock’
Director: Katie Aselton
Stars: Katie Aselton, Kate Bosworth
Rating: R
2 (out of 5) Globes

“Black Rock” has what one calls “indie cred.” Its funds were raised on Kickstarter. It was made by marrieds Katie Aselton (who directed and co-stars) and Mark Duplass (who wrote). Its principal cast is swelled out by a slumming former Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and the star of a forthcoming, much more anticipated indie (Lake Bell, of the voiceover comedy “In a World…”). And to top it off, like many low budget titles, it puts through the wringer the assumption that a film made for no or little cash is automatically more “real” than its moneyed counterparts.

Aselton, Bell and Bosworth play childhood friends reuniting for a trip to the remote, uninhabited Maine island they frequented as their youth. “This is going to be SO. GREAT!” one of them declaims, in a moment that’s probably in the trailer. The three wind up conveniently running into other childhood friends, who seem worth bro-ing down with, until they reveal they were dishonorably discharged from the Army. A flirtation leads to attempted rape, which leads to an accident, which leads to a misunderstanding that could have been talked-through. And with that away we go into literal darkness, because a tiny budget means not being able to adequately light a remote island.

Even with extra hang-out chat time, the film hits every single genre note, from hoary foreshadowing to delaying the goods until the halfway mark. That one of the baddies is conflicted (but not that conflicted) can be found in half the title lurking about Netflix Instant. Crowdsourced funding and all, this has been slickly directed by Aselton, who moves from ersatz-Cassavetes to hack job horror. Even the score turns from atmospheric to generic, complete with “tribal” percussion as characters bolt through the woods or engage in knife/pointy stick duels.

That this “keepin’ it real” lark is actually a hotbed of cliches isn’t a problem. What is a problem is its lack of imagination. And the fault there lies in Duplass’ script. Duplass is a talented, sometimes brilliant actor, but the movies he makes himself (“Cyrus,” “Jeff, Who Lives at Home”) have become increasingly lazy and tossed-off, taking a few promising ideas and then settling for something smaller. They all end around the 75-minute mark, as if Duplass would turn into a pumpkin — or be exposed as a screenwriter with few ideas — if they lasted any longer. “Black Rock” can’t even satisfy the modest needs of a rote horror — but then, maybe that’s the new “indie cred?”

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Noah Baumbach goes lo-fi for his latest feature, “Frances Ha,” shooting the NYC-set film — about the twentysomething growing pains of the titular Frances (Greta Gerwig) — in beautiful black and white on a Canon DSLR camera. As for that other recent development in indie filmmaking — using Kickstarter to get fans to help fund your film, like Zach Braff did — Baumbach admits he’s not as up to speed on the idea, but he’s open to it.

Can you talk about what went into the decision to shoot this in black and white? Because doing that today is a very distinct, bold choice.
A lot about the production of “Frances” and my general approach to it, I wanted to sort of almost boil a film production down to its barest bones. I feel like in this day and age, with technology as it is, not all of the standard film production is necessary to make certain movies. Obviously it’s necessary for effects movies and things. I’ve been wanting to shoot black and white for a while, and I felt like this material would be enhanced by it in some way.

There’s always something when a contemporary movie is shot in black and white, there’s a kind of like instant nostalgia — because it’s both rubbing against it and also artifact-ing it at the same time. It’s like old and new at the same time — as opposed to when you see “The Artist” in black and white it’s evoking the time of the movie. I felt like with such a contemporary story and such a contemporary character and putting her in New York right now that the black and white in some ways almost gives it a history. It’s both a looking back and it’s an immediacy.

So not a huge VFX budget on this one?
No. [laughs] Although to make it look black and white the way we wanted it to look, we did do a number of tests, and it took a while to really get it. Because we shot it digitally, my thought was that if we’re going to do it in black and white I want it to be as beautiful as possible — this lush, romantic thing. I think we’ve found a way for it to evoke film but kind of almost look like something new.

How much have you been keeping up with Zach Braff and his Kickstarter campaign?
Somebody told me that he raised some money.

What do you think of the development of better-known people using crowdfunding?
I don’t know. I do think technology is at a point now where you can kind of decide to make a movie. I think there are fewer excuses now. You still have to be talented and know what you’re doing and you still have to raise money, but I think it’s good ultimately that both the technology of shooting a movie and the also the technology in helping people raise money for movies does seem to be developing.

Is it something you would consider for a future project?
I don’t know, maybe. I’m so not part of any social media. I mean, I have email. (laughs) But I wouldn’t necessarily know how to go about it. But sure, I mean, it seems like a cool thing. I’ve definitely had people who I know and respect who have sent me Kickstarter things, and that’s sort of how I first heard about it. So how many investors does it take to earn that much?

I think the Zach Braff campaign has close to 40,000 backers. Lots of small donations.
It’s a donation, it’s not an investment?

Right. Which might come as a surprise to some donors when he sells the film at Sundance.
Oh. That’s interesting. Well I suppose the other side of it would be to give people skin in the game.

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‘Frances Ha’
Director Noah Baumbach
Stars: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Summer
Rating: R
4 (out of 5) Globes

“Bridesmaids” did not invent the type of film where an immature woman loses her bestie to adulthood. But if that film was shot on a very small budget, filmed in black-and-white, bore influences from the French New Wave — and did not include any set pieces in which someone poops in a busy street — it might nearly resemble Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha.” “Bridesmaids” also had a foundation in deep trauma, about the pain of being the last among your peers to settle down. “Frances Ha” goes deeper with this idea, and even features better jokes.

Greta Gerwig plays Frances, a twentysomething in an unprofitable nonprofession (dancing), living in a bubble of comfortable security with roommate Sophie (Mickey Summer, Sting’s wry daughter). A montage right out of “Jules and Jim” kicks off the film, with the two bounding about New York, without a care in the world. In “Jules and Jim,” the blissful opening was a harbinger of certain doom. It is here, too, but on a much more manageable scale: Sophie simply and suddenly finds a man. This turn of events hits Frances and the viewer like a brick: abruptly, the good days are gone.

With no one to lean on as a crutch, questionable living situations, ill-advised Paris trips (funded “with that credit card I got in the mail”) and other, sometimes cruel humiliations follow. What makes this tolerable, and even enjoyable, is Gerwig and Baumbach. This is their second joint effort, after “Greenberg,” and it’s a melange of “indie” film styles: its grainy, deep-contrast black-and-white film could be Francois Truffaut, while Gerwig herself summons up the so-called mumblecore movement that made her an up-and-comer.

The personality, though, is equal parts its star and director. Gerwig has a loopy, vaguely medicated charm where she blurts out embarrassing admissions, as though she wasn’t even trying to stop them. Baumbach is a wit with a gift for sharp, self-aware one-liners. The dialogue leans more towards Gerwig, but the film has the tight shape of its director’s films (“Kicking and Screaming,” “The Squid and the Whale”). Like its hero, it never succumbs to self-pity. Even when Frances hits a strange and inspired kind of rock bottom, she remains cautiously almost-optimistic, puttering along as though used to living terribly.

As a director, Baumbach’s mood is even brighter. The pace is fast, made faster by giant ellipses in which major events are simply elided: suddenly Frances is moving out of a spacious Manhattan apartment; suddenly she’s in California. The music is unfailingly peppy. He even borrows, almost shamelessly, a scene from “Holy Motors” director Leos Carax’s 1986 film “Mauvais Sang,” where Denis Lavant sprinted as fast as he could down an empty city street at night to David Bowie’s “Modern Love.” Frances does the same thing, only the street is crowded, the daylight beaming, her mood even brighter. “Frances Ha” should be more depressing than it is. Luckily it’s usually the opposite.

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‘Erased’
Director: Philipp Stolzl
Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Liana Liberato
Rating: R
2 (out of 5) Globes

The thriller “Erased” hails from four, mostly European countries, but it’s even more patched together than that. It begins with a Hitchcockian mistaken-man premise before morphing, by turns, into a “Bourne” film, “True Lies,” “Taken,” “Paycheck” (with which it shares Aaron Eckhart) and “24,” with some social consciousness/corporation bashing from “The Constant Gardener.” It’s a Frankenstein monster, built in Europe from the spare parts of proven (or in the case of “Paycheck,” unproven) successes, and intended to be sold as an American knockoff. The only thing they got wrong is it has personality.

Eckhart stars as Ben Logan, a nice ex-CIA drone on a job in Belgium as a security expert. While saddled with his estranged daughter (Liana Liberato, acclaimed for her performance in the David Schwimmer-directed ‘net drama “Trust”), Ben discovers that his office has been mysterious cleaned out. Worse, his identity has been excised from all systems. Worse still, men are trying to kill him. For a nice guy dad, even one with a CIA past, Ben proves weirdly competent at dispatching baddies, driving cars and even going Jack Bauer on a guy with some good old fashioned bathtub waterboarding.

In any other film, Liberato’s daughter would be a liability. She still is, to an extent: she’s there so Ben has someone to care for, to humanize him, as well as so he has someone there to whom to explain plot twists. Ben’s connections to a powerful corporation that was selling guns to both sides of a conflict in Africa emerges as gradually as his ass-kicking superpowers.

But what’s actually of interest is Liberato’s realization that she knows her father even less than she assumed. Eckhart is no stranger to acting in projects fathoms beneath his talents, but he never lets himself coast. He brings an intensity to his role that makes him dangerous in the wrong way, especially when viewed through the eyes of a daughter who thought he was a different kind of terrible parent. “I killed people,” he confesses, before (and after) killing more, expressing a shame at the kind of man he is when seen through the eyes of another.

“Erased” is often inane, though only in a bad way when it’s wasting Olga Kurylenko as a generic CIA heavy tracking Ben from afar, and with an ending that sells out in the most anticlimactic way imaginable. Both Eckhart and Liberato deserve better, and deliver better than they were asked.

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“The League” star Katie Aselton was looking for a change of pace for her second feature as a director, and boy did she find it.

“My first film, ‘The Freebie,’ was a very quiet, intimate, emotional talkie-talkie movie that was all inside a very small Spanish bungalow, and I felt the need after that to get outside and move my body and maybe kill someone,” she says. “It’s just something I had to do, I don’t know why.”

That feeling led to “Black Rock,” a thriller co-written by her husband, Mark Duplass, about three former childhood gal pals (Aselton, Lake Bell and Kate Bosworth) who reunite for a camping trip on a deserted Maine island that turns deadly after the arrival of some Afghanistan veterans on a hunting trip. As harrowing as the film’s story is, the shoot itself turned out to be nearly as life-threatening. “It was a challenging film from start to finish,” Aselton says. “It was not like ‘The Freebie,’ which we went in pre-lit and so we would literally go in and plug in the plug and, ‘Let’s start shooting.’ This was very different. And honestly, the logline for the film — this fight for survival — became sort of a metaphor for our experience making the movie. We just needed to get out of the month of June alive, and the fact that we have a movie that I love to show for it is really exciting.”

An all-outdoor shoot in rural Maine is no picnic, as she found out. “It was hands-down the most challenging shoot I could ever even conceive of. Every day it was a new challenge,” Aselton says. “It rained when it was supposed to be sunny, it was sunny when it was supposed to rain. The fog would be so intense that you couldn’t see where the characters were. The temperatures were super-low, the water is as cold as we claim it to be in the story — and colder. I almost killed Lake. Tides coming in and going out.”

Wait, what was that about almost killing Lake Bell? As it turns out, a nighttime scene featuring swimming in the waters of Frenchman’s Bay — frosty even in June — can be hazardous to an actress’ health. “Lake literally almost died. She went into a 24-hour asthma attack with the cold temperatures. It was really intense and really scary, so anything after that was a win because she was alive,” says Aselton.

On the bright side, a near-death experience made some of the later challenges in the film — brutal fight scenes and some on-screen nudity in less than ideal conditions — were not so bad after all for Bell. “Because we shot it chronologically, I think we were already sort of preparing ourselves for certain moments to attack — literally and emotionally — so I think that sort of cold, vulnerable, raw, nude, very emotionally raw scene was on slate, we knew it was coming up, and it just became another thing to tackle. By that point we had already done the water stuff,” says Bell.

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Hollywood is making its annual pilgrimage to the French Riviera for the Cannes International Film Festival, the most prestigious date on the film festival calendar. Here are our picks for the films to watch out for debuting at Cannes this month. And for the last time: It’s pronounced (roughly) “can,” not “Khan.”

‘The Bling Ring’
This may turn out to be the guiltiest pleasure of the year, but we can’t contain our excitement over it. Sofia Coppola takes on the true-life tale of the fame-hungry young socialites who used Twitter and Facebook to time break-ins at the homes of celebrities and make off with their loot, becoming famous themselves in the process. The film’s gang is led by “Harry Potter” star Emma Watson — completely unrecognizable from her Hogwarts days.

‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
Festival favorites the Coen Brothers return with their hotly anticipated latest, set in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene. The film features John Goodman, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and Oscar Isaac as the titular, troubled troubadour. The soundtrack alone should be enough to impress.

‘Nebraska’
Alexander Payne offers up a father-and-son road trip story shot in black and white, as Bruce Dern and Will Forte strike out in search of lottery winnings. While Payne has charmed before with “Sideways,” “Election” and “The Descendants,” the casting of “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock” alum Forte in a more dramatic role is what’s really piquing curiosity here.

‘Only God Forgives’
If this one isn’t awesome, we’re giving up hope in humanity. Nicholas Winding Refn re-teams with his “Drive” star and kindred spirit, Ryan Gosling, for a pulpy, violent revenge drama. As a bonus, Kristin Scott Thomas goes bad as Gosling’s crime-lord mother. Bring it on.

‘Only Lovers Left Alive’
This one may be a bit of a long shot, but it sounds simply too bizarre not to check out: Longtime indie film darling Jim Jarmusch takes on the vampire film genre with an impressive art-house cast led by Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as vampires in a centuries-long romance named Adam and Eve. Oh, and Adam is a moody, club-dwelling musician. Even if this one is bad, it will still be worth checking out.

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‘Augustine’
Director: Anna Winocour
Stars: Soko, Vincent Lindon
Rating: R
3 (out of 5) Globes

Emmanuelle Riva (“Amour”) was inundated with awards for what was largely a physical performance: The victim of a stroke, her character was mostly confined to a bed, communicating solely through facial tics that seemed downright alien. Likewise, about half of the performance by mono-named Soko in another French drama, “Augustine,” is a stunt. Her character, a working class teenager in 19th century France, occasionally lapses into violent, inexplicable seizures, the trauma from which leaves her spending a large chunk of the movie with her right eye glued shut. These are the type of actorly tricks that reap accolades, and it’s worth noting that the rest of her performance is equally impressive on another, less showboaty level.

In fact, the rest of “Augustine” is almost low-key to a fault. After experiencing a massive freakout while working a lavish, aristocratic lobster dinner, Soko’s titular waif is carted off to a Parisian psychiatric hospital. Her fits arrest the attention of Dr. Charcot (Vincent Lindon), a brooding, humorless, pioneering neurologist. In the not-distant past, her episodes would have led people to think her a witch. Charcot suspects it’s a condition related to the brain. He goes to work on Augustine, soon showing her off to other doctors and crowds, who treat her like a circus act. Augustine responds in kind, embellishing her condition for show.

Cloaked in perpetually dim lighting, “Augustine” is subtly unsubtle about its themes, moving from an exploration of class to one of gender. Augustine’s fits become increasingly (and symbolically) orgiastic. Charcot encourages, not suppresses, them. He likes to think himself a forward thinker, who admonishes a dinner party for their regressive takes on women. But he still allows his wife (Chiara Mastroianni) to live a life of servitude and tight dresses, while exploiting his young charge for his own professional gain. It’s a reminder that even progressives tend to allow certain regressive attitudes to persist, even as they get up on a high horse.

Writer-director Alice Winocour makes these points as slyly as she can, and while never losing sight of the most interesting part: the power play relationship between Augustine and Charcot. Theirs is a forever uneasy relationship, fueled by anxieties sexual and otherwise. Both actors stay locked-up and remote, as though their bodies were prisons. But while Augustine sporadically gets a crazed release, Charcot is forever trapped inside himself. Lindon’s performance is the type perfected by Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain”: staying rigid and stern while emotions roil deep inside. This, too, is an actorly stunt. And it works every time.

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According to Indiewire, the specialty/indie/alternative box office wasn’t exactly on fire this weekend.

Only one debut performed with any strength. Luckily, that was Sarah Polley’s rather good “Stories We Tell,” an account of her family history that’s oddly interesting even before it hits us with a crazy left-field revelation. It grossed $31,000 from two theaters, for a $15,500 average. That, as per Indiewire, puts it on track with other recent hit documentaries, such as “Searching for Sugarman” (which went on to gross $3,657,684 and win the Best Documentary Oscar) and “Queen of Versailles” (which netted $2,401,999).

No one much saw “No One Lives,” the horror/thriller from the director of the similarly doomed “Midnight Meat Train.” That raked in $45,900, slightly more than “Stories We Tell” did, but from 53 theaters, for a sad $866 average.

Everyone loves “Mud,” though. The Matthew McConaughey drama, which features a couple of walk-ons from Reese Witherspoon and Michael Shannon, went from 576 screens to 854, and grossed another $2,343,400, taking it to a $8,363,379 total.

For more, see Indiewire.

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Simon Pegg reprises his role as Scotty, chief engineer aboard the Enterprise in “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
Credit: Getty Images

It’s hard to think of a geek who’s had better luck than Simon Pegg. In his career he’s impressed one of his favorite filmmakers, George A. Romero, with his ode to him, “Shaun of the Dead.” And he’s become Scotty, chief engineer aboard the starship Enterprise, in J.J. Abrams’ much-loved reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise. That success has led Abrams to be tapped for rival franchise “Star Wars”‘s sequels, although Pegg isn’t harassing his boss for spoilers.

First of all, tell me what it was like wearing that hairy suit all day. Did it get hot?
Um, the hairy suit?

Was Harrison Ford difficult to work with?
I knew that was about Chewbacca.

People who get ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’ confused — does that infuriate you?
You can’t expect everyone to know. It’s like when you follow a certain religion and you think everyone celebrates Christmas. They don’t!

There’s a new ‘Star Wars’ film coming, obviously, from ‘Into Darkness’ director J.J. Abrams. What’s your strategy to get J.J. to tell you something about it?
I don’t need a strategy. If J.J. wants to tell you something he will, and if he doesn’t it’s because he wants to keep things close to his chest.

So you didn’t get him drunk or anything?
I respect him too much for that. I’m very happy to be kept in the dark because I haven’t seen a good “Star Wars” film since “Return of the Jedi.”

OK, on to ‘Star Trek Into Darkness.’ The scene where the spaceship is going all over the place and you and Chris Pine are jumping around and hanging off railings. Is that look on your face genuine terror?
It was more pain. I had to hang from Chris’ hand and the harness could only go from my one hip so I was slightly skewed. But no, it was all acting. My 3-year-old daughter was on set that day and she assumed that’s what my job was. Hanging. She was like, “Are you going to hang today, daddy?”

Scotty doesn’t manage to hold on to the bar and is saved by a much stronger Capt. Kirk. Ever been like, man, I really wish I had Chris’ body?
You should feel his arms. They’re like oak. We’d go to the gym together and it was amazing how the female contingent would start gravitating towards him. Nobody paid me any attention. But no, I was pretty buff at the time!

Maybe you should have been the one holding Chris up.
It was really hard to do the catch because we were both sweating.

You guys should have had that chalk you wear in gym class to stop your hands from slipping.
It’s not that easy to get on a falling starship…

Sweat patches aren’t a sexy look. Are those space suits sweatproof?
Totally. I defy you to find a sweat patch in the movie.

You and Nick Frost have appeared in ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ ‘Hot Fuzz’ and other films together. If you could, what part would you give him in ‘Star Trek’?
I’d love him to play Harry Mudd from the original ’66 series. But I wouldn’t necessarily want him to be in it and I don’t think he would want to either. It’s not like we have to come as a package.

You don’t have a love interest in this movie….
What about my little guy? That’s my love interest. The little fellow. We’re a unit. We’re married.

Your little alien assistant? But you don’t even get to kiss it.
I don’t kiss it.

It would be hard to.
He needs a bit of moisturizing. His face is a little rocky.

But if you could, who would you share a kiss with, Alice Eve or Zoe Saldana?
That’s not a choice any man could make. They’re both as gorgeous as each other. They come in and everyone is just like, “WOW.”

Wolf whistles and all?
We try not to be as crass as that. We’ll do it behind their backs. Sneaky.

Speaking of sneaky: Benedict Cumberbatch’s character is really creepy. How do you deal with bad guys like him in real life?
You come across people like that on a Saturday night, drunk and in the mood for a fight. You can see that longing for violence.

Have you ever picked up on it?
I tend not to go out. But it’s a testament to Benedict’s acting in that he’s possibly one of the sweetest people. I did see him get carb rage once. He was working out for a shower scene that didn’t end up in the movie — a lot of girls will be disappointed — and he’d had no carbohydrates for two days. That’s as close as he gets to showing any kind of madness.

Your character, Scotty, is Scottish. What’s your favorite nightcap? And whom would you share it with?
Sparkling water; I don’t drink. Probably my wife.

Not a fellow actor? Have you met everyone in Hollywood that you’ve wanted to meet, as a fan?
I don’t think you could ever meet everybody. L.A. is like one of those safari parks where you can walk amongst the animals. You see, like, Jeff Goldblum in the supermarket.

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The 2013 Cannes film festival opens on Wednesday with Baz Luhrmann’s 3D version of “The Great Gatsby,” a lavish throwback to the Roaring Twenties that befits the glamor and excess of the world’s biggest cinema showcase.

The Australian director’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel starring Leonardo DiCaprio surprised some Hollywood insiders, because Cannes traditionally launches on the palm-lined French Riviera with a splashy world premiere.

But “The Great Gatsby” has already opened in the United States to mixed reviews and solid box office, potentially dampening buzz surrounding the start of 12 days of screenings, champagne-fueled parties and dealmaking.

Stars expected to face a phalanx of flash bulbs along the red carpet include Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Emma Watson and Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan.

Their pictures will undergo one of the most grueling tests in moviemaking — pleasing Cannes’ notoriously picky critics, who regularly boo as the credits roll if they are unhappy.

And behind the scenes at the event, up to 40,000 film professionals will be seeking to buy and sell the next box office hit at the most important movie market of the year.

“This is the hardest 10 days of the year for me. There are always three or four movies that are exceptional and you have to find them so it is a detective job,” said Tom Bernard, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics.

Critics have praised the selection of films being screened at the 66th Cannes festival, saying it is a strong, well-curated list ranging from hotly anticipated potential crowd-pleasers to beautifully crafted, artistic cinema.

Strong U.S. showing

American directors have their biggest showing in six years in the main competition at Cannes, making up five of 20 films vying for the coveted Palme D’Or for best picture awarded by a jury headed by Steven Spielberg on the final day, May 26.

Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra,” starring Douglas as the gay pianist Liberace and Damon as his young lover, is already generating huge interest, particularly as Soderbergh has hinted that this could be his last movie.

Also in focus is Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis” about New York’s gritty 1960s folk music scene, James Gray’s “The Immigrant,” Jim Jarmusch’s vampire movie “Only Lovers Left Alive” and Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.”

French filmmakers are also well represented with five films in the main competition, including Roman Polanski’s French-language “La Venus a la Fourrure” (Venus in Fur), a backstage drama starring his wife Emmanuelle Seigner.

Two Japanese movies are in the running and one each from China, Chad, Mexico, Iran, Tunisia, Italy and the Netherlands, while Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives” with Ryan Gosling in a Thai gangland thriller is creating buzz.

Critics have earmarked “Le Passe” by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi and “Like Father, Like Son” by leading Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda as strong domestic dramas. Farhadi won an Oscar for best foreign language film in 2012 for “A Separation.”

Despite criticism of an all-male lineup last year, only one female director has made the 2013 competition. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, sister of former French first lady Carla Bruni, is in the field with “Un Chateau en Italie.”

The sidebar section, Un Certain Regard, set up to recognize young filmmakers, will feature 19 films including “The Bling Ring” by Sofia Coppola starring Harry Potter actress Emma Watson about a real-life gang stealing from celebrities’ homes.

“It is a strong line-up this year looking at the names of the directors, especially those in competition,” said Wendy Mitchell, editor of the magazine Screen International.

“There are some very sellable films this year, and the fact that business was down at the Berlin festival (in February) usually means that there will be keen buyers at Cannes.”

Out of competition, hundreds of films will be shown in special sessions while 4,000 or so films, many yet to be made, will be haggled over in meetings along the Croisette, the resort’s chic promenade, or on extravagant yachts moored nearby.

Patrick Wachsberger, co-chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said he never had time to go to screenings but used Cannes to build buzz for new films including the second and third “Hunger Games” movies.

“You meet with distributors every 30 minutes and it really is like going to the dentist,” said Wachsberger. “The business seems more complicated than it used to be and a bit more frantic, but the money at stake is higher and it’s a bigger gamble.”

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‘Pieta’
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Stars: Lee Jeong-jin, Jo Min-soo
Rated: NR
2 (out of 5) Globes

Put simply, South Korean director Kim Ki-Duk is the type of filmmaker who would make a fraught, sometimes sexually outre film about a mother-son relationship and call it “Pieta.” Kang-do (Lee Jeong-jin) is a miserable, sadistic loan shark with a hairdo borrowed from mid-1990s London. While doing his usual duties of brutally crippling marks and using the insurance money to pay back their cartoonishly high debts, he runs afoul of Mi-son (Jo Min-soo), a mysterious middle-aged woman he claims is the mother who gave him up soon as he was born. Perhaps Kang-do wouldn’t have become a psychopathic rapist meanie if he’d had a nice mother who loved him, the film wonders. She’s intent to make up for lost time, even if that only means putting in a few extra kicks to some poor guy’s ribs after Kang-do has already worked him over.

When he started out in the late ’90s and early aughts, Kim was one of the nastier of the South Korean tyros, which is saying something. (We won’t reveal into which body part a fish hook was attached in “The Isle.”) In the middle of the last decade, he suddenly calmed down. “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring,” “3-Iron” and “Time” parlaid his penchant for heavy formalism and questionable symbolism into satisfying (though still questionable) explorations of faith, morality and persona. Then he went over the edge. “The Bow” and other recent films go too far into simplistic bathos, making the paucity of his ideas all the more noticeable and ruining the balance that made those three films seem like the work of a promising talent.

“Pieta,” Kim’s first to get significant notice in ages, swings back the other way. A scene where Kang-do shoves his hand into his alleged mother’s nether regions, declaiming “I came out of here?” is a juvenile’s idea of transgression, conceived chiefly to be debated and excoriated in reviews like this. It’s all building to pat salvation anyway, with Mi-son gradually — but not that gradually — breaking down her potential son’s defenses, exposing him to the harm he’s caused others and making his heart, once two sizes too small, perhaps become two sizes too big. (OK, it stops before it gets that bad.) As with anything, presentation can make even the most noxious tale somewhat tolerable. Kim has a plain, direct, almost earnest directing style that makes following “Pieta” on one level satisfying, even as its unsatisfying destination is never for a second in doubt.

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Tony Stark’s superhero antics kept the blockbuster “Iron Man 3″ on top of movie charts in the United States and Canada, beating out a strong debut over the weekend for lavish Jazz Age drama “The Great Gatsby.”

Coming off a gigantic opening a week earlier, “Iron Man 3″ commanded $72.5 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday in its second weekend. “Gatsby,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio as millionaire Jay Gatsby in the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald tale, earned a strong $51.1 million, according to studio estimates.

Domestic ticket sales for “Iron Man 3″ dropped 58 percent from a week earlier, when the film hauled in $174.1 million for the second-biggest movie opening of all time. The film from Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Studios stars Robert Downey Jr. as Stark, a billionaire businessman with a superhero alter ego.

International sales for “Iron Man 3″ reached a massive $664 million through Sunday after adding $89 million from the weekend, Disney said. The film’s worldwide take now stands at $949 million.

“Gatsby” outpaced pre-weekend forecasts for an opening of up to $45 million. Directed by Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, it is the latest Hollywood rendition of Fitzgerald’s classic American novel, “The Great Gatsby.” A 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow fared poorly at the box office.

DiCaprio stars in the title role, a millionaire pining for a lost love, played by Carey Mulligan, during the height of the hedonistic 1920s. Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton also star. Rapper Jay-Z produced the soundtrack.

“We never expected to open this picture at this level,” said Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros., the Time Warner Inc unit that distributed the film.

Fellman said the picture, which has been accorded the prestigious opening night slot at this week’s Cannes Film Festival, was now well-positioned for a long run into the summer as an alternative to traditional action movies.

The majority of ticket buyers were female by 59 percent to 41 percent, and 31 percent of ticket buyers were under age 25, Warner Bros. said.

“We’re going to have a nice, long healthy run,” he told Reuters.

DiCaprio’s performance was widely praised, but the movie, which cost about $105 million to produce, received a mixed reception from critics. As of Saturday, 48 percent of reviews recommended the film on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

But in its opening weekend, the film very nearly eclipsed the total $57.4 million take of Luhrmann’s most successful film, “Moulin Rouge,” which went on to win several Academy Awards.

Elsewhere over the weekend, dark action comedy “Pain & Gain” starring Mark Wahlberg placed a distant third with $5 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters.

Comedy “Peeples,” the other new nationwide release, finished fourth with $4.9 million. Produced by Tyler Perry, the film stars Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington in the story of a well-off family’s reunion that is interrupted when a man arrives to seek their daughter’s hand in marriage.

Baseball drama “42″ finished in fifth place with $4.7 million.

“Star Trek Into Darkness,” which opens domestically on Wednesday, took in $31.7 million in seven international territories including Britain, Mexico, Australia and Germany, Paramount Pictures reported.

“Pain & Gain” was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. Lions Gate Entertainment distributed “Peeples,” and Warner Bros. distributed “42.”

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Chances are if you’ve heard the name Ben Wheatley, it’s because he last directed “Kill List,” an indescribable mash-up of horror, crime and kitchen sink English drama, with an unmistakably macabre sense of humor — even when one already battered character’s head is repeatedly pounded with a hammer. His latest, “Sightseers,” is a bit nicer, in that it’s an English camping comedy about a couple (Alice Lowe and Steve Oram) who occasionally murder strangers for no reason.

“I think they were worried I was going to make ‘Kill List 2,’” Wheatley recalls, of a project which existed before he came aboard. He points out he has a history in comedy, on television and in viral videos. “I know how to structure a gag. Comedy’s like a flame that you have to feed with fuel. If it dies it’s very hard to get back. After the hammer scene in ‘Kill List,’ I thought no one would ever laugh again.”

Doing a film with comparatively minor head trauma — although there is some — was a relief after making what he describes as “a really horrible horror film,” at least in the sense of its increasing bleakness, and his having to talk about it at length while promoting it. “I made that film and it made people really unhappy.

“I thought it would be nice if they came out having a laugh and were cheered by something I made,” he says. “It’s not the happiest comedy, ‘Sightseers,’ but it’s a step in the right direction.”

“Sightseers” swings back and forth between comedy — both Lowe and Oram, who wrote the script together, have a deep history in British comedy — and horrible gore, as when one pesky rambler’s face is smashed in. “It’s got a lot in common with [Paul] Verhoeven and ‘[Monty] Python’ stuff,” according to him. “[Terry] Gilliam does that often, going from stuff that’s really horrible to stuff that’s funny and satirical, then back to horror. You feel like you’re being pulled and pushed around. I like that feeling.”

Although he offers that the comedy and horror can become one. In “Sightseers,” the victims are often thoroughly nice. He says, “The more innocent the victim, the funnier it is.”

Wheatley also offers up a theory that comics can, sometimes at least, make better dramatic actors than serious thespians. “The difference between a comedian and an actor is a comedian has the life experience of stand-up comedy. They’ve died in front of audiences a lot. They know what sadness is — for f—ing real. And it’s their own material they’ve died with. That is more personal than being in a play that’s s—.”

It ties into his view on humanity. “I think people are funny, generally,” he states. “Everyone has a sense of humor. They certainly have a sense of humor when things are going wrong. When you make films that are very po-faced, where no one has a laugh, they don’t seem real. People aren’t like that. People aren’t stern and miserablist all the time.”

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A pair of spacewalking astronauts wrapped up a hastily planned repair job on Saturday to replace a suspect coolant pump needed to keep the International Space Station at full power.

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn put on spacesuits and left the space station’s airlock shortly before 9 a.m. EDT to attempt to stem an ammonia coolant leak that cropped up on Thursday.

Over the next four hours, they installed a spare pump, then positioned themselves to check for signs of escaping ammonia ice crystals when the system was turned back on.

“No flakes,” Cassidy reported to flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Engineers will monitor the system over the next several days and beyond to make sure the pump replacement fixed the problem.

“We certainly have come a long way in identifying a potential source,” said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias as the astronauts returned to the station’s airlock. The entire spacewalk lasted 5-1/2 hours.

The station crew discovered a steady stream of ammonia flakes flowing away from the far left side of the station’s exterior frame on Thursday. Flight controllers spent the next 48 hours diagnosing the problem and coming up with potential solutions.

Engineers believed the leak most likely was coming from in or around a 260-pound (118-kg) pump that pushes ammonia throughout the system. The coolant dissipates heat from electronics in space station’s solar-powered electrical system.

The station can be reconfigured to compensate for a system shutdown, but if a second problem should occur, that likely would mean a cutback in power available for the experiments.

The $100 billion station, which flies about 250 miles above Earth, is a research laboratory for biomedical, physics, astronomical and other experiments, as well as for technology development and demonstrations.

On Sunday, station commander Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to lead the international outpost, turns over the helm to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. Hadfield, Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, who have been aboard the station since December, are scheduled to depart on Monday.

Their replacements – NASA’s Karen Nyberg, Italy’s Luca Parmitano and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin – are due to launch on May 28.

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A grisly, unsolved triple homicide may have involved the Boston Marathon bombers, according to “mounting evidence,” say authorities in Massachusetts.

According to ABC News, officials have said preliminary forensic tests have linked the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to the scene of a 2011 triple murder in Waltham, Mass.

Brendan Mess, 25, was found dead in his home alongside Erik Weissman, 31, and Raphael Tenken, 37, both of Cambridge. All three had their throats slit and were covered in marijuana.

Officials at the time claimed the deaths were drug-related, due to Mess’ prior convictions. Sources told the Boston Globe that Tenken also was in the drug trade. Investigators found five pounds of marijuana dumped on their bodies and $5,000 in cash in the house.

This theory did not, however, hold up. There was no evidence of forced entry at Mess’ home. Law enforcement officials told ABC News the new forensic evidence may place the Tsarnaev brothers around Mess’ residence on September 11, 2011, the day of the incident.

Mess at one point lived with Tamerlan. Both trained in boxing and martial arts. Tamerlan had once described Mess as his best friend, though it was known the ethnic Chechen increasingly discouraged Mess’ lifestyle choices.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan declined to comment on the new revelations, as did the public defender representing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

All three victims had their throats slashed with either an ice pick or a knife, each with such great force behind it that they were nearly decapitated.

Officials cautioned that until more definitive DNA testing is complete, it is still too early to consider bringing an indictment against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who officials said has admitted his role in the Boston Marathon bombings that left three dead and 260 more injured. Tamerlan, his older brother, was killed in a shootout with police days after the attack. Dzhokhar was subsequently apprehended.

More to come.

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An armed man with multiple hostages remained barricaded inside a Trenton, New Jersey, house on Saturday after a standoff with law enforcement negotiators overnight, police said.

Trenton police declined to say how many hostages were inside the home with the man, who has been barricaded there since Friday afternoon, or explain their relationship to him.

The Times of Trenton cited two unidentified law enforcement sources as saying police officers checking on the house had discovered the partially decomposed body of the man’s girlfriend, but pulled back when they saw he had a gun.

The newspaper also reported that one of the woman’s children was killed and that the man was holding three more of her children inside the house. A fifth child, age 19, was reportedly safe at another location with relatives.

Trenton Police Lieutenant Edelmiro Gonzalez told Reuters late on Friday that officers responding for a wellness check on someone at the house on Friday afternoon had encountered a man who barricaded himself inside.

He declined to confirm the girlfriend’s death or whether anyone else in the house had been killed. The identity of the suspect has not been released.

State police said tactical units, including hostage negotiators, canine units and SWAT teams, were on the scene.

FBI Special Agent Barbara Woodruff said federal investigators and hostage negotiators were helping state police.

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The murder case prosecutors hope to bring against accused Cleveland abductor Ariel Castro, who police say induced several miscarriages by beating and starving one young woman, will be complicated by a lack of physical evidence and medical records, legal experts say.

The case consequently could hinge on whether Castro’s three victims, whom he is accused of holding captive for nearly a decade, take the stand and testify that victim Michelle Knight was pregnant and miscarried, according to Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a law professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

“Their testimony will be crucial. You will need them to testify and that is going to be challenging based on how they were treated and kept for such a long time,” Hoffmeister said.

“They have got to testify that A, they were pregnant and B, that this guy’s actions caused the termination of that pregnancy.”

Knight, 32, told police that Castro caused her to have at least five miscarriages after he kidnapped her in 2002 and kept her in a dungeon-like home in a low-income neighborhood of Cleveland.

Castro, 52, is accused of kidnapping and raping the three women over a period of around a decade.

Ohio is one of 38 states to have a fetal homicide law on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The law in Ohio makes it a crime to murder a person “who is or was carried in the womb of another.”

The state’s fetal homicide law was used in 2011 against Dominic Holt-Reid who tried to force his girlfriend to get an abortion at gunpoint in Ohio. Holt-Reid pleaded guilty to an attempted murder charge and is serving 13 years in prison.

The most high-profile fetal homicide trial in the United States occurred in 2004, when Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and unborn son and sentenced to death in California.

On Thursday, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty, who has jurisdiction over all felony cases for Cleveland, said he intends to seek aggravated murder charges against Castro once the case is formally transferred to his office. Aggravated murder charges could carry the death penalty.

BUILDING A CASE WITHOUT MEDICAL RECORDS

Unlike the Holt-Reid and Peterson cases and most other fetal homicide cases, the one that prosecutors will attempt to build against Castro will be without prenatal care and medical records showing the woman was pregnant and miscarried, said Hoffmeister.

“Prosecutors don’t need a body to prosecute you, but a corpse helps,” Hoffmeister said. “Arguably, you could say that this person was never pregnant. It’s just her word that she says that she was pregnant.”

Ric Simmons, a law professor at Ohio State University, said if the three victims take the stand and corroborate their accounts of the miscarriages, prosecutors “will not have a problem proving” a murder case against Castro.

“Frankly, I think it could fly. It seems like they have the witnesses they need to establish this. The legal requirements for murder are set out here so I am not surprised they are doing this,” Simmons said.

Knight, along with Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus and a 6-year-old girl, escaped on Monday from Castro’s house. Police said Castro used ropes and chains to hold the women captive initially, then allowed them more freedom within the house. The women were repeatedly raped and beaten, police said.

Berry, 27, disappeared in 2003, the day before her 17th birthday. DeJesus, 23, vanished in 2004.

Dr Bill Manion, who has provided expert medical testimony in a number of criminal cases throughout the United States, said it will be difficult to prove the victims had a miscarriage unless there was an injury to the cervix that caused a scar.

“They have to see if there was any trauma to the cervix,” he said.

During a typical miscarriage, a women loses some blood as the fetus is expelled and the uterus contracts, Manion said. In young women, bone marrow then replaces the lost blood very quickly, he added, leaving no signs of miscarriage.

Investigators will also likely be searching for any fetal remains such as tissue or bones on the property, Manion added.

“If the fetus was not old enough to have bones, they may not find anything,” he said.

Another key factor in determining the outcome of the case against Castro, if it goes to trial, will be the state of mind of the women when they take the stand, according to Hoffmeister.

Given the horrible circumstances that the women reportedly endured, the defense will need to treat them with “kid gloves” if they take the stand, he said.

Defense attorneys may want to stress the fact that the victims “were treated arguably sometimes like POWs (prisoners of war), if not worse, which may impact their ability to remember things,” Hoffmeister said. “You would want to do that very delicately.”

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