red Carpet, the living dead, and heels. The Cannes Festival opens its 72nd edition in style this Tuesday with The Dead Don’t Die of the American Jim Jarmusch, no stranger to the Croisette. In competition, the director has assembled a cast of four stars, mixing actors and musicians for a zombie film, which promises to be hilarious and political. The poster promises a beautiful red carpet: Bill Murray, Selena Gomez, Adam Driver and Tilda Swinton… They have also been able to count on the support of Gong Li, Nathalie Baye, Guillaume de Tonquedec, the couple of Tanguy 2 Sabine Azéma and André Dussollier, Alex Lutz, Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Kassovitz, Audrey Lamy.

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For the first time at the Festival, the opening ceremony hosted by Édouard Baer is broadcast in 600 cinemas. Viewers then will be able to discover The Dead Don’t Die , at the same time as the jury, chaired by the director of the mexican doubly oscar-winning Revenant Alejandro González Iñarritu.

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The ceremony, which opened with an excerpt from his documentary Varda by Agnès also paid tribute to the filmmaker Agnès Varda, who died at the end of march. Her children Mathieu Demy and Rosalie Varda have climbed the steps of the Palais des festivals, accompanied by the minister of Culture, Franck Riester. This is a photo of it, the eye riveted to the camera, on the set of his first feature film, which is on the festival posters. And it is his empty chair, who has welcomed the first steps of Edouard Baer on stage.

Angèle has paid tribute to composer Michel Legrand with a cover of «Without you», composed with Agnès Varda. CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP

In his monologue a bit flat, the actor and comedian has praised the collective power of cinema, millions of dollars in the u.s. box office for films which do not meet more than a handful of faithful. «The film, it is the human warmth. In Cannes, the room is sometimes so great that the film stops to watch. Do not eat your pizza in front of Netflix» . After a quick excerpt of Michel Legrand, the singer Angèle appeared on the stage for a resumption of Without you , a title that the musician had composed with Agnès Varda.

Alejandro González Iñarritu: «the only judge of The cinema is the» time Elle Fanning joins the jury members of the 72nd edition of the Cannes film Festival. ANTONIN THUILLIER/AFP

Edward Baer then presented the jury «to faces for those who return empty-handed from the Croisette know who is taking them.» «It is a privilege and an honor to have been invited here. Cannes has been a festival and critical as a film buff, a lover of cinema, and as a director, greet the president, Alejandro González Iñarritu, «It is a privilege to be accompanied by a procession of artists so different and so young to make decisions that will change the career of others.» And to add: «The official selection with his new talents could not be more exhilarating. I believe in the power of discharge and human film. The 7th art can change our lives. This journey will transform us and we will learn from each other. It is necessary to appreciate the work, the devotion that had accompanied his works. Our task is going to be delicious like a bowl of exotic fruit. We will do our best to choose the most beautiful piece of jewellery. The only judge of the cinema is the time».

Decidedly freewheeling and improvisation, Edward Baer was praise for the piano of the team The Dead Don’t Die under the eye deadpan of Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton. This is the duo glamour Charlotte Gainsbourg and Javier Bardem as is income the honor of «declare open» in French and Spanish this vintage 2019.

Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu and his jurors, among which his fellow Greek Yorgos Lanthimos, actress Elle Fanning or the cartoonist Enki Bilal, will have to choose by may 25, the palme d’or among 21 contenders. Of the regulars, but also new blood. With two palmes d’or under their belt, Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers are entered in the club very closed of the filmmakers twice webbed. A record has never been exceeded up to now but this could change if one of them has added a third trophy on his fireplace. Also regular patrons of the Palais des Festivals, Pedro Almodóvar, and Xavier Dolan, could hope for a first-palm. The very glamorous Once Upon A Time Quentin Tarantino, on the Los Angeles hippie of the Seventies bloodied by Charles Manson, is expected at the turn. Especially for his duo Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.

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At the announcement of his selection, the Festival’s artistic director Thierry Frémaux has also insisted on the presence of a selection of many new entrants, many of whom are female directors. A way of answering the age old question around the little metteuses the stage, competing each year at the palm. The Senegalese Mati Diop to defend his film Atlantic which takes place in a suburb of Dakar. The Austrian Jessica Hausner evokes dan Little Joe a fairly-near future having recourse to genetic manipulation, with Ben Whishaw. In Sibyl , the French Justine Triet tells the story of a novelist become a psychoanalyst (Virginia Effira), who decides to return to the writing and lack of inspiration.

During the traditional press conference of the jury, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu is the first mexican president of the Croisette, said that his team would be on the lookout for movies that the imposed and would mark the «emotionally, and intellectually. Works disturbing or provocative». And to add: «We will learn from this fortnight that will change us and make us grow as artists.»