Cannes Film Festival: Boos, barmaids and Farrell-loving banners

The films have been a mixed bag, but Don O’Mahony is enjoying the Cannes Film Festival

TO THE public, the Cannes Film Festival is a byword for glamour, a place where movie stars flock and great films are premiered. But like the proverbial iceberg, there is both the tip and the hulking edifice beneath. The Palais des Festivals, the centre of the film universe for Cannes’s duration, is that tip. Identified by its steep, red-carpeted steps, the Palais building houses a nest of screens, including the 2,300-capacity Grand Theatre Lumiere, where all the main competition films are premiered.

But below the surface is a vast, open-plan space housing film production and distribution companies from every part of the globe. This is the Marché du Film, one of the busiest film markets in the world. Here, every conceivable genre of film is being hawked. One can be tantalised by such delights as Sky Sharks, whose poster features Nazi-uniform-clad marauders standing on the back of sharks with rocket-laden fins. It has become a convention for daily reports of the festival to spotlight the film that has the most absurd or comical poster, just to have a good old chuckle.