Mariah Carey adds Precious glamour to Cannes festival

SINGER Mariah Carey added a dash of glamour to the Cannes Film Festival yesterday.

The singer plays a social worker in Precious, a tough drama about an illiterate New York teenager pregnant with her father’s baby.

Mariah was joined by her co-stars, who include musician Lenny Kravitz, on the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals for the screening of the film.

The film is in the festival’s Un Certain Regard competition, which aims to recognise unusual and original films.

To perform in the part, the glamorous Carey stripped down to her basic self and was required to wear no makeup except that which gave her dark circles under her eyes and made her look weary and worn. Yet Carey said it was among the best work she could have imagined.

“Doing it…was exhausting, exhilarating and it was just an honour,” Mariah told reporters at Cannes.

Her director, Lee Daniels, said she plays entirely against type, and watching her perform – along with music star Kravitz, comedian Mo’Nique and newcomer Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe” – will be a unique experience for her fans. “Mariah has never played this type before,” said Daniels.

Meanwhile, a blood-and-gore tale of vampire love and lust vied with a Romeo-and-Juliet romance about poet John Keats for the top honour at Cannes as the film festival displayed its taste for extremes.

From Australia came the delicate Keats-inspired romance “Bright Star” by New Zealand’s Oscar-winning director Jane Campion, who in 1993 became the first woman ever to scoop the Palme d’Or award for best film.

In stark contrast to Campion’s lighter fare, cult Korean director Park Chan-wook dished up a blood-curdling movie 10 years in the making, “Thirst”, about a do-good priest turned vampire and his secret affair with a friend’s wife.

Both are among 20 movies competing for the Palme, which will be delivered at the May 24 close of the world’s premier movie showcase, featuring 12 frenzied days of screenings, partying and wheeling and dealing.

Sixteen years after winning the Palme with “The Piano” – which went on to claim three Oscars including a best writer award for Campion – the New Zealander said little had changed for women in film.

“The studio system is an old boy’s system, and it’s difficult for them to trust women,” she told a press conference. “I would love to see more women directors because they represent half the population.

“Without them writing and being directors, the rest of us are never going to know the whole story.”