What exactly makes a Cannes film? If you scroll down the Fan Fare blog, you may see a comment on our “‘Indiana Jones’ avoids critical mauling, but…” posting that ponders why such a big event Hollywood movie would play at a festival like Cannes that is known for more art-oriented cinema.

I cannot tell you what Cannes festival programmers think, but I can tell you that in 15 years of writing about movies and 10 years of covering festivals, that type of comment generally has several answers. Festival directors often say big Hollywood movies bring big Hollywood stars, which can draw attention both to the festival and the art films that may not otherwise be seen. Moreover, what’s a festival for, if not to bring a wide variety of movies to the people who are attending.

That brings us to zombies. One of the more fun adventures every year at Cannes is to take an hour or so and stroll around the booths at the film market here, and look at the hundreds of movies that are being bought and sold daily.

Titles range from Maxim Media’s “Zombies Anonymous” and “Fist of the Vampire” to Eros International’s Bollywood title “Dhoom Dadakka.” (I have no idea what that means). Vision Films has ”Natasha,” featuring a sexy blond girl in a leather bikini with the subtitle “Revenge is Sweet” (I’m kind of afraid to think what that means)  and “Private Moments,” which promises ”the humor of ’Sex and the City’ meets the fantasy of ‘Red Shoe Diaries.’”

And there are old stars you rarely see anymore? One can check out Lee Majors, formerly “The Six Million Dollar Man,” and Philip Michael Thomas, once a major U.S. TV star in “Miami Vice,” in a psychological thriller called ”Fate.” Or, there are Bruce Dern, David Carradine, Rip Torn and Mariel Hemingway in “The Goldenboys,” which is promoted as ”Three salty dogs chase one spicy kitten” on its movie poster. Most of the movies like these will never be seen in U.S. theaters. On DVD, yes. Downloads, sure.

To be certain the Cannes film market and the Cannes film festival are two different arenas for movies. But the point is: movies come in many shapes and sizes and are made for all different reasons, worldwide regions and audiences. “Indiana Jones” may not be my favorite type of movie, but it brought me to Cannes. And if not here, I might never have been exposed to ”Waltz with Bashir,” an animated drama about young men fighting in Lebanon in the early 1980s that is truly lighting up the stage here.

Welcome to the world of the movie junket. Ever see “Notting Hill”, where Hugh Grant waits around in a swanky hotel waiting for his few minutes with the stars of a new movie?

It’s a reasonable representation of the “junket”, a rather unflattering but nonetheless apposite term to describe the short TV interviews studios organise to give news channels and agencies access to stars. The reason: news media need soundbites for their stories.

 Today was another “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” day on the junket front, and the blockbuster which had its world premiere in Cannes has taken over the 7th floor of the plush Carlton hotel for the last few days.

Overhearing actor Jim Broadbent asking “how many more?”, I learned that there were seven, four-to-five minute slots left with 17 already done, and that was all by lunchtime.

Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett and crew all did their best to sound fresh and new at the end of a gruelling few days of media over-exposure, and bleary-eyed reporters waiting in crammed rooms and corridors shared the usual grumbles about life in Cannes.

It could have been worse. One early round of interviews here took place before the film was even shown, and despite the size of the operation on Monday morning, I was out of the hotel in under two hours, six “junkets” in hand.

So, we finally saw the new Indiana Jones movie, which is the biggest show in town at the Cannes film festival this year.

There was a scramble to get into the packed press screening, with reporters waiting up to two hours to ensure a spot, and reviewers were sending out their opinions on the internet within an hour of it finishing.

OK, there was warm applause at the end of the screening, which for Cannes’ fussy reporters and critics is good going for a family blockbuster. But it also has to be said that the cheers at the start of the movie were far louder than those at the end.

This makes me think that once the euphoria and hype in Cannes settles down, and more considered opinions are printed, we are actually going to get a much more mixed reaction that at first seemed the case.

Not that this matters much to the movie’s box office prospects. Even critics who were less than impressed expect that the popularity of the original films and the anticipation that has built among movie goers will ensure a huge commercial return.

Highlights from Day 4, and the premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”

Highlights of Reuters coverage of the second full day of the Cannes film festival.

Cannes jury president Sean Penn defied French anti-smoking laws on Wednesday, lighting up a cigarette at a news conference at the start of the Cannes film festival.

Joined by French actress and fellow jury member Jeanne Balibar sitting next to him, Penn needed little persuading after one of the journalists present asked facetiously whether people with medical needs would be allowed to smoke.

Smoking in public buildings has been banned in France since 2007.

Around 40 extras dressed in giant panda suits waddled on to the pier outside the Carlton Hotel in Cannes with actor Jack Black on Wednesday to promote Dreamworks’ animated feature “Kung Fu Panda”.

The stunt, carefully orchestrated and watched by dozens of photographers and camera crews, underlined the importance of the world’s biggest film festival for promoting movies which have nothing to do with the main competition.

Black, who provides the voice of the main character Po, capered about with a series of kung-fu moves and posed with actors who voice the film in French, Portuguese, Japanese and Spanish. “Together, we’re creating an international panda sensation,” he remarked.

It is just over 12 hours until kickoff for the world’s press in Cannes covering this year’s film festival. Looking out from a swanky Wifi cafe at the Palais des Festivals, the view is the picture of tranquility — gleaming yachts bob up and down in the marina, couples stroll along the Croisette seafront as the sun sets, and glamorous girls serve coffee to reporters still tapping away at their laptops.

The calm won’t last. Reporters are advised to start limbering up for their first scrum. That is likely to be a “media event”, otherwise known as a chaotic stunt, to publicise “Kung Fu Panda“, a Hollywood animation comedy coming to town. Minutes later, there is the press screening of the opening film “Blindness”, which officially gets the 2008 edition of the festival underway.

The list of potential “flashpoints”, when sleep-deprived, highly-strung hacks attempt to get into venues more often than not too small to accommodate them, is endless.

But, as the old saying goes, someone’s got to do it, and few, if any, here in Cannes, would want to give up their place.

It may seem a little premature to be discussing who may win this year’s coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes film festival. The festival doesn’t start until Wednesday, there are 22 movies in competition and only a handful of them has actually been screened to critics and reporters.

That does not stop the speculation. France’s Le Monde newspaper has an interesting point — that Steven Soderbergh’s four-and-a-half-hour epic “Che”, only just completed in time to qualify for the main competition, would not be the first “last-minute” entry to walk away with the main award.

In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola brought an early cut of “Apocalypse Now” to the French Riviera and, although it differed from the version most viewers would have seen, it won. On the festival’s Web site it is listed as “Apocalypse Now (A Work in Progress”). In 1981, Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s “Man of Iron” made it to Cannes despite reluctance on the part of the Communist authorities. It also won the Golden Palm.

There is comfort for those who come away from the glitzy festival empty-handed, however. Last year, the Coen Brothers’ “No Country For Old Men” was overlooked by the jury yet went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Five days and counting.

Showbiz hacks the world over will be sharpening their pencils (and fingernails), pouring over screening schedules, brushing up on blogging banter and taking plenty of deep breaths before heading for the Riviera resort of Cannes to cover the film festival which kicks off on Wednesday. Someone’s got to do it, I guess.

The first scheduling crunch comes on the first morning, no doubt a sign of things to come. “Kung Fu Panda”, a martial arts animation movie from DreamWorks, plans a stunt outside the swanky Carlton hotel on Wednesday morning at exactly the same time that the festival screens the opening competition film “Blindness”, by Fernando Meirelles of “City of God” fame. One promises to be fun yet silly, the other harrowing yet rewarding, summing up life in Cannes during the 12-day festival perfectly.