CANNES, France (Reuters) – The Cannes film festival kicked off on Wednesday with quirky U.S. comedy “Moonrise Kingdom”, Wes Anderson’s exploration of childhood and young love centered around two 12-year-olds who fall in love and run away together.

The touching tale, set in 1965 on an island off the coast of New England, was a popular opening movie in the French Riviera resort, drawing laughs and warm applause at a press screening ahead of the official evening world premiere.

CANNES, France (Reuters) – Comedy will dominate the opening of the Cannes film festival on Wednesday, with Wes Anderson’s child fantasy “Moonrise Kingdom” in a tussle with Sacha Baron Cohen’s anarchic alter ego General Aladeen for the attention of the world’s media.

Thousands of journalists and movie executives are in the glamorous Riviera resort for 12 hectic days of screenings, red carpets, parties and dealmaking, and the first day is typical of the diary clashes they face.

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) – Rising stars will compete against
established Hollywood names for the limelight at this year’s
Cannes film festival, with Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron, Kristen
Stewart and Shia LaBeouf all appearing in highly anticipated
movies.

They will rub shoulders with the likes of Brad Pitt and
Nicole Kidman, as well as some of the great names in directing,
at the world’s biggest and most glamorous cinema showcase.

LONDON (Reuters) – New York’s contemporary art scene is undergoing a major shake-up this year, with Britain’s hugely successful Frieze Art Fair opening its inaugural U.S. edition on Friday just weeks after the established Armory Show closed its doors.

Organizers of both events sought to play down the element of competition, although the Armory admitted it had felt obliged to up its game this year, knowing a rival upstart was moving in on its turf.

LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) – Three Kanye West albums have
made it on to the latest edition of Rolling Stone magazine’s
authoritative “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list, placing
him among the greats of popular music.

The new ranking, which combines a 2003 list (updated in
2005) with a later survey of the 2000s, saw two Radiohead
records join the elite club, while long-established names
including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan also had albums added.

LONDON (Reuters) – Actor-director Robert Redford aims to bring the spirit of independent American cinema to Britain this week with Sundance London, transporting the film festival held annually in Park City, Utah, across the Atlantic for the first time.

The inaugural Sundance London Film and Music Festival will showcase several small budget features and documentaries as a counterweight to Hollywood blockbusters which tend to dominate cinema theatres the world over.

LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) – William Shakespeare may well
have worked with contemporary playwright Thomas Middleton when
creating “All’s Well That Ends Well”, Oxford academics believe,
adding to evidence that the Bard collaborated frequently
throughout his career.

But rather than detract from Shakespeare’s reputation as an
unrivalled genius, such partnerships should enhance our
appreciation of the titan of theatre, they argued.

LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) – “Escape From Camp 14″ makes for
grim reading. Journalist Blaine Harden’s account of a young
man’s life in and escape from a labour camp in secretive North
Korea has drawn parallels with the Soviet gulags and Nazi
Holocaust.

One big difference is that North Korea’s political prison
camps, holding an estimated 200,000 people and handing out their
own brand of extreme cruelty, are still operating.

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) – Reports of a falling out
between Simon Cowell and ITV, partners on ratings juggernauts
“Britain’s Got Talent” and “The X Factor”, have been blown out
of proportion, his spokesman said on Friday.

Cowell’s televised talent competitions are among the
commercial channel’s biggest draws, generating millions of
pounds in advertising income and helping it compete with rival
BBC’s increasingly aggressive reality TV drive.

LONDON (Reuters) – Bert Weedon, whose “Play in a Day” guitar guide set some of the biggest names in rock and roll on the road to greatness, has died. He was 91.

The man who also inspired millions of others to pluck away at the strings in their bedrooms died at his home in Beaconsfield, southern England, in the early hours of the morning after a long illness, his agent and long-time friend Johnny Mans told Reuters.