Cannes

When it comes to movies at the Cannes film festival, away from the worthy official screenings things are horrifying. Quite literally. This year has seen a surge in titles promising brain-eating, blood-splattering and nightmare-inducing action in that section of the market where hundreds of movies are on sale.

United States filmmaker Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing indictment of White House actions after the September 11 attacks, won the top prize on Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. Fahrenheit 9/11 was the first documentary to win Cannes’ prestigious Palme d’Or since Jacques Cousteau’s The Silent World in 1956.

A flood of innovative, user-friendly, small and often eye-catching digital music devices have been launched to bring better sound into cars, mobile phones, portable jukeboxes and even video-games consoles. Phatboxes, Pictones and media handsets were among the new gadgets flaunted at the Midem trade.

”If Hollywood makes money, if Bollywood makes money, then why can’t we, in Africa?” asked Robert Kofi Nyantakyi, the head of Ghana’s Gama Film Company.

It starts out as a normal day at a typical American high school: Friends gossip in the cafeteria. A young photographer snaps portraits for his portfolio. A shy girl endures taunts from classmates in the locker room.

About 250 shocked and nauseous guests walked out of the official screening of Cannes Film Festival French entry ”Irreversible” which features an explicit 10-minute rape scene.