Cannes film festival: the competition begins

Actor and director Mathieu Amalric – best known to millions as the Bond villain in Quantum of Solace – is a contender for the Cannes film festival's Palme d'Or with Tournée, the tale of a Parisian promoter cajoling his American burlesque troupe on a tour down the French coast. Here he is with co-stars Dirty Martini and Julie Atlas Muz
Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP

Mathieu Amalric (centre) poses with his Tournée cast members: Mimi Le Meaux (left), Julie Atlas Muz (second left), Kitten On The Keys and Rocky Roulette (right). Xan Brooks notes that Amalric's 'voluptuous co-stars loom effortlessly over him' – he's got that right
Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPA

Julie Atlas Muz gets close up to her director Mathieu Amalric at the photocall for Tournée. Must have been a fun shoot
Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

Another competition film screening today in Cannes is Chongqing Blues (Rizhao Chongqing), which stars Fan Bingbing among others
Photograph: Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

Chongqing Blues is the latest film by Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai (centre), seen here with actors (from left) Zi Yi, Li Feier, Fan Bingbing and Qin Hao. The director took the Cannes jury prize in 2005 for Shanghai Dreams
Photograph: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

Actor Li Feier at a Cannes press conference for Chongqing Blues, which tells the tale of a father trying to uncover the truth behind his estranged son's death
Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP

Last night, the 63rd Cannes film festival opened in traditional glamorous fashion at the Palais des Festivals, with the traditional photo-op of the jury panel: (from left) jury president and US director Tim Burton, director of Turin's Museum of Cinema Alberto Barbera, Spanish director Victor Erice, Italian actor Giovanna Mezzogiorno, French novelist and director Emmanuel Carrère, French composer Alexandre Desplat, Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro and British actor Kate Beckinsale
Photograph: Eric Ryan/Getty Images

Also on the red carpet were French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand and French actor Arielle Dombasle (famously married to controversial philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy) …
Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP

… Camera d'Or jury member Charlotte Lipinska (centre) and jury president Gael García Bernal (right) …
Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

… French national treasure and 'grandmother of the Nouvelle Vague' Agnès Varda …
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… director Taylor Hackford and his wife Dame Helen Mirren …
Photograph: Unimedia International/Rex Features

… Mexican actor Salma Hayek and her husband Francois-Henri Pinault, heir to the retail empire that includes Gucci and Fnac …
Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

… actors Eva Longoria (left) and Aishwarya Rai (right) comparing trains …
Photograph: Lionel Cironneau/AP

… and the Muscles from Brussels himself, Jean-Claude van Damme, with his wife Gladys Portugues.
Photograph: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images

Actor and jury member Kate Beckinsale has an attack of the giggles on the red carpet for the opening ceremony of the 63rd Cannes film festival …
Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP

… but not Cate Blanchett, seen here serenely making her way to the Cannes opening gala screening of Robin Hood, in which she plays a liberated Marian opposite Russell Crowe
Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP

Cate Blanchett obliges the world's press pack on the steps of Cannes's Palais des Festivals, where her film Robin Hood was unspooled
Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP

One last look at the members of this year's Cannes jury, the people who will decide which of the 19 films in competition gets the coveted Palme d'Or, before they get to work
Photograph: James McCauley/Rex Features

Actor Kristin Scott Thomas, regally in charge as MC at the opening ceremony of the 63rd Cannes film festival, shares a twinkle with jury president Tim Burton
Photograph: Joel Ryan/AP

And after all that comes the deluge. Jury member Benicio del Toro arrives for dinner at the Majestic Hotel. He'd better chow down – he's got his work cut out for him over the next 10 days
Photograph: Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA