Seventeen years, that’s a long time to prepare a film, and it’s how long actress-director Maïwenn has spent on “Jeanne Du Barry,” which inaugurates the Cannes Festival today, a film that’s a nod to Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” which was shown here in 2006, but also a nod to the past since real-life Marie-Antoinette became Louis XVI's wife, ending the courtesan's favored place in the court. It is thanks to "Marie-Antoinette"

CANNES, FRANCE - Some firsts at the Cannes Festival which starts today, an Italian contingent in the competition slate and what I look forward to the most this year.

At the helm of the festival this 76th edition a woman, Iris Knobloch, who replaces Pierre Lescure as president of the festival after a tenure that lasted six years. Programmer Thierry Frémaux and she already know each other