The yachts were scrubbed, the red carpet was unravelled, giant movie posters vie for attention on the seafront and long-suffering residents force a smile. Cannes, the world?s greatest film festival, begun.The 58th Festival de Cannes opened yesterday in the glamorous Riviera resort, offering up the annual orgy of Hollywood glitz, showbiz excess and a bewildering number of films both in and out of competition.

The biggest event of a packed 12-day program promises to be the sixth and final installment of George Lucas?s Star Wars epic, which gets its world premiere in Cannes on Sunday.While not in the running for this year?s coveted Palme d?Or, ?Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith? will get the star treatment in recognition of a series that has changed cinema and earned its makers $3.5 billion in ticket sales since 1977.

Also appearing out of competition is Woody Allen, whose ?Match Point? is set not in the veteran?s favored Manhatten but in London, and stars Scarlett Johansson.Competing for the main prize are 21 films, and the selection of so many ?grands auteurs,? or established directors, has been interpreted as a deliberate attempt to put film back in the limelight instead of heated political debate.

Last year the surprise winner of the Palme d?Or was Michael Moore?s controversial ?Fahrenheit 9/11,? which took an angry swipe at President Bush and his reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.But Thierry Fremaux, artistic director of the festival, says there was no deliberate promotion of well-known filmmakers. ?Each case is unique and there are no ?rights of entry?,? he said of the selection. ?If they have been chosen it means that their films won us over by their own merits.?

<B>Previous winners</B>

Among previous winners of the Palme d?Or competing this year are Germany?s Wim Wenders, whose ?Don?t Come Knocking? features a down-and-out Western hero looking for redemption, and American Gus Van Sant who is back with ?Last Days.? America?s Jim Jarmusch brings together an all-star cast including Bill Murray, Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange and Julie Delpy in ?Broken Flowers,? which follows the resolutely single Don who goes out in search of a son he did not know he had.

Other heavy-hitters include Canada?s David Cronenberg (?A History of Violence?), Denmark?s Lars von Trier (?Manderlay?), Israel?s Amos Gitai («Free Zone») and German-born Michael Haneke (?Cache?/?Hidden?).Five Asian films are in competition by directors from China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.Chinese star Zhang Ziyi, best known for her roles in ?House of Flying Daggers? and ?Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,? appears in ?Operetta Tanukigoten,? directed by Japan?s Seijun Suzuki.

Themes of paternity and violence stand out, and Iraqi Kurd Hiner Saleem is bound to get tongues wagging with his in-competition ?Kilometer Zero,? about tensions between Arabs and Kurds inside Iraq during its war against Iran in the 1980s.Japan?s Kobayashi Masahiro goes for the topical with ?Bashing,? about a Japanese woman who is freed as a hostage in the Middle East yet struggles to settle back into ordinary life.

But such gritty reality seems a million miles from Cannes in the build up to its busiest two weeks.?You can feel the temperature rising,? said Sylvain Ercoli, the general manager of the plush Martinez Hotel, which hosts some of the biggest stars of the screen.?For 12 days and 12 nights it?s a dream. You walk into the most famous people and they are all there at the same time. They are not look-alikes, they are the real ones.?

<B>Mike COLLETT-WHITE</B>

WORLD PREMIERE

<B>Lemming kicks off days of films and fun </B>

■ ?Lemming,? directed by German-born Dominik Moll, kicked off a 12-day extravaganza that brings with it partying and pouting, networking and negotiating. Hollywood royalty will grace the red carpet for the world?s media to capture, and cinema history will be made when the sixth and final instalment of George Lucas?s hugely successful ?Star Wars? series gets its world premiere on Sunday. The Riviera resort is a hive of activity, with hospitality tents lining the beach, luxury cruisers moored offshore and restaurants quickly filling. There is also the matter of prizes, and after the storm surrounding last year?s winner, organizers appear content to sail for calmer waters in 2005 with a competition that features established directors including four Palme d?Or winners. In 2004 the coveted award went to Michael Moore?s Bush-bashing polemic ?Fahrenheit 9/11,? which, accompanied by European indignation over the invasion of Iraq and America?s war on terrorism in general, gave Cannes a political flavor. That is not to say the 21 main competition entries fail to reflect some of today?s burning issues. Showing later yesterday was ?Kilometer Zero? by Iraqi director Hiner Saleem, who sets his film during the Iran-Iraq war and explores ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs which exist to this day.