Horror, Violence In Films At Festival

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30127, 10 May 1963, Page 15

Horror, Violence In Films At Festival

(N.Z.P .A.-Reuter—Copyright)

CANNES, May 9. Films of horror, cruelty and sadism will dominate the sixteenth annual Cannes Film Festival which opens today. The 26 full length pictures from 20 countries show that cinema-goers must brace themselves for large doses of screen terror and violence. Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” which is not competing for a prize, inaugurates the festival. The master of suspense and his actress discovery, Tippi Hedren, will attend. Film fare for the festival fortnight includes France's ■‘Des Abysses,” in which two fiendish maids murder their employers. Japan’s “Hara Kiri” offers ’ suicide and a realistic disembowelling scene. Britain’s “Lord of the Flies” has cruelty galore. Hollywood offers death,

jealousy and hate in “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’’ The themes of Greece’s war picture and Holland’s wartime occupation film are also grim. The Soviet Union is presenting an "optimistic tragedy” of the Russian Revolution. Canne’s two casinos and night clubs and restaurants expect 20,000 bottles of champagne and 15,000 bottles of whisky to be drunk during the festival. Mr Hitchcok plans an “intimate little ■dinner” for 300 and every big film-producing nation will throw a party. Orson Welles. Romy Schneider, and Henri Georges Glouzot arrived yesterday Numerous other film celebrities due include Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster, Gina Lollobrigida, and Maria Schell.