The weather is perfect in the south of France this time of year, the wisps of clouds vastly outnumbered by the hundreds of global film stars, directors and producers who have descended on Cannes for the fifty-ninth installment of the world’s most important film festival. In turn, industry insiders are outnumbered by gorgeous hangers-on — male and female alike — and the only species turning up in greater numbers than the hangers-on were members of the self-styled international press corps.

There’s a unique energy to this usually laid-back place: Everywhere you turn, a star, critic, director or scribe is dashing off to catch a film screening or press conference. For those in between appointments, there’s WiFi access everywhere and press rooms from which to file your stories.

My festival adventure had started a little earlier — before I’d even set foot in Cannes. On the flight between Paris and Nice last month, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the passenger sitting next to me was none other than Zhang Ziyi, the beautiful Chinese star who graced screens with acclaimed films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). The 27-year-old Zhang was heading to Cannes as a jury member for the official competition and to attend the screening of her latest film, The Banquet.

My hopes for an exclusive interview, though, were promptly dashed as Zhang turned not to me but to the bigshot producer sitting next to her and started reviewing a script.

Though the festival officially kicked off on Wednesday, May 17, an early screening of the much-anticipated The Da Vinci Code was held for members of the press on Tuesday evening at the Debussy Theatre.

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Frankly, The Code was a bit disappointing for those familiar with the Dan Brown novel — too many of the intriguing details were lost in the screen adaptation even as it stretched out to a full two-and-a-half hours. Director Ron Howard, shooting his third film with Tom Hanks — following Splash (1984) and Apollo 13 (1995) — did succeed in translating onto the silver screen some of the novel’s unique atmosphere and symbolic points through particularly artful use of computer graphics. Tom Hanks was convincing as Robert Langdon, while talented French star Audrey Tautou excelled as the female lead, Sophie Neven. Paul Bettany and Ian McKellen, though, delivered the most praiseworthy performances as protagonists Silas and Sir Leigh Teabing, respectively.

Sadly, everyone back in Cairo will have to wait for the film’s inevitable release on Showtime (or until bootlegs appear on the black market, for those so inclined) as the film isn’t coming to Egypt, having been nixed by the Film Censor Board.

Opening day was packed with film stars from all four corners of the globe. Highlights of the morning included press conferences for The Da Vinci Code and another to introduce the Official Cannes Competition Jury, members of which included Monica Belucci and Samuel L. Jackson.

Day two featured the screening of one of the competition’s more important films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, by acclaimed British filmmaker Ken Loach. The story takes places in 1920s Ireland, where workers were volunteering to form guerilla troops to face British Flying Squads flown in from England to block the nation’s bid for independence. The film stars Cillian Murphy (who played The Scarecrow in Batman Begins) in the role of Damien, who leaves his medical career to join his brother in the fight for freedom.

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Favorite Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almod?var also arrived to show his latest feminist feature, entitled Volver (Return). The movie stars Penélope Cruz as Raimunda who, married to an unemployed worker, struggles to raise their daughter amid poverty and illness.

The real treat came that evening, though, with the first of three screenings of Sherif Arafa’s Halim at the Star Cinema. A party was then thrown on the beach of the Carlton Hotel as a tribute to film’s star, the late Ahmed Zaki. Among the attendees were his son Haitham Ahmed Zaki (who looks like a healthier, younger version of his father), Hend Sabry, Mona Zaki, Karim Kojack, Khaled Abul Naga, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz and Adel Imam, who also came for an additional market screening of The Yacoubian Building.

Although everyone missed Zaki, they could not restrain themselves from dancing to the Abdel Halim classic “Gana El-Hawa” (Love Has Come). Later, Emadeddin Adeeb (founder of Good News 4 Me, the company that produced Halim) announced that the movie soundtrack, composed by Egyptian musician Ammar El-Sherei and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, would soon be released worldwide.

As was the case with its The Yacoubian Building, GN4ME launched a massive marketing campaign for Halim, as ads popped up in Variety and Le Film Français. GN4ME hopes to be the first Egyptian producers to open up an international sales marketfor its two big films.

Halim gives us a glimpse into the life of the immortal singer by flashing back as an old Halim (played by Ahmad Zaki) is interviewed on a radio show. The younger Halim is played, as everybody knows, by Ahmed Zaki’s son Haitham, who was the only person who could step in to save the production after his father died of cancer just weeks into the shoot.

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Haitham’s resemblance to his father is uncanny, but he fell into the trap of imitating ‘the Ahmed Zaki portrayal of Halim’ rather than making the character his own. Blame for this falls partially on the shoulders of Sherif Arafa, who should have known to give a young man making his debut film more coaching before thrusting him before the cameras.

The script is even more problematic. It’s patchy and devolves into mere flashes of a younger Halim: singing his songs here and there, his introduction to great musician Mohamed Abdel Wahab (played by Ezzat Abou-Ouf) and his failed love affairs with actress Soad Hosny and with the rich young woman who became the love of his life. Arafa has also tacked on the father-daughter relationship between Halim and the young orphan girl he essentially adopted, played by Mona Zaki.

“I was lucky to finish all of my scenes in Halim with Ahmed Zaki before he passed away mid-shooting,” was all Mona Zaki could say of acting opposite the icon of Egyptian cinema. “It was an unforgettable experience.”

Abou-Ouf — whom we see acting for the first time without a wig — also under-performs. He nails Abdel-Wahab’s deep voice and trademark laugh, but failed to get under the skin of this legendary character.

Worse still: Arafa unnecessarily uses computer-generated images (similar to the scenes where Tom Hanks’ character meets the presidents in Forrest Gump) to transpose Haitham Ahmed Zaki into some old Abdel Halim film clips. And the use of ‘shaky’ camera techniques while zooming in and zooming out is a style similar to and only suitable for episodes of serials such as NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street.

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Although this was Ahmed Zaki’s final film, I wasn’t vastly moved by his performance, largely because I was unable to get beyond my memories of his long illness. What really moved me were Halim’s original songs, which Arafa used instead of allowing the actors to cover them.

Still, by the end, I couldn’t help but weep a little as Halim passes on —just as I wept more than 25 years ago when my school bus driver announced the death of Abdel Halim Hafez, the man loved by fans around the world.

Meanwhile, leading Lebanese distributor Joseph Vincenti (director of Italia Film) also flew into Cannes to meet up with his friend Ernst ‘Etchie’ Stroh, director of California-based Moonstone Entertainment. In addition to being the Middle East licensee for many independent film companies such as Moonstone, Vincenti is the sole distributor of BVI Films that include names like Walt Disney, Touchstone and Miramax Pictures. Distribution in Egypt is through Allied Film Distributors based in Heliopolis.

Vincenti was particularly upset that Egypt’s censors have given the cold shoulder to several recent international hits, including one of his own. Recent films to hit the black list include The Da Vinci Code as well as Stroh’s The Promise (also known as Wu Ji) by Kaige Chen. The latter tells a legendary Chinese tale and was nominated as Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, but was banned in Egypt because one of the characters said she is a goddess.

Chinese star Bai Ling (Red Corner, 1997 and Anna and the King, 1999) also came to Cannes to promote her latest film, Shanghai Baby scheduled to begin shooting next September. Based on a banned Chinese book — which sold over six million copies worldwide and has been translated into 34 languages, by feminist writer Wei Hui — Bai said that her character, torn between a man in Shanghai and one in Berlin, is the richest character she has ever had the chance to play.

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This year’s festival was about far more than The Da Vinci Code, though: As Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’ artistic director, put it: “This year, the selection shows that the festival of Cannes is a reflection of contemporary creativity in the whole world.”

Paris je t’aime (I Love You, Paris) is a two-hour film that consists of a collection of 10-minute shorts by filmmakers including Alfonso Cuar?n and Wes Craven. Each story pays homage to Paris, the city of love. By far the funniest segment was the one written and directed by the Coen Brothers, starring Steve Buscemi as a tourist taking the Parisian underground.

Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Greg Kinnear, it takes a look at the health risks involved in the fast food industry — and its environmental and social consequences to boot. Kinnear plays the role of Don Henderson, the marketing director for a decaying fast food chain.

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In the movie Babel, Mexican director Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rritu, who directed Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch, 2000) and 21 Grams (2003), is back with yet another ‘intertwined multi-story’ film, the events spanning Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico and Japan. Stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette head the cast.

The black comedy Il Caimano (The Caiman), directed and co-written by Nanni Moretti and starring Silvio Orlando, tells the story of a famous producer of B-movies who wants to make a comeback by shooting a film about former Italian prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. Before arriving in Cannes, it had already won six David di Donatello Awards at the Italian Cinema Academy Awards.

Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola (daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, whose major acting debut came in her father’s The Godfather Part III, but who has since made herself a name to be reckoned with as a director) is a rehash of the famous story of the naive Viennese girl who, in 1774, became the queen of France at age 19. It is a nice opportunity to rediscover the talents of Kirsten Dunst, co-star of the Spider Man series.

Provoked, by Indian director Jag Mundhra, stars the beautiful Aishwarya Rai as Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi woman who ends up in prison after murdering her abusive London-based husband.

Quand j’étais chanteur (When I Was a Singer) is a fine example of how French cinema is in hot pursuit of new topics and rich characters. The film, directed by Xavier Giannoli, stars Gérard Depardieu as an aging singer who falls in love with a younger girl played by Cécile de France.

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The Un Certain Regard section featured many debuts and experimental films, including the likes of Hamaca paraguaya (Paraguay Swings). Written and directed by Paz Encina, the movie follows an old peasant couple who are waiting for their son to return from the war of Chaco.

La tourneuse de pages (The Page Turner), by Denise Dercourt, stars Deborah François as Melanie, who becomes the page-turner for tough pianist Madame Ariane.

Distributed by Rotana, Keif Al-Hal? (How are you?) by director Izidore K. Musallam (Forbidden Fruit, 2002) was also shown as the first-ever Saudi feature film to be included in the festival.

Among hundreds of new films in the Film Market, Bug, starring Ashley Judd, marks the return of acclaimed director William Friedkin (The French Connection, 1971 and The Exorcist, 1973). He’s in top form.

Finally, I had the chance to run into actor David Heavener, who came to show a promo reel of his numerous action and horror flicks, including the latest installment of Angel Blade.

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Heavener used to live in Zamalek, where he worked as a businessman before venturing into the world of acting. Note the striking resemblance between Heavener and Anthony Perkins, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s original Psycho. On Egypt, the actor, director, and producer s “If it is safe in Egypt following the Dahab incident, I would like to return there to shoot a new action film.”  et