:: SATURDAY 24 MAY
Saturday will not remain in the annals. After the indigestion of Côtelettes served by Bertand Blier, one wanted nothing more than to pack up the suitcases, carefully leaving Peter Greenaway's on the station platform, going as far away as possible to forget Cet amour-là and finally finding faith in the second reading of L'évangile selon Saint Matthieu.

:: FRIDAY 23 MAY
   While the festival's end is near, this one is not without surprises. Clint Eastwood has decided to take us on Mystic River, shouldered by a solid crew that includes Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. After the sumptuous tour of Russian Arch, Alexander Sokurov is back with very the intimate Father & Son.

:: THURSDAY 22 MAY
   Hardly out of the bath and dressed, Ludivine Sagnier becomes La Petite Lili for Claude Miller, who presents a reflection on art and life. The audience might also be carried on the wings of Purple Butterfly by Chinese director Ye Lou (Sushou River), somewhere between a romance and espionage in 1920's Manchuria. In addition to the first films of foreign filmmakers in other sections, the audience rushes to rediscover the famous I Am Cuba by Russian Mikhail Kalatozov, particularly at an hour when retrograde ultra-conservative forces are omnipresent, as the recent shelving of Oliver Stone's documentary about Fidel Castro attests.

:: WEDNESDAY 21 MAY
   It's a toned down day that looks promising before the effervescence takes over this weekend. Underground artist Vincent Gallo, wrongfully ignored in his own country, takes us on the long winding roads running through deep America in The Brown Bunny. Also, taking a look at Kiss of Life by English director Emily Young as well as the Chinese film Drifters by Xiaoshuai Wang.

:: TUESDAY 20 MAY
   It's a day of enticing variety. Michael Haneke, after giving us one of the most singular piano lesson, returns with the Time of the Wolf. Bertrand Bonello (The Pornographer), as usual, pushes us back into a corner, this time with the story of a transvestite who's a victim of his hormones in Tiresia. The bewitching Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure), too often relegated in the shadow of the over-estimated but resolutely media friendly Nakata Hideo, offers Akarui Mirai.

:: MONDAY 19 MAY
   Through Dogville Lars Von Trier pays hommage to Bertold Brecht and offers an exterior vision of America with a prestigious international cast; the Danish version of the Rocky Mountains where America is seen through the prism of the image she sends out.

:: SUNDAY 18 MAY
   Today's Pick: one year after Michael Moore, Gus Van Sant tackles the drama of Columbine his way, with Elephant, a work of fiction where he recounts the day of a high-school a few hours before sinking into the chaos of violence. In another register, fans of tepid and dull blue-green baths will be able to plunge into François Ozon's Swimming Pool.

:: SATURDAY 17 MAY
   Today's Pick: the first discovery, the first surprise of the official competition: Uzak (Distant) the only Turkish film at Cannes by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Where cohabitation between two people in despair, one because he hopes to find a job in Istanbul, a city in crisis, the other because his ideals have been absorbed into the nothingness of his life. Gloomy but joyful.

:: FRIDAY 16 MAY
   Today we find Wim Wenders with a new documentary musical, The Soul of a Man, André Téchiné with Les Egarés and Robert Pulcini, a discovery from the last Sundance festival with American Spendor ; without forgetting Nanni Moretti, a usual at la croisette.

:: THURSDAY 15 MAY
   Showing of Matrix Reloaded & Raoul Ruiz's Ce Jour-Là, two radically polar films that represent the vitality and variety of cinema located somewhere between entertainment and art: USA and Europe.

:: WEDNESDAY 14 MAY
   Opening of the festival with the showing of Fan-fan the Tulip.

:: FRIDAY 25 APRIL
   Press conference announcing the Critics Week selection.

:: THURSDAY 24 APRIL
   Press conference announcing the Directors Fortnight selection.

:: WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL
   Press conference announcing the official selection of the 2003 Cannes Film
   Festival.

:: WEDNESDAY 16 APRIL
   French director Patrice Chéreau is the president of a diverse jury of filmmakers that includes Steven Soderbergh, Danis Tanovic and Jiang Wen, actor Jean Rochefort, actresses Meg Ryan, Karin Viard and Aishwarya Rai as well as writer Erri De Luca.