Every May in the town of Cannes in the south of France, a certain tone is set by the film chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival. It’s almost always a Hollywood blockbuster programmed to start the fest off with a big, star-studded bang — some less glitzy than others (see last year’s opener, the Oscar-winning but star-less Up) and on the flip side, some less critically-acclaimed than others (flashback to Tom Hanks on the red carpet with The Da Vinci Code).

This year’s opening film — Ridley Scott‘s gritty period actioner Robin Hood — leads a particularly male-dominated slate of international films playing in competition, out of competition, and in the fest’s related sidebars. And really, what better upcoming summer release is there to kick off a program featuring new films from the likes of Oliver Stone (the sequel Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps), Olivier Assayas (the crime thriller Carlos the Jackal), Woody Allen (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), and Stephen Frears (Tamara Drewe), than the latest muscular man fable from action auteur Sir Ridley Scott?

While the above mentioned flicks play out of competition this year — Woody Allen was offered an in competition slot, but declined — the male auteur theme continues with Cannes’ 16-film selection of in competition films. Doug Liman‘s Fair Game (not a remake of the 1995 Cindy Crawford-Billy Baldwin “classic”) stars Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame and Sean Penn as her husband, Joseph Wilson, and is the only U.S. film vying for the Palme d’Or. Biutiful, the latest from Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu, stars Javier Bardem and is produced by the powerhouse Mexican filmmaker trio of Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuaron, and Guillermo del Toro.

Also in competition: Juliette Binoche stars in Abbas Kiarostami‘s Certified Copy, Takeshi Kitano directs himself in the crime thriller Outrage, Mike Leigh reunites with Jim Broadbent and Imelda Staunton in Another Year, Quantum of Solace thesp Mathieu Amalric directs and stars in Tournee, and Im Sang-soo remakes the 1960 Korean classic The Housemaid. We’ll also see the latest from filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who previously directed Syndromes and a Century and Tropical Malady; Rachid Bouchareb, who helmed the Oscar-nominated 2006 Cannes entry Days of Glory; Daniele Luchetti, who directed 2007′s My Brother is An Only Child; and Cannes veteran Bertrand Tavernier, the award-winning French filmmaker whose career highlights include ‘Round Midnight and A Sunday in the Country.

Meanwhile, auteur fanatics can get even more of a fix in the Un Certain Regard program, which features the latest effort from 102-year-old Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliviera, who made his first film nearly 80 years ago. The new Oliviera (The Strange Case of Angelica) should make an interesting double feature with the sophomore effort of Canadian whiz kid Xavier Dolan (Love, Imagined), whose I Killed My Mother took last year’s festival circuit by storm and won the Director’s Fortnight sidebar. Pal Adrienn, directed by Agnes Kocsis, will garner additional attention for being the lone female-helmed pic in the program. Cineastes will also be clamoring to see Jean-Luc Godard’s Socialism, the digitally-shot trans-European feature co-starring musician Patti Smith, while a host of intriguing international films round out the category: U.S. director Lodge Kerrigan’s Rebecca H.; Dutch director David Verbeek’s Second Life drama, R U There; Derek Cianfrance’s Michelle Williams-Ryan Gosling drama, Blue Valentine; and Hideo Nakata’s (Ringu) U.K.-produced horror pic, Chatroom.

All that’s good news for film fans, but is the 63rd Cannes Film Festival lineup a bit lacking in, well, star power? Expect Russell Crowe and (we hope) Cate Blanchett to lead the Hollywood contingent along with Shia LaBeouf and (we hope) his on-and-off-screen leading lady, Carey Mulligan. Naomi Watts, Freida Pinto, and Josh Brolin may appear with Woody Allen’s flick; we’re angling to see Brolin, who appears in both the Allen and the Stone pics, reunite on the red carpet with Biutiful star Javier Bardem, with whom he debuted the 2007 Cannes entry No Country for Old Men before it went on to Oscar gold and boosted both of their careers.
Other red carpet possibilities include Thomas Dekker, the 22-year-old star of the upcoming Hollywood horror reboot Nightmare on Elm Street, who appears in Gregg Araki‘s sci-fi sexual awakening tale Kaboom along with Haley Bennett and Kelly Lynch, and U.K. thesp Aaron Johnson — known in the U.K. perhaps for Nowhere Boy, and in the U.S. as the titular superhero Kick-Ass — who could show up in support of his internet thriller Chatroom. But what Cannes could really use to boost the glamour factor are folks like Matt Damon, who narrates Charles Ferguson’s 2008 financial crisis doc Inside Job, onetime Bond girl Gemma Arterton, who stars in Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe, or … well, any A-listers willing to dare the ashen European skies to fly in for a red carpet appearance.

Then again, perhaps Cannes shouldn’t rely on its reputation for A-list glamour and glitz on the red carpet. Could 2010 mark a new focus on the films and filmmakers rather than which couture-wearing starlets and Hollywood power players show up to wave and smile? Have we Cannes-watchers been spoiled by the razzle-dazzle that swept the Croisette when Brangelina showed up two years ago (in town for Kung Fu Panda along with the constantly-mugging Jack Black), when we should really be worshiping at the feet of the Portuguese centenarian auteur who was making films long before any of these pretty people (and their parents) were born? Or fostering the budding talents of the world’s most promising new filmmakers, or — dare I say it — finding out if more than one single female-directed film is worthy of inclusion in one of the world’s biggest and best-known celebrations of cinema?

Here’s to hoping this year’s Cannes Film Festival succeeds on the merits of its films, no matter who walks the red carpet, parties on yachts, and poses on the Croisette.

Tags: robin hood, wall street: money never sleeps, you will meet a tall dark stranger