Cannes kicks off with low-key French drama, Coen brothers, ballet

The Cannes Film Festival unrolled its red carpet with a socially minded French drama as the glitzy festival began May 13 on a more serious note after January's terror attacks in Paris.

"Standing Tall," a film about a juvenile delinquent co-starring Catherine Deneuve, premiered as the festival got underway beneath hazy French Riviera skies. Joel and Ethan Coen, co-presidents of the Cannes jury this year, also presented their fellow jury members, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Guillermo del Toro and Sienna Miller, who will decide who gets Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or top prize.

Julianne Moore, the best actress winner at last year's festival for her performance in David Cronenberg's "Maps to the Stars," declared the festival open. The ceremony featured a ballet performance choreographed by France's Benjamin Millepied that was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo."

Deneuve said the selection of "Standing Tall," directed by French actress-filmmaker Emmanuelle Bercot, for the opening night at Cannes could be seen as "a way for the festival to respond to a difficult year in Europe and particularly in France."

France has been grappling with questions of security and identity since the deadly attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket by three young men who were born and raised in France but motivated by radical Islam.

Although Bercot's film has been in the works for five years, the director said there was a link between the Paris attacks and the movie, which depicts decent professionals, including police, court and prison staff, working to help a delinquent youth (Rod Paradot) get his life back on track.

The three Paris attackers who were killed by police in January "were not protected,...