CANNES '08 | Talking "Blindness"

Fernando Meirelles' multi-national co-production "Blindness," a look at (in his words today) "the fragility of civilizations," opens the Cannes Film Festival tonight (Wednesday) in the South of France. Adapted by Canadian actor and filmmaker Don McKellar, who called the film "tragically timey" during a press conference this afternoon in Cannes, "Blindness" seemed to stir decidely mixed reactions at a packed morning press screening. It follows a mysterious outbreak of blindness that quickly spreads across society, leading to a quarantine of those affected, including Moore's sighted character who fakes the disease to stick with her husband (Mark Ruffalo). Adandoned in a prison-like facility, the captives must fend for themelves as their ranks continue to grow. "We consider oursleves so strong, sophisticated and solid and then one thing goes and everything collapses," Merellies elaborated today, "We are really, as you say in English, skating on thin ice." Pictured (left to right) at today's press conference in Cannes: Danny Glover, Alice Braga, Fernando Meirelles, Julianne Moore, Gael Garcia Bernal, Yoshino Kimura, and Yusuke Iseya.