The Cannes Film Festival, back to something akin to full throttle after a year's hiatus, welcomed cinema luminaries back to the French Riviera on Tuesday evening as its 74th edition kicked off with the screening of Leox Carax's "Annette". Four special guests, jury chief Spike Lee, honorary Palme d'Or recipient Jodie Foster, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and Korea's Bong Joon-ho declared the festival open, each in their own language. Foster asked the audience in the Theatre Grand Lumiere a rhetorical question: "It's good to be up and about, isn't it"

The answer was provided by Annette, a salve of sorts for wounds inflicted the world over by a rampaging pandemic. Frenchman Carax's first English-language film, a flamboyant opera-rock musical starring two of the world's most beloved stars Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver as a singer and a stand-up comedian respectively, was greeted with enthusiasm. The opposing adjectives that critics showered on "Annette"  beautiful and baffling, magnificent and wild ¿ demonstrated that Carax, despite having forayed into a genre that is new to him, has lost none of his ability to surprise, provoke and divide. India has one film in the Cannes official selection this year  Rahul Jain's sophomore documentary "Invisible Demons", a part of the special Cinema for the Climate section. It is a deep dive into Delhi's worsening struggle with air and water pollution. The parallel Director's Fortnight, usually reserved for boundary-pushing genre films, includes Mumbai-based Payal Kapadia's "A Night of Knowing Nothing".