Quentin Tarantino stormed into Cannes Tuesday with “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”, which critics at the world’s biggest film festival hailed as his best movie in years.

They heaped praise on the dark Tinseltown fairytale set in the Los Angeles of 1969 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a television Western star on the slide and Brad Pitt as his stunt double.

Twenty-five years after the American director won Cannes’ top Palme d’Or prize for “Pulp Fiction”, he got some of his best reviews since “Jackie Brown” in 1997.

Critic Peter Howell of the Toronto Star said that Tarantino wanted “to tell us a story about Hollywood life at the time of the Manson family slayings… and man, does he ever, going from awe-struck to WTF”.

“Brad Pitt the standout, his coolest role yet,” he added in a tweet.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw was equally euphoric, calling the film a “brilliant exploitation blackcomedy” which “finds a pulpfictionally redemptive take on the Manson nightmare: shocking, gripping, dazzlingly shot in the celluloid-primary colours of sky blue and sunset gold.”

Deadline declared that it was the “film Tarantino was born to make… gloriously, wickedly indulgent, compelling and hilarious.”

The online film magazine even called for a sequel.

“The world is a more colourful place in Tarantino’s twilight zone. Round two, please.”

Critics clapped at the end having laughed throughout, but there were none of the standing ovations at the press preview that sometimes greet films at Cannes.

And not everyone was won over by Tarantino’s genius.

Tim Grierson of the industry journal Screen tweeted that “like a lot of recent Tarantino, this is baggy, self-indulgent, fascinatingly its own thing and ambitiously conceived.”

Yet even he conceded that “it’s accomplished, sometimes dazzlingly so” even if “it ends up being as hitormiss as his last few”.

There was much more emotion at the blacktie gala screening, with Tarantino doing John Travolta’s two-fingered dance move swipe from “Pulp Fiction” to acknowledge the prolonged standing ovation given by the VIP audience.

British actress Tilda Swinton, one of the stars of “The Dead Don’t Die”, the satirical zombie movie that opened the festival, wiped away tears as she shook the director’s hand to congratulate him.

Earlier, as he walked the red carpet for the premiere, Tarantino compared his film to Alfonso Cuaron’s Oscar-winning “Roma”, saying it is “a memory piece, the way ‘Roma’ was a memory piece… In 1969, Los Angeles was like that.”

The director admitted that “Cannes changed my life” after he brought his first feature “Reservoir Dogs” there in 1992.

“I came here a small independent filmmaker and I left here known by all the critics… and made myself a name as an international filmmaker. And then two years later, my life changed all over again” when he won the Palme d’Or with “Pulp Fiction”.

DiCaprio, 44, told reporters that the film is “a throwback to the type of Hollywood epics we don’t get to see any more.

“It’s all from the mind of the great Quentin Tarantino, who’s not only one of the best writers but one of the best directors on Earth.

“It’s about Hollywood and we play outsiders trying to make our way in a changing world in 1969 as the world passes by,” he said.

Costar and architecture buff Pitt, who is 55 but looks far younger on screen, described the movie as “a love letter to Hollywood and to LA… a city I love.”

Just before the movie was screened, festival director Thierry Fremaux appealed to critics not to give away the plot.

Tarantino made a similar plea Monday, writing a letter that was posted on the movie’s Twitter account begging journalists not to let details slip that might spoil the film for his fans.

“I love cinema. You love cinema. It’s the journey of discovering a story for the first time,” he wrote.

“The cast and crew have worked so hard to create something original, and I only ask that everyone avoids revealing anything that would prevent later audiences from experiencing the film in the same way.”

Its stars, including Australian Margot Robbie who plays tragic actress Sharon Tate murdered by Manson cult members, waved to screaming fans as they left the premiere.

DiCaprio was accompanied by his girlfriend, Argentinean actress Camila Morrone, 21, one of the big discoveries of this year’s festival for her standout performance in the US indie film, “Mickey and the Bear”.

Audiences will have to wait until July to make their minds about “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”, when it will be released in the US. The film is currently slated for release in Thailand on September 12.

An alpine thriller with a romantic subplot, it’s based on a true account of two climbing parties racing to summit the highest peak in the Alps.

Tomorrow it’s “7th Heaven” at 6.30pm, a 1927 American release about a sewer worker who falls in love with a poor woman in Paris during World War I. It was an inspiration for “Sawan Mued” (“Dark Heaven”, 1958) directed by Ratana Pestonji.

At 8.30pm the 1915 crime thriller “Filibus” unspools its tale of a sky pirate wreaking havoc on billionaires and bankers from her airship.

On Sunday at 6.15pm, the Indian picture “Shiraz: A Romance of India” recalls a romantic tragedy involving a 17th-century Mughal ruler and his queen, which resulted in construction of the Taj Mahal.

The festival closes at 8.30pm with “Speedy”, Harold Lloyd’s last silent film, about a baseball-crazy young man in New York who cannot hold a job.

All screening have surtitles in Thai and English.

Tickets cost Bt120, Bt140 and Bt160 at the Scala. Keep up to date at  www.Facebook.com/silentfilmthailand.

As is always the case in May, the French Riviera is awash in stars and fans as the Cannes Film Festival celebrates its 72nd anniversary with a showcase of interesting titles from around the world.

Although only a few Asian titles made it into this year’s selection, there are a couple of big names in the running for the big prize. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho is back with “Parasite” and Chinese director Diao Yinan, who won the Golden Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014 with his “Black Coal, Thin Ice” is presenting “The Wild Goose Lake”.

Producer Jeremy Thomas, second right, works with Takashi Miike, left for the fourth time on his latest film “Hatsukoi”, which premiered at the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival 2019.

However, one of the most anticipated Asian films in Cannes this year is “Hatsukoi” (“First Love”), the latest work of Takashi Miike. It’s been one of the hits of the Director’s Fortnight, a non-competitive sidebar section of Cannes.

The title “First Love” does nothing to prepare the viewer for the force of the violence. Indeed, it might well be one of the most violent films showing in Cannes this year. It tells the story of Leo (Masataka Kubota), a young boxer in Tokyo who meets Monica (Sakurako Konishi), a call girl with whom he falls in love. After getting involved in drug smuggling, they are forced to spend a long night battling the police, the Yakuza, and assassins sent by Chinese mafia.

Director Takashi Miike and actress Sakurako Konishi at the world premiere of “Hatsukoi” at the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival 2019.

“Some people might say I’m bad for putting so much violence into the film, but it’s not me. It is the characters in the film who demand this,” Miike tells The Nation.

As a director who has made many films about the Yakuza, Miike stresses that the gangsters shown in “Hatsukoi” as well as in his other movies, are different from the real-life Yakuza.

“In the old days, I made Yakuza films in a straight to video deal and I conducted my research with real Yakuza. Actually, the Yakuza like the ones you see in the film are difficult to find in society, rather like the samurai who don’t actually exist.

“You might think a movie about the Yakuza is just another violent film, but in fact, there are many diverse parts to the story. And they are all connected. What I try to portray is friendship, and ultimately existence. It’s just that I don’t have my character saying ‘Why am I here?’ I don’t define the film by genre”, he explains.

“I got lots of feedback from the Yakuza community,” he continues. “A Yakuza organisation once submitted a formal complaint to the production company, saying that their boss would never play the piano. We had to take them a bottle of sake as an apology! Nowadays that would be difficult as the law doesn’t permit that kind of thing. However, if you want to shoot in areas controlled by them like, say, Kabukicho in Shinjuku, you will have to contact them anyway or you can’t shoot. You don’t have to pay them, but you have to talk with them beforehand to ask for their permission. In the past we used to pay, but nowadays the film industry doesn’t have the money.”

Miike cast rookie actress Sakurako Konishi to play Monica, the call girl and addict but who also has an innocent side.

“Sakurako has almost zero acting experience. That lack of experience makes her very fresh when she’s in a scene and that’s good as I wanted to make a pure love story. For that reason, it’s important that the audience doesn’t feel any familiarity with the character. All other characters are played by famous actors. Becky, for instance, is a TV personality but she’s been banned from the industry for a while. She plays a bright character and is perfect for that part. She didn’t audition. I wanted her for the role,” says Miike.

Takashi Miike’s latest film “Hatsukoi” (“First Love”) stars first time actress Sakurako Konishi as Monica, a call girl while actor Masataka Kubota play the boxer who falls in love with her.

The actress, a well-known TV personality, is rarely seen these days following the 2016 scandal about her affair with a leading married musician. She was attacked for destroying the man’s family and banned from the entertainment industry.

Famous actor Shota Sometani (“Legend of the Demon Cat” and “Parasyte” Parts 1 and 2), who worked with Miike on 2014’s “As the God Will” plays the Yakuza.

“He doesn’t look like a Yakuza though. In the past you could tell who was in the criminal gang by the way they dressed. Nowadays, it’s much more difficult. The Yakuza has diversified too,” the director says.

Masataka Kubota, who has worked with Miike since he debuted in the TV series “Ketai Sosakan 7” in 2007 was chosen to play the main character.

In Takashi Miike’s latest film “Hatsukoi”, actor Masataka Kubota plays Leo, a young boxer who falls in love with a call girl.

“Ten years ago, I cast him in his first TV series, which I was directing. He became popular over the years but always plays the same type of role. As an actor, I thought he was probably frustrated and it would be good for him to be in this kind of film. No sooner had he finished though that he was back in the morning TV series, doing the same thing all over again!”

“Hatsukoi” is the fourth collaboration between Miike and British producer Jeremy Thomas, who was behind such classics such as “The Last Emperor”, “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” and “Naked Lunch”.

“Jeremy respects our way of filmmaking and encourage us to be more free, but during the editing, he is very honest about his opinion. He can’t understand everything in the Japanese context but he tells us what he doesn’t understand, and puts forward his own ideas. He always makes sure that I am the one who chooses. Jeremy is very different from the Hollywood type of producer,” says Miike.

The director has plenty to keep him occupied when he returns to Cannes.

“I am developing many projects, one of them for an American streaming service. But once I go back to Japan after Cannes, I have to shoot a commercial,” he laughs.

Miike, who has been making films from small straight-to-video movies to big-budget productions for almost 30 years, is well aware that he needs to adapt to the new era of streaming.

“Cannes as a film festival has a history. You can see where it is coming from [in not permitting entry to Netflix]. But you also know that things change all the time. The way we see films changes as well.

“Me, I am going to change with the times as well.”

The flightless angry birds and scheming green piggies of the upcoming “The Angry Birds Movie 2” did just that for the cameras. Faced with a new avian costar/antagonist and armed with their signature slingshot, birds and pigs joined forces to fling a willing hatchling as part of a photo call this afternoon at the Carlton Hotel’s iconic pier.

Star Josh Gad (“Chuck”), producer John Cohen, and director Thurop Van Orman took the opportunity to unveil a new scene from the anticipated sequel, which will roll out globally starting in August through October.

“It’s so cool to finally get to come to Cannes, especially for a movie I’m so proud of,” said Van Orman. “…and what a sendoff, literally!”

 Added Cohen, “Josh and I were here right before the premiere of the first film, in 2016, and that launched us to open at number one in 52 territories around the world. Now that Angry Birds is established as a film property, we’re super excited to expand on the narrative and really have fun.”

Gad, Cohen, and Van Orman were joined onstage by some of the movie’s international star talent, including Sergey Burunov, who voices “Leonard” in Russia; Enzo Knol and Irma Knol, as Holland’s “Chuck” and “Bomb’s Mom,” respectively; and Sonia Plakidyuk, playing “Fuchsia” in Ukraine.

The flightless angry birds and the scheming green piggies take their beef to the next level in “The Angry Birds Movie 2” when a new threat emerges that puts both Bird and Pig Island in danger, Red (Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride), and Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) recruit Chuck’s sister Silver (Rachel Bloom) and team up with pigs Leonard (Bill Hader), his assistant Courtney (Awkwafina), and techpig Garry (Sterling K Brown) to forge an unsteady truce and form an unlikely superteam to save their homes.