Cate Launches Babel at Cannes

The Da Vinci Code isn't the only movie this year to deal with religious subject matter, as Cate Blanchett and fellow co-stars were in attendance for the premiere of her newest film, Babel at the Cannes Film Festival.

Babel is inspired by the famous story in the Bible and centres around three separate stories in Morocco, Tijuana and Tokyo. Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt play American tourists in Morocco who are plunged into tragedy when Cate's character is shot while on a tour bus in the desert. Despite Brad's absence from the festivities in Cannes, Cate had kind words for her mega famous co-star and was quoted in an article from ITV as saying, "he's glorious and wonderful, we had been wanting to work with one another for some time."

It all sounds like peaches and cream, but when it came time for Cate's scenes as a dying woman with a gunshot wound, it turned out to be a little disgusting. According to an article from The Age Cate had this to say about the more difficult scenes, "At one point, when they were going to do a shot over my shoulder on to Brad, I (had) this horrendous smell and saw this props guy with a bottle full of these little things buzzing round," adding, "And I thought, 'he's going to put blowflies on me!'; he put meat juice on my wound, this terrible stink, then put flies on me. It was a low point in my career!"

The film covers the theme of global prejudice and the plight of undocumented immigrants in America and seems to be a frontrunner for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize at this year's Cannes. In an article from The Chicago Tribune, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams) resonded to questions about his chances at winning the Palme d'Or with this, "My philosophy is, low expectations, high serenity."

Cate Blanchet's previous film credits include, The Talented Mr. Ripley , The Gift , The Shipping News, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Aviator. The most recent project Cate is attached to is I’m Not There , in which she plays the legendary folk singer, Bob Dylan.

[Additional Sources: ITV, The Age, Chicago Tribune, IMDB]