CANNES, France, May 22, 2007 (AFP) - Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Shirley Temple, Charlie Chaplin, Abraham Lincoln, James Dean and Queen Elizabeth II stopped by Cannes Tuesday -- or at least their fictional counterparts did, on the big screen.

The all-star cast featured in one of the oddest movies screening at the film festival: "Mister Lonely", about a group of impersonators living in a Scottish castle.

Directed by Harmony Korine, an eccentric 34-year-old US filmmaker who got his first break writing the screenplay for "Kids", the film puts some of the world's most recognisable faces in jarring environments.

The effect is bizarre -- as when 'Michael', dropping his mouth mask for a cigarette, speaks to 'Marilyn' in a Paris cafe.

She tells him of the impersonators' commune in the Scottish highlands and persuades him to join her there -- opening up domestic trouble with her husband, 'Charlie Chaplin', and their daughter 'Shirley Temple'.

If that wasn't enough, Korine splices the storyline with another about flying nuns -- well, actually nuns that exit planes without a parachute but who survive the plunge through prayer.

The film screened in the sideline Un Certain Regard section of the festival to initial laughs at some of the weirder visuals, but eventually met with a tepid reaction as the story meandered on.

"I put everything I know, as a filmmaker and a person, into this movie," Korine told The Hollywood Reporter trade magazine.

"I know my films are not films that everyone enjoys. I think that might be the case with this movie."

Copyright AFP

Subject: French news, Cannes Film Festival