'Grace of Monaco' mauled

The world’s biggest film festival opened on Wednesday with a blast of controversy as critics mercilessly savaged the opening entry about Hollywood-darling-turned-princess Grace of Monaco.

The festivities were bittersweet as the Monaco princely family furiously disavowed a film they say bears no resemblance to reality and critics who got a sneak preview made no secret of their contempt.

“The cringe-factor is ionospherically high,” wrote critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian. “A fleet of ambulances may have to be stationed outside the Palais to take tuxed audiences to hospital afterwards to have their toes uncurled under general anaesthetic.”

On the red carpet, Kidman sparkled in a blue, jewelled strapless dress, smiling for the cameras next to downcast-looking French director Olivier Dahan.

In the film, the Australian-born actress portrays an unhappy Grace who sleeps in a separate bedroom to Prince Rainier, even contemplating divorce before rising to the challenge of being a princess and helping her lost husband solve a 1962 political crisis with France.

Grace’s children Prince Albert II and his sisters Caroline and Stephanie have publicly rejected a film they say “has been misappropriated for purely commercial purposes”.

Describing the controversy as “awkward” in a press conference on Wednesday, Kidman sought to reassure the family that the film bore no “malice” towards them or towards Grace and Prince Rainier, played by a chain-smoking Tim Roth.

“It’s fictionalised, it’s not a biopic,” Kidman said, echoing what Dahan has previously said.

The French director had been locked in a long-standing tussle with US distributor Harvey Weinstein over the final version of the film. Weinstein had reportedly considered dropping the rights to the film altogether, but Dahan said Wednesday an agreement had been reached under which the movie mogul will distribute the French director’s version in the United States.

The opening ceremony in the festival hall’s biggest movie theatre saw the man behind the spellbinding soundtrack to Campion’s 1993 Palme d’Or winner “The Piano” – Michael Nyman – take to the piano to welcome the jury president on stage.

Master of ceremonies Lambert Wilson had a cheeky dance with Kidman to much applause.

Chiara Mastroianni and “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuaron then formally opened the extravaganza, during which 18 films will compete for the top Palme d’Or prize.

While two of the films in the running are by women – Japan’s Naomi Kawase (“Still the Water”) and Italy’s Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders”) – Campion bemoaned the industry’s bias against women.

“I think you would have to say that there’s some inherent sexism in the industry,” she told reporters.

“It does feel very undemocratic and women do notice. Time and time again we don’t get our share of representation,” she said, adding that men seemed to “eat all the cake”.