'Shadow workers' keep Cannes show on the road

Behind the scenes at Cannes, a small army of "shadow workers" toil by night in projection rooms to keep the action rolling at the world's biggest cinema showcase.

From Quentin Tarantino's latest offering to works of first-time directors, each film shown at the 12-day Riviera festival is fine-tuned on the eve of the screening once the theatres have been closed and the celebs are off to party through the night.

For directors selected to compete for Cannes' Palme d'Or award for best film, these nail-biting rehearsals take place in the festival's prestigious 2,500-seater Lumiere Theatre.

"Some of the directors are terribly stressed," said Pierre-William Glenn, who has worked as chief camera operator for French film giants Francois Truffaut or Bertrand Tavernier, and now runs all screenings at the festival.

"We have some terrific rows. There are some fantastic tantrums -- like people who can't stop fidgeting in the cinema, and then come up into the projectionists' cabin to check things," he told AFP.

"But there are others who just sit and enjoy the chance to be alone with their film."

"We see a lot of directors' faces light up like children -- they look around the cinema and just go 'Wow'," added his deputy Alain Besse. "When the first scene of their film comes on screen at 3 am, there are some wonderful expressions."

New Zealand director Jane Campion, a former Palme d'Or winner who returned Friday to Cannes with "Bright Star", a romance on the love affair between poet John Keats and young Fanny Brawne, admitted it was an intense experience.

"When at half past midnight, we went to check the print, I must say I felt butterflies," she told a news conference after a screening of the film, saying she was both "very excited and fearful."

"Part of our job is to reassure the directors -- to help them ease into the festival," Besse said. "It's not just the technical stuff. We have to be diplomatic, to show them that we respect their work."

Some 120 technicians, surviving on two or three hours sleep a night, work with the directors to check the film prints, adjust sound and light levels, and make sure projectors are in tip-top condition.

Festival organisers hand-picked 90 men and women from among France's 2,500 projectionists, trained on classic 35 millimetre and digital formats -- which are already used by a third of the 20 films vying for the Palme d'Or trophy.

The shift to digital is opening up new opportunities -- on spectacular display with this year's Cannes opener, Disney Pixar's 3D animation "Up" -- but many old-timers will be sorry to lose the sound and feel of the celluloid.

"It's like the difference between a candelit dinner and talking to someone over a webcam," said Paul Genesty, a projectionist with 27 years experience, including 22 at the Cannes festival.

"A cabin without sound is a bit miserable. With celluloid, you can hear a whirring sound that tells you everything is going ok -- and if not you know there is a problem."

Whether on celluloid or digital, their job is to keep the movie fest ticking over -- and avoid a repeat of 1983, when it was nearly derailed by a rash of technical problems with the projectors.

"It's invisible work, and no one ever talks about what we do. But it's fascinating to be a shadow worker," said Glenn.