At Cannes, Jolie talks of lessons in 'Mighty Heart'

CANNES -- Angelina Jolie takes on one of her most challenging roles to date in a film about Mariane Pearl, wife of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic militants in 2002.

"A Mighty Heart" premiered at the Cannes film festival yesterday . It is one of the most talked-about films at the festival, even though it is outside the main competition.

Directed by Britain's Michael Winterbottom, the film paints the chaos and confusion as Mariane, Pakistani intelligence, U S consulate officials, and Daniel's newspaper colleagues try to track him down via e-mail, mobile phone trails, and old-fashioned police work.

Jolie said she worried about getting the part of Mariane right, and that the film had a message beyond the gripping narrative.

"For me so much of why this film is important today was because I highly doubt there is anybody in this room who has more reason to hold hate inside herself than Mariane, and she doesn't," Jolie said at a news conference.

"She is a very compassionate, thoughtful person who looks to dialogue to change things, to make things better. That is, I think, a lesson to all of us."

Cannes favorites Gus Van Sant and Joel and Ethan Coen also unspooled their latest works .

Van Sant's preference for young, non-professional actors and trancelike images of skateboarding define "Paranoid Park, " about a 16-year-old skateboarder who accidentally causes the death of a security guard.

The Coen brothers offered "No Country For Old Men," based on the Cormac McCarthy novel. Set in 1980 along the U S-Mexican border, the movie follows three men brought together in a bloody triangle.