• May 25, 1992
• Vol. 37
• No. 20

Cannes Doings

A Très Hot Thriller and Half of Hollywood Heat Up the Annual French Filmfest

FIRST BASIC INSTINCT STEAMED UP the screen on opening night with the X-tra—X-plicit 45 seconds of sex scenes snipped from the U.S. version. Then its star, Michael Douglas, revealed even more while responding to reporters' questions. "Hasn't anyone out there ever faked lovemaking in real life?" he asked. "That's what shooting a love scene is like."

Welcome to the 45th International Cannes Film Festival, which counted Jamie Lee Curtis, Spike Lee, Robert De Niro and Tim Rob-bins among its early arrivals. As usual, not all eyes focused on films. Whoopi Goldberg, strolling the top-less beach outside the Majestic Hotel, seemed a tad intimidated. "I would never take my clothes off here," she said. "They'd laugh me off the beach." Bui Instinct's Sharon Stone seemed to be reveling in what she called the "sex babe" rep that baring all onscreen has won her. "This image of me will only exist for a short time," she said, smiling, "so I think I'll enjoy it."