CANNES, France (AP) — Tilda Swinton injects her own brand of otherworldly-cool into Jim Jarmusch‘s latest movie “Only Lovers Left Alive,” an unusual comedy that puts a spin on the age-old vampire genre.

The film, the last English-language entry competing for the Cannes Film Festival‘s Palme d’Or, sees Swinton play Eve, a grungy but erudite vampire — who’s married to a forlorn vampire musician, Adam, played by Tom Hiddlestone. Several-hundred-year-old Adam — of Biblical fame — has been living quite happily ever since being expelled from the Garden of Eden.

That is, until the 21st century came along with its excesses and greed and pushed him into a full-flung existential crisis. He cracks, and orders a wooden bullet to kill himself. With such a wacky plot, it’s no surprise the film nearly didn’t get made. It took seven years to find a backer — which Jarmusch blames on the fact producers won’t take creative risks anymore.

“I wanted to make a vampire love-story…The reason it took so long was that no one wanted to give us the money. It’s getting more and more and more difficult for films that are maybe a little unusual or not predictable or not satisfying the expectations of everybody — which is the beauty of cinema, discovering new films of all forms.”

He added: “But look, now we’re here at Cannes.”

Lovers of independent cinema and vampire fans should certainly be pleased the film saw the light of day, or perhaps, night. It quirkily spruces up vampire lore. Adam and Eve are not about blood-sucking and murder — but refined lovers of literature, science, music and learning in general. When Eve’s estranged sister “drinks Ian,” a friend, to death, Eve tells her off saying that in the 21st century people just won’t understand such barbarity. (The verb “drink,” instead of “blood-sucking,” was one of the many moments that provoked raucous laughter from spectators.) It’s not like they can just dump the bodies in the Thames with the tuberculosis sufferers like in old times, she says. Now, in the 21st century, they get their blood from the blood-transfusion section of a hospital. Alongside this, John Hurt plays a vampire Christopher Marlowe, who’s still bitter that Shakespeare became more famous.

Swinton said the film provided a unique opportunity to reinvent the vampire genre.

“There’s a feeling of beautiful luxury about approaching this kind of portrait, because you can come with a Martian’s-eye view… We were able to create our own lexicon,” she said. Here the vampires elegantly cover their mouths; and have a strange ritual with gloves that goes unexplained.

At heart, the film is the love story between Adam and Eve, who try to rekindle their love despite living in different places, he in Detroit and she in Tangiers. It is as touching as it is odd.

“We knew we needed to show a long … that was so evolved that what they actually say to each other is the tip of the iceberg of a conversation they’ve been having for 500 years. That was very interesting. We wanted to show a couple who are trying to stay together. Trying to live obviously but also trying to live together.” At one comic moment, Eve looks at a grainy photo where they’re both dressed in 19th century clothing. “Our third wedding,” she sighs.

The love story between immortal beings also raised philosophical questions for the leading man Hiddlestone, who said playing Adam was a “fascinating prospect” — a chance of breaking away from the more conventional superhero roles, such villain Loki in 2011′s Marvel Studios film Thor, for which he is the most famous.

“The idea of exploring love in the context of immortality — is (it) a blessing because it recurs, and what does that do to your commitments?” he said.

When news originally got out that Jarmusch, the director of 1999′s dark samurai film “Ghostdog,” which was also nominated for the Palme d’Or, was going to do a love film on vampires, left many unconvinced. But Swinton was not one of them and backed the project from the start.

“I was never surprised,” she said. “I felt like saying (Jim) you’ve been making vampire films for years.”

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Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

CANNES, France (AP) — A French-Cambodian film, “The Missing Picture,” which explores the bloody history of Pol Pot‘s dictatorship in late 1970s Cambodia, has won the “Un Certain Regard” prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

To rousing applause, director Rithy Panh collected the award at a ceremony Saturday night, expressing his gratitude to be able “to have the freedom to do the films I want to do.”

The “Un Certain Regard” accolade, presented one day before the Palme d’Or, is often seen to reward up-and-coming filmmakers and works that transmit original messages and aesthetics.

Panh’s film, based on his nightmarish memoir “The Elimination,” documents his own family’s experience under the heavy-handed Communist Party’s Khmer Rouge that resulted in the death of his parents and sisters.

CANNES, France (AP) — Roman Polanski says the birth control pill has had a “masculinizing” effect on women.

The director said the pill has “changed the place of women in our times,” while talking to reporters Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. He was there to premiere his film “Venus in Fur,” adapted from the David Ives play.

Polanski said the leveling of the sexes is “idiotic” and lamented that “offering flowers to a lady” has become “indecent.”

The film stars Polanski’s wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Mathieu Amalric as an actress and theater director rehearsing an adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch‘s 1870 novella, “Venus in Furs.”

The film plays with gender roles, and features Seigner as a strong, feminine actress who comes to dominate her director.

CANNES, France (AP) — Jerry Lewis, so beloved in France, isn’t quite overcome with emotion now that he’s back at the Cannes Film Festival.

The festival, he says, is “for snobs,” and when he meets a reporter from his native land, he exhales, “It’s so nice to hear an American.” To him, Cannes isn’t an epicenter of rabid Lewis fandom, it’s simply “business,” he says, chomping on gum.

And at 87, Lewis is back in business. Nearly two decades since his last film, he’s at Cannes with “Max Rose,” a modest independent film in which he stars as an elderly man reconciling himself to life without his late wife.

“I’m very happy to relax and stay home with my family, and if something comes up, I’ll consider it,” Lewis, in an interview, said of his return to movies. “That’s the nice part about 87. You just tell people: Oh, you’re very tired.”

At Cannes, Lewis has been anything but tired, both burnishing and tarnishing his legacy as a brilliant comedic performer. His Cannes tribute — the festival paid “homage” to him in an out-of-competition screening of “Max Rose,” as well as with a screening of his 1961 classic “The Ladies Man” — has been overshadowed by his views about female comedians.

In a press conference, Lewis told reporters that his earlier-stated feelings haven’t changed in recent years: Comedy isn’t for women, he claims. A day after his comments roiled women across the Internet, Lewis wasn’t apologetic, saying he sees females as mothers, not stand-ups.

“It’s the truth. I can’t help it,” Lewis says, shrugging. “Women, it’s just wrong. I don’t care that the audience laughs at it and likes it. I don’t happen to like it. I have too much respect for the gender. And I think that they are wrong in doing it. I can’t expect them to stop working, but just don’t work anywhere where I have to look at it.”

It’s a clearly out-of-date attitude that has turned many away from Lewis. In Cannes, “Max Rose” didn’t help his reputation. The film, by first-time filmmaker Daniel Noah, drew terrible reviews at the festival. Variety said only “the most irrationally charitable of Lewis’ fans” will appreciate it.

But such opinions mean little to Lewis. He made the film with Noah purely because he liked the script — the best he’s ever read, he says. It’s the rare film to tell a story about the struggles of growing older, featuring a downbeat performance from Lewis far from the elastic farce his fans are accustomed to seeing.

Asked why he hadn’t made a film since 1995′s “Funny Bones,” Lewis responds: “You see the movies they’re putting out? What am I going to do, discuss that?”

Noah, who wrote the script based on his grandfather, sought out Lewis with little expectation of landing him. Months after sending the screenplay, Lewis called him and committed over the phone. Lewis told him he hadn’t planned to make another film, but decided, “I gotta give them one more Jerry picture.”

“I was braced for a difficult experience,” says Noah. “I saw nothing but horror stories about how he was controlling and irascible and unpredictable and moody. . But I cannot explain to you the chasm between the man that othjcoers seem to know and the man that I know. I have not had a single moment of tension with him, of difficulty. He has been like a grandfather to me.”

Noah says Lewis — who helmed more than a dozen films in his career, including 1963′s “The Nutty Professor” — left the directing completely to him. He gave his famous star little direction, save for the occasional reminder to be more minimal, more “sad clown,” says Noah.

“He’s a wonderful kid,” says Lewis. “When you’re 87, almost everybody’s a kid.”

Lewis has continued to perform concerts — “a wonderful way to make a fortune,” he says. Retirement is not on the table. “I’m happiest when I’m on the stage,” says Lewis, who was honored with the Academy Awards’ humanitarian award in 2009 after years of telethon hosting for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

“Wherever the audience is is where you want to go,” he says. “And if you’re a ham, like me, you go wherever the action is. You see a lens and a crew and say, ‘Yeah!’”

At the press conference in Cannes, Lewis proved that he still has his pugnacious wit and eagerness for laughs.

Asked about Dean Martin, Lewis’ famed comedy partner in the ’50s, he responded: “He died, you know. When I arrived here and he wasn’t here I knew something was wrong.” (Martin, with whom Lewis parted acrimoniously, died in 1995.)

“I’ve worked hard to sustain a reputation of: If you buy a ticket, you know you’re going to get entertained,” says Lewis. “That’s what I was taught.”

Lewis may be many things — talented, funny, honest, out-of-touch, sexist — but perhaps above all else, he’s an entertainer. “Max Rose” marks his 82nd year performing.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

CANNES, France (AP) — After two weeks, 20 films and parade after parade down the red carpet, the Cannes Film Festival has not produced a clear-cut frontrunner for the Palme d’Or.

The prestigious award, given to the best film in competition, will be handed out Sunday night, decided upon by a jury headed by Steven Spielberg. And while this year’s festival has boasted a cinematic feast, no single film is believed to have clearly set itself apart from the pack.

At least half a dozen films seem to have a realistic chance of winning Cannes‘ top prize, including the Coen brothers’ 1960s folk tale “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Paolo Sorrentino‘s rollicking Roman party “The Great Beauty,” Asghar Farhadi‘s domestic drama “The Past,” James Gray‘s 1920s Ellis Island melodrama “The Immigrant” and Abdellatif Kechiche’s lesbian coming-of-age tale “Blue is the Warmest Color.”

Consensus is always hard to come by in Cannes, but it does happen. Last year, Michael Haneke‘s “Amour” was the far-and-away favorite, and went on to win best foreign language film at the Oscars and earn the rare best picture nomination for a non-English film.

In 2011, Terrence Malick’s cosmic rumination “The Tree of Life” too was obvious Palme material. But the year before, Cannes was fairly shocked when Tim Burton’s jury picked the existential Thai film “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.”

Palme d’Or oddsmaker Neil Young currently has Farhadi in the lead with 5-to-2 odds to win. The Iranian director, whose film is in French, was honored as the best foreign language film two years ago at the Academy Awards for another domestic drama, “A Separation.” Having grown into an internationally renowned filmmaker, Farhadi could be in position for the Palme.

But some found his film, with its succession of reveals of past misdeeds, more a feat of mystery novel-like plotting than revealing drama. Certainly, its star, Berenice Bejo (“The Artist”), as a single-mother balancing an ex-husband and a new fiancé, is a possible best actress winner.

So, too, is the star of “Blue is the Warmest Color,” Adele Exarchopoulos. The 19-year-old actress was one of the breakout stars of the festival in the three-hour French film.

But the American entries this year have been very strong. Perhaps no film was better received at Cannes than “Inside Llewyn Davis,” along with its newcomer star, Oscar Isaac, who performed live songs for the film. The Coens won the Palme in 1991 for “Barton Fink.”

Gray’s “The Immigrant,” starring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix, divided critics between those hailing it as a classically made masterpiece and those unmoved by its operatic emotions. But the handsomely photographed, finely acted New York period piece may have played well with Spielberg’s jury.

“I’m trying to live in the bubble as best I can,” Gray said Saturday. “If a film’s reception is great, then you believe your own hype. If it goes poorly, then you think of yourself as a bum — neither of which is usually the case. Usually the case is you’re either hostage to or a beneficiary of a certain kind of festival gestalt.”

Alexander Payne’s father-and-son story “Nebraska,” starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte, could also stir the jury with its austere, black-and-white Midwest road trip.

Psychological guesswork of jury presidents is de rigueur at Cannes. This year, many expect Spielberg will steer away from rewarding a filmmaker from his native country. He leads a starry, international group of eight others: Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, Japanese director Naomi Kawase, French actor Daniel Auteuil and Bollywood star Vidya Balan.

One of the boldest, most ambitious films in competition was Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty,” which stars Toni Servillo as a Rome journalist who begins to question a lifetime of late nights. Wildly stylistic but also emotionally personal, it was one of the biggest critical hits at Cannes.

On the outside are wild cards like Steve Soderbergh‘s Liberace melodrama “Behind the Candelabra,” Kore-eda Hirokazu’s switched-at-birth drama “Like Father, Like Son” and Chad-born Mahamat-Saleh’s disabled dancer tale “Grigris.”

Soderbergh’s film, starring Michael Douglas, will air on HBO in the U.S. just hours after the Cannes closing ceremony. The director is withdrawing from moviemaking, so a win at Cannes would be fitting symmetry. His first film, “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” won the Palme d’Or in 1989.

On the first day of the festival, jury member Lee said he was praying the jury would be overwhelmed by a self-evident Palme winner, so they would have to avoid “rationalizing” their choice through debate. Perhaps the jury was hit by a thunderbolt that didn’t resound as clearly for festivalgoers. But most likely, Lee’s prayers went unanswered.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle