Sunday is a day of rest for some. But for the film industry this Sunday marks the end of nearly two weeks of wheeling, dealing, and schmoozing as the Cannes International Film Festival comes to a glittering close. It is award night on the French riviera with the world's beautiful people all gathering to slap each other on the back, while secretly bemoaning the fact that they lost out to someone else. They're all vying for a Palme D'Or, considered by most to be second only to an Oscar in the admiration stakes. This year's Palme D'Or could go to a British film, with Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe leading the charge. But while Sunday marks a critical end to the festival the hard work has already been done by the marketing and publicity people. To help boost ratings for films and their stars Cannes usually ends up as a circus of press conferences

and ''unscheduled public appearances''. This year is

no different.

Last week saw the Cannes jury - which decides who gets what on Sunday - line up for a chat with the international press. And it is hard to imagine a more glamorous gathering. Chiara Mastroianni, talented offspring of actress Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni, shimmered next to Winona Ryder, while Sigourney Weaver and Lena Olin elegantly flanked jury president Martin Scorsese. Film-makers Chen Kaige, Alain Corneau, and the UK's Michael Winterbottom, who directed Welcome to Sarajevo, novelist Zoe Valdes, and French rapper MC Solaar also appeared comfortable but somehow incongruous amid the popping flashguns and star power. Weaver, the star of the Alien series, explained how she was going to go about deciding which film should triumph. ''I've never seen 24 films in two weeks,'' said Weaver. ''It will be interesting to see what films stay with me and what films grow inside me.'' She's

no stranger to things growing inside her, on screen at least.

Scorsese's love for film came across as something close to mania. When asked whether he'd rather be president of the jury or have his film Kundun in competition, Scorsese didn't hesitate. ''I'd rather be president of the jury because you can see all the films. I am a cinephile. I believe that watching films is like working, it's like being on set.'' And as for making films, he was equally uncompromising, sounding more like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver than one of the premier film-makers of his generation. ''You have to be obsessed, you have to be crazy. You can't be afraid of anybody if you want to make a film.''

One of this year's competition films is described as embodying one form of madness and even includes fear in the title. The ex-Monty Python man, Terry Gilliam, is pushing his adaptation of journalist and iconoclast Hunter S Thompson's book Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. The film, directed by Gilliam, stars Johnny Depp as the drug-taking Thompson on a hair-raising trip to discover the American dream. Depp was in Cannes to promote the film and certainly made an impression. The star was scheduled to do several interviews and chat about what it was like to play a

fast-living, drug-taking

hell-raiser in the movie. Unfortunately, he failed to turn up for most of them and spent most of the day in his hotel room. His ex-girlfriend and model, Kate Moss, had also checked in, it seems.

The same hotel also witnessed rather a lot of Liz Hurley, in Cannes promoting her film Mickey Blue Eyes, directed by Kelly Mackin, which also stars Hugh Grant.

Getting to any Cannes hotel in style is, of course, an important part of being a star. But not for everyone. Forget the favoured stretch limo, convertible Porsche, or luxury of a Lear jet. Lars Von Trier, the Danish director who made Breaking The Waves, wended his weary way to Cannes in a camper van. He came on his own after nine co-stars from his competition entry Idiots declined to travel.

But despite all the glitz and modes of transport the talk of the town this year is an adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis's 1991 novel American Psycho. But it's not because the subject of the movie is a brutal yuppie serial killer. The film, to be directed by Mary Harron, who brought us I Shot Andy Warhol, will star Leonardo DiCaprio. It seems DiCaprio is putting his newfound Buddhism on hold to perform the part, having killed off the competition from Matt Damon and Brad Pitt to land the role.