Cannes

AN upbeat Tom Clarke, the first British Films Minister to attend the Cannes Film Festival twice, said yesterday he hoped to make it a hat-trick next year.

He welcomed the fact that five Scottish films, two of which were set in Glasgow, are showing in the Festival or in the Market Place and hoped that next year he would be blowing a tartan trumpet about their success as he was this year about the success of British films.

He was also pleased that the fratricide raging last year among Scotland's film makers and members of the Scottish film establishment had ended.

The appointment of Mr James Lee, an investment banker who worked for Goldcrest Films, is expected to be announced in Cannes today as the next chairman of Scottish Screen, succeeding Mr Alan Schiach.

Mr Lee is a member of the high-profile steering group set up last year to examine ways of funding Scottish film production.

It is his knowledge of film finance that he will bring to the Scottish Screen job and he will play a major part in working towards setting up the new Scottish Film Fund that will bring private and public money together to help get films made in Scotland.

Mr Clarke said the presence of the five films showed Scottish film-making continued to be buoyant. They include Ken Loach's My Name is Joe, written by Glasgow lawyer Paul Laverty who wrote the script of his last film Carla's Song. This one is a romantic drama involving a reformed alcoholic played by Peter Mullen and a social worker. Mullen is also involved with the worst football team in Glasgow. The film gets its premiere tomorrow and the word is that Loach may have come up with a winner.

Peter Mullen has Orphans, his film, his first as director, in the Directors Fortnight. The other films are The Acid House based on short stories by Irvine Welsh, Stella Does Tricks which has already been shown in Britain and a short film, Gasman, directed by Lynne Ramsay who won the short film prize here two years ago.

Mr Clarke, opening the British pavilion, said someone once told Hollywood at the Oscars that the British were coming. He was telling Cannes they had arrived. ''We regard the success British films had last year as providing the foundation for a real renaissance'' he said. ''We are not complacent, not resting on our laurels because we have not yet got to the top of the mountain. We are still climbing.''

He believed the proposals in the report of the Film Policy Review Group which he chaired provided the way ahead for the industry. ''We're confident they will lead to permanent success and last year will not prove to have just been a blip. The foundation has been laid for the kind of industry the British film industry is capable of becoming both in Europe and globally.''

He dismissed as ''totally without foundation'' reports that the Government intended to compel exhibitors to show British films on designated screens in the multiplexes as a means of combating the American domination of the market. ''It is in conflict with everything the Government believes in,'' he said. ''We believe in a genuine partnership, it is not part of Government thinking and will not be in the lifetime of New Labour. I want to work with the United States in the global scene and I believe British films will find themselves on the screens because of their quality.''

He also emphasised the need for the new fund to improve the training of would-be film makers and that they should be taught how to market their films and how to improve the standards of screen writing. He contrasted the number of rewrites the average American film will go through compared to a British film and the fact that, whereas in Britain one in three films presented at development level ended upon on the screen, in America it is one in 20.

qVeteran actor Richard Harris cavorted with two lion cubs on the beach at Cannes yesterday to promote his new film, despite writing into his contract that he would not touch them.

Playing conservationist George Adamson in To Walk With Lions, the 64-year-old star was so frightened of the big cats he refused to have anything to do with them.

But yesterday he happily stroked and tickled lion cubs Pasha, five months, and Caesar, four months, as they frolicked in the sunshine.

Real-life conservationist Tony Fitzjohn was on hand to make sure the young cats behaved, as was actor John Michie, who plays him in the film.

But Cannes' latest young unknowns proved themselves real pussycats, playing contentedly while at least 60 photographers snapped away.