Kylie Minogue movie 'tipped to win Cannes'

A French film in which Kylie Minogue makes a cameo appearance has emerged as one of the favourites to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Australian singer took to the red carpet on Wednesday for the premiere of Holy Motors, alongside its director Leos Carax and lead actor Denis Lavant.

Lavant plays Monsieur Oscar, a man who travels between parallel lives.

One reporter said a leading bookmaker had refused to accept any more bets on it winning the prestigious prize.

"[I] was going to put £10 on Holy Motors to win the Palme D'Or but Paddy Power have suspended betting on it," tweeted Robbie Collin of the Daily Telegraph.

A Paddy Power spokesman denied this claim, saying it was still accepting bets on all the 22 titles in contention for the prize.

Kevin Geoghegan, who has been reporting from Cannes for the BBC News website, was among those impressed by Holy Motors.

The film, he wrote in his reporter's diary, is "utterly, barking, slap-me-on-the-face-with-a-wet-fish, mad".

But not everyone has been so impressed, with Screen International's reviewer calling it "a self-conscious upmarket weird-out".

The film, wrote Jonathan Romney, "will be acclaimed by some as a visionary, game-changing masterpiece and dismissed by others as a derivative wallow in unfocused imagery".

French director Carax previously made Les amants du Pont-Neuf, with Lavant and former partner Juliette Binoche. He was nominated for the Palme d'Or in 1999 for Pola X.

On Wednesday Minogue offered her own interpretation of the film, in which she is seen performing a ballad co-written by Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy.

The movie, she told reporters, offered insights into "how we present ourselves in the world in different moments".

The 43-year-old said she had "banned" her entourage from being with her while she shot the film in Paris last year.

"I kind of stripped myself of being Kylie and wanted to go back to being as basic as possible, and pretty much be a blank canvas for Leos," she explained.

Minogue was not the only pop star in Cannes this week to promote their latest wares.

Kanye West was also in town to screen Cruel Summer, a short film made to tie in with a compilation album of the same name featuring artists on his G.O.O.D record label.