Cannes 2016: Woody Allen film Café Society to open 69th festival

Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart both star in the 1930s Hollywood romance, which hopes to capture the spirit of an age

The 69th Cannes Film Festival will open with Woody Allen's latest, Café Society.

It's the third film of Allen's to open the Festival, following 2002's Hollywood Ending and 2011's Midnight in Paris; though the 14th to be screened overall, from the first, Manhattan (1979), to last year's Irrational Man (2015).

Jesse Eisenberg plays a young man arriving in Hollywood in the 1930s with dreams of a career in its film industry; though instead finds himself in love, and entranced by the café society which marked such a spirited age. He'll star alongside Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, and Steve Carell.

It's maybe the least surprising choice Cannes could have possibly gone with; but the news will, at least, have fans hopeful the director's wildly inconsistent career has, this year, turned up one of his strong suites.

Allen certainly has one major player in his cinematic artillery here, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro; a three-time Oscar winner for Apocalypse Now (1980), Reds (1982), and The Last Emperor (1988).

Café Society opens the festival on Wednesday 11 May in the Palais des Festival's Grand Théâtre Lumière; which then runs until 22 May.