Cannes, May 11 (Reuters): Murder and suicide opened the Cannes film festival today, setting the tone for what promises to be a dark selection of movies competing for the coveted Palme d’Or.

Lemming, directed by France’s Dominik Moll and starring British actor Charlotte Rampling, tells the tale of two couples whose lives quickly spin out of control and shows how tragedy and fear can lurk just below the surface.

It is one of 21 films in the main competition, and the sun-baked Riviera resort has been frantically preparing for the arrival of thousands of fans, journalists and stars from around the world who have come to see and be seen.

Hollywood royalty will grace the red carpet over the coming 12 days, and on Sunday the sixth and final installment of George Lucas’s hugely successful Star Wars series gets its world premiere.

Moll conceded that Lemming was dark but said there was enough humour to lighten the mood.

“It has a dark atmosphere, but I don’t see it as a pessimistic film,” he said.

The discovery of a lemming from Scandinavia in the drain below the kitchen sink had audiences laughing early on, but the chain of events it sets off quickly turned nasty.

In 2004 the Palme d’Or went to Michael Moore’s Bush-bashing polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, which, accompanied by European indignation over the invasion of Iraq and America’s war on terrorism in general, gave Cannes a political flavour.

This year, organisers appear content to sail for calmer waters with a competition that features established directors including four Palme d’Or winners.

That is not to say the 21 main competition entries fail to reflect some of today’s burning issues.

Showing later today is Kilometre Zero by Iraqi director Hiner Saleem, who sets his film during the Iran-Iraq war and explores ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs which exist to this day.

Themes of paternity and violence stand out, as does Asia’s strong showing with five entries in the main competition by directors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Previous Palme d’Or winners include Germany’s Wim Wenders, whose Don’t Come Knocking features a down-and-out Western hero looking for redemption, and American Gus Van Sant, who is back with Last Days.

America’s Jim Jarmusch brings together an all-star cast including Bill Murray, Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange and Julie Delpy in Broken Flowers, which follows the resolutely single Don who goes out in search of a son he did not know he had.

Veteran Woody Allen is expected in Cannes tomorrow to present his Match Point, set among the English upper class and starring Scarlett Johansson.