Charlotte Rampling, the formidably poised actor who stars in this year's Cannes film festival opening movie, yesterday called Hollywood's attitude to women of a certain age "barbaric". Charlotte Higgins reports in The Guardian.

Speaking after the premiere of the festival's opening film, Lemming, by the French director Dominik Moll, she said: "The system is not as barbaric in Europe as it is in America. If a woman is prepared to age it can be quite beautiful, and having wrinkles is not a reason to be put away. In Europe they understand that, thank god."