Cannes film festival Day Three: Film Français journal rated the competition films, with Jacques Audiard's "Rust and Bone" ranked 1st.

Cannes prison embarrassment

Aniello Arena, the Italian actor who is already being praised at the prestigious film festival for “a very winning central performance” in the competition entry Reality, is unable to promote his breakout film because he is serving time in prison.

Arena reportedly has been imprisoned for two decades and was excused to star in director Matteo Garrone’s film during the day as long as he returned to custody at night. According to Forbes, Arena is currently serving a 20-year-to-life term in Italy for double murder.

In Reality, the inmate/actor stars as a Naples fishmonger who becomes obsessed with appearing on a Big Brother–type reality show in Italy. Arena’s work in the film has been called “riveting” and the first real breakout performance of this year’s festival.

Garrone cast the actor after discovering him in a prison theater troupe, which performs at festivals and in theaters throughout Italy. The director told reporters that he pursued him for the 2008 crime drama Gomorrah, “but the judge wouldn’t allow it.”

Paradise for money

Another year at Cannes, another polarizing film that splits audiences.

Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's film depicts middle-aged European women at a Kenyan holiday resort seeking romance with young local men. It had its gala premiere Friday, May 18 in Cannes, where it is one of 22 films competing for the Palme d'Or.

The movie stars Margarethe Tiesel as a 50-year-old Austrian whose search for love turns increasingly predatory. But the actress told journalists that she did not judge the character's behavior. She said the movie examined female loneliness and the way "people who are exploited at home travel abroad and become exploiters in turn."

Seidl, who looked at east-west friction in Europe in his 2007 Cannes entry "Import/Export," plans the film as the first in a trilogy about modern tourism.

What does Day Four have in store for us?

Cannes Day Four will feature John Hillcoat’s “Lawless,” starring Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska. Set in the Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, the film follows a bootlegging gang threatened by authorities who want a cut of their profits.

Another competition film is Cristian Mungiu’s “Beyond the Hills” drama centering on the friendship between two young women who grew up in the same orphanage; one has found refuge at a convent in Romania and refuses to leave with her friend, who now lives in Germany.