With the Beijing Summer Games only four months away and frenzy mounting in the host city, organizers of the annual French Film Panorama made a popular choice of opening the festival on Thursday night with an Olympic-themed comedy.

Based on the 1968 comic book of the same name, Asterix at the Olympic Games features competitions in ancient Olympic Games and stars French movie icons Alain Delon and Gerard Depardieu. Its 78 million Euro (about $123 million) budget makes it one of the most expensive European movies ever.

"We can almost say the film is specially shot for China, as Beijing is going to host the Olympic Games this summer," Pathe CEO Jerome Seydoux told the Chinese audience through an interpreter at the opening ceremony.

Defying many Chinese's natural association of French films with slow-paced, art-house productions that are hard to follow, most of the 10 features to screen at the festival are commercial movies released in France over the past year.

Chinese audiences will also be treated to a showcase of 12 short films, a key component of the French film panorama.

The films will be shown in their original version with Chinese subtitles in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Wuhan over the next fortnight.

A delegation headed by Seydoux, and including veteran French film makers and producers, will have a question and answer session with audiences after the screenings.

The annual event, co-organized by Unifrance, a promoter of French cinema worldwide, along with the French Embassy to China and the French Cultural Center, will close in Shanghai on April 21.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2008)