The glamour quotient of the Cannes Film Festival jury is higher this year than it has ever been in recent times.

Italian actress Monica Bellucci, Chinese star Zhang Ziyi and Britain's Helena-Bonham Carter are all on the jury. So on the opening night and at subsequent events, it was the jury that shone brighter than the camera flashbulbs.

The festival organisers never fail to get a beauty or two to sit in on the jury. Last year, they had Salma Hayek, the year before it was Aishwarya Rai, but this year they have gone the whole hog and packed the panel with not one, not two, but three of the world's most beautiful women.

Nobody's obviously complaining. The festival, after all, is as much about glamour and glitz as it is about cinema. When beauty judges the best, the outcome can only be handsome.