In May 1968, the Cannes Film Festival ground to a halt. Fifty years later, it's still sparking controversy

In the newly released comedy "Godard Mon Amour," Michel Hazanavicius' playful flashback to France in the fateful year of 1968, a young Jean-Luc Godard (played by Louis Garrel) marches with an enormous crowd in Paris. Alongside him is the critic and filmmaker Michel Cournot, whose "Les Gauloises Bleues" is set to screen that May at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Who cares about Cannes?" a Godard acquaintance yells, bursting into derisive laughter. "Only a fool would go this year, with all that's going on now!"

A lot was going on indeed. Millions of workers were on strike, and students were pouring into the streets, all in opposition to President Charles de Gaulle's government. On the film side, directors like Godard were furious that the culture minister Andre Malraux had fired Henri Langlois, the revered founder of the Cinematheque Francaise - a decision that was ultimately reversed after filmmakers from Paris to Hollywood rose up in protest.

That revolutionary fervor soon encroached upon the small Riviera town of Cannes itself. The film festival opened