Tonight David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars has its official screening at the Lumiere Theatre. Reactions to the film have, so far, been pretty positive. One or two hysterical critics have even suggested that it might be worthy of (and a serious contender for) the Palme d’Or. I’m not so sure. The picture is certainly an improvement on Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, which competed here two years ago, but, to me, the film seemed a little to keen on taking cheap shots at easy targets. It’s a satire of Hollywood’s venality and triviality, you see. And we’ve seen a few of those down through the years.

Anyway, Cronenberg joined Robert Pattinson and Julianne Moore for a press conference this morning. Not surprisingly, the director was asked whether he was now biting the hand that once fed him.

“To see it only as an attack on Hollywood is, I think, shortchanging the movie,” he parried. “You could set this in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street: anyplace people are desperate and fearful. You could set it anywhere and have the same ring of truth.”

Ms Moore was equally keen to avoid suggestions that she was involved in an assault on neighbours and colleagues. “I love the movie business, I’m not here to disparage it,” she said.

My favourite moment came when somebody pointed out that, for at least the third time in his career — after Crash and Cosmopolis — Mr Cronenberg depicted grubby sex in motor cars. Indeed, Mr Pattinson does get it on with Ms Moore in the back of a limousine. Cronenberg remembered that Ted Turner, who financed Crash, tried to suppress that film because he thought it might encourage folk to have sex in their vehicles.

“I said, you know there’s an entire generation of Americans who have been spawned in the back seat of a 1954 Ford,” Cronenberg commented. “So it’s not like I invented sex in cars.”

He wasn’t finished.

“You have to remember that part of the sexual revolution came about because of the automobile,” he laughed. “Because of the fact that young people could get away from their parents without being supervised. So I don’t think I’m breaking any new territory.”