Which film opens the Edinburgh Festival

A.� A French film, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain, opens this year's Edinburgh International Festival, which runs from August 12 - 26. The film, which opens in the UK in the autumn, has been an extraordinary hit in France and four million people have seen it in the last two months. It has beaten Pearl Harbor at the box office, and in France has beaten Moulin Rouge, the hottest film from this year's Cannes Film Festival, starring Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman. It has taken nearly �21million so far.

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Q.� What is the film about

A..� Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the fantasist French film director responsible for Delicatessen and Alien: Resurrection, it is set in Montmartre in Paris and is the tale of a gauche, elfin waitress of a heroine, played by Audrey Tautou, and it's a sentimental story of love conquering all.

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Q.� How do Hollywood films generally do in France

A.� French filmmakers are largely beating Hollywood at their own game it seems. In the first two months of this year, 18.5 million people went to see French films at cinemas around the country - more than half the total cinema-going audience in France.

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Usually French films only account for a third of box office receipts, with Hollywood taking the lion's share. These domestic successes have been very different from the usual avant-garde films with which French cinemas have made their reputation. The French have made their own blockbusters, so there is a Gallic version of a serial thriller called Les RivieresPpoupres (Crimson Rivers); and a Gothic fantasy movie, Le Pacte des Loups, and a comedy sequel, La Verite Si Je Mens 2.

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Q.� How famous is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain in France

A.� It's set to do for Montmatre what Notting Hill did for London's Notting Hill. President Jaques Chirac even invited the director to a special screening of the film at the Elysee Palace, and film experts say that in recent memory only The Full Monty, has such a broad appeal.

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By Katharine MacColl