The Cannes Film Festival delivered its top prize to a lesbian romance said to contain sexually explicit scenes.
"Blue is the Warmest Color" by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche is sure to raise controversy.
There is another kind of controversy gripping a large segment of the French population now: gay-marriage.
This past Sunday, about 150,000 people marched on the streets of Paris to protest the new gay-marriage law.
And it says something about the contrast in cultural attitudes in France.
The New York Times' Steve Erlanger in Paris says "France is a Catholic country where nobody goes to church" and where the arts are fiercely protected.
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