Ledger's last role premieres

HEATH Ledger's last unfinished role, cut short by his tragic death, has premiered in Cannes.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, described as a "fantastical morality tale," was warmly received by festival critics on Friday, not least as a tribute to Heath from his actor friends Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who stepped in to take on his role after his untimely January 2008 death.

"I think it was people's love for Heath that meant that this film was finally done," cult director Terry Gilliam said at a press conference.

"Everyone in the cast and crew was determined this film be finished," the British director said. "It was important to me as it was his last performance."

The Oscar-winning Australian star of Brokeback Mountain died halfway through the shoot, aged only 28, from an accidental overdose of medicine.

A tale of good and evil, Gilliam's fantasy on the power of imagination stars singer Tom Waits as the devil and Christopher Plummer as Doctor Parnassus, who runs an extraordinary travelling show pulled by horses and including a walk-through magic mirror to fantasyland.

"I'm saying use your imagination to see the world," said the 68-year-old director, most famed for his Monty Python movies.

Because the plot called for walks through the mirror by Ledger, Gilliam reworked the scripts after his death to allow Depp, Law and Farrell to embody the actor's fantasy-world character in three different chapters.

Executive producer of the 45-million-dollar movie, Samuel Hadida of Metropolitan Filmexport, told AFP that when Ledger died, shooting had just been completed on the real-life scenes in London, with the imaginary world due to be shot in Vancouver.

"Terry spent a month reworking the film", Hadida said. "He came up with the idea of using three actors to replace Heath. There was a real push to make sure his last performance would see the day."

In the movie, which is showing out of competition at Cannes, Ledger plays the role of mysterious Tony, who joins the Imaginarium after its members save him from a hanging death.

As the 12-day film festival winds up towards the close, the favourite to scoop its coveted Palme d'Or award on Sunday evening is a French prison drama titled "The Prophet" by director Jacques Audiard.

Twenty films from the world's top directors are lined up for the award.

Other hot contenders include Jane Campion's Bright Star, Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces and Looking for Eric by Ken Loach.