Emma Watson, Sofia Coppola win hearts at Cannes

British actress Emma Watson has turned to crime in her latest role as part of a celebrity-obsessed teenage gang robbing their Hollywood idols’ homes in a film that made its debut at the Cannes film festival on Thursday.

The Bling Ring, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, is based on a real-life gang fixated by glamour who tracked their targets’ whereabouts online and stole $3 million (Dh11 million) of luxury goods from celebrities including Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

Watson, 23, proved her days as Hermione in Harry Potter are long gone as she donned skimpy outfits and perfected a Los Angeles accent to play a fictitious version of one of the Bling Ring gang, who were caught in 2009 and sent to jail.

She said her main challenge was to work out why these teenagers, from mainly wealthy backgrounds, were so preoccupied with celebrities. Her research involved watching reality TV shows such as Keeping up with the Kardashians and The Hills.

“I enjoy the chance to transform into new roles and work with new creative people,” Watson, dressed in a short, black dress and black stilettos, told a news conference on Thursday where her presence creating a frenzy among photographers.

“Harry Potter seems like such a long time ago,” she said.

The Bling Ring, which opened the Cannes category “Un Certain Regard” for emerging filmmakers, starts with the teenagers seeing on a gossip website that Paris Hilton is in Las Vegas and guessing she would be the kind of person to leave a key under the mat.

They find her address and in they sneak, returning several times to party in the house and then to other celebrities’ homes, helping themselves to Birkin bags, Louboutin shoes, Rolex watches, bling and cash to fund their party lifestyle, boasting about their acquisitions on Facebook.

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Even when their make-believe celebrity world comes crashing down, the teenagers seem oblivious to the gravity of their crimes and more interested in hyping their new-found notoriety.

Alongside Watson, Katie Chang plays Bling Ring leader Rebecca, while Israel Broussard is her submissive lieutenant with Taissa Farmiga and Claire Julien making up the gang.

The film received favourable reviews after a press screening on the second day of the 12-day Cannes festival, described as a “wily critique of celebrity culture” and an “intuitive and atmospheric tale” with a great soundtrack.

This was a welcome reaction for the American Sofia Coppola, whose third film Marie Antoinette was booed in 2006 when it made its debut at Cannes.

“I have nice memories of Cannes,” the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola said in an interview on Thursday on the roof of the Palais, the festival centre. “I remember coming here as a kid and then my first movie, Virgin Suicides, had our first screening ever here. I feel like my career started here.”

Growing up in such surroundings, one would think, would have heavily informed Coppola’s latest film, The Bling Ring.

“I definitely noticed that people would act different around my dad. It was just part of my growing up,” she says. “This world feels unfamiliar to me, this kind of reality-star, tabloid culture.”

There’s wry irony in premiering The Bling Ring at Cannes, the decadent French Riviera resort town of high-end boutiques and luxury hotels.

“It seems like the perfect setting for The Bling Ring, when you see people walking around in their heels,” says Coppola, who favours a less flashy style. “It’s a glamorous place, so it feels appropriate.”

And if there’s an epicentre of the trash culture Coppola talks about, it may be Paris Hilton’s shoe closet. Coppola shot in Hilton’s mansion where the teens rummage through her footwear and lounge in her nightclub room. (The hotel heiress appears fleetingly in the film.)

She dismissed complaints by some of the Bling Ring members that the film was “trashy and inaccurate”.

“It is not a documentary. I am not too concerned with their reaction,” she said.