For the second year in a row, the Cannes Film Festival is showcasing the directorial debut of a Hollywood star. This year it’s Natalie Portman’s first feature, “A Tale of Love and Darkness.” Adapted from an autobiographical novel by Amos Oz, the film is an ambitious period piece that charts the birth of the state of Israel and a boy’s initiation into the realities of disappointment and death. The Israel-born Portman also wrote the screenplay and stars in the Hebrew-language feature as the boy’s mother Fania, a cultured and imaginative woman whose dreams can’t withstand grinding everyday reality. Portman’s film — a reverent adaptation with a vivid sense of place but less memorable characters — received mild applause at its press screening Friday. It has its gala festival screening on Saturday.
