The story of a woman who transforms the inhabitants of an old people's home may seem an unusual subject for a comedy, but its star Pauline Collins says it's been getting the thumbs up at Cannes.

"It's a comedy but quite touching in places," says Collins.

We are seated on the upper deck of a huge yacht in the harbour where the launch party for Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War is in full swing.

Cabbages? Someone has even been out and found one in Cannes for some publicity pictures. The cast includes John Alderton, Peter Capaldi and Anna Wilson-Jones.

In the film, based on the book by Vernon Coleman, the widowed Thelma Caldicot, who has spent years being bullied and pushed around, finally decides to stand up for herself.

Cinderella

Young people like it and they come out saying 'We'll never put our parents in an old people's home'

Pauline Collins

"She gets put into an old people's home when her husband dies, and one of the things that everybody hates is the badly cooked cabbage - so she leads a small revolution," says Collins.

"She has time to think that there's more to life than sitting in a chair - and she undergoes a Cinderella-like transformation."

But how has the film gone down in Cannes?

"It's had a really warm reception," says Collins, "and right across the age range.

"I thought it might be something that only older people appreciated but really young people like it and they come out saying 'We'll never put our parents in an old people's home.'"

Unexotic location

The film, directed by Ian Sharp, has no release date yet, but the makers are hoping for an autumn slot.

"It was shot in the least exotic location of Surrey during the wet, flooded winter, but with a lovely warm crew," laughs Collins.

It is her first Cannes film festival, and she has noted the difference to more "arty" events like Berlin.

"It's the most commercial and hustling I've ever seen," she says.

Collins has another couple of film projects in the pipeline, one in the US, but presumably neither involve the humble cabbage.