Nicole will quit for love

Nicole Kidman today warned that the pressures of work might make her turn her back on the film industry.

As she took the Cannes Film Festival by storm for the launch of her film Dogville, she spoke for the first time of the dangers of "burn-out".

She said: "I probably won't do this for the rest of my life. I think when I fall in love again, I will stop because I'll want to settle down again. I think this life is a burn-out life actually. It's not something I will do for ever and ever."

She said: "I won't do a big thing about quitting. It will finish in its own time - and will just dwindle away."

Kidman, who posed during a photocall for Dogville, Danish director Lars von Trier's Palme D'Or contender, also made subtle references to the fling she is alleged to have had with Jude Law on the set of the movie Cold Mountain.

Both parties denied the affair - said to be why Law's marriage to Sadie Frost broke down - but Kidman appeared determined to quash the rumour further today.

Speaking of her time on the Romanian set, she said: "I really liked the isolation - it was shot in the middle of winter. It was good.

I have only just finished filming in Romania. I really liked it, partly because of the isolation. I like being alone - I like being alone with not many people, alone during my work."

She added: "I really like a challenge and to travel."

Kidman stepped on to the red carpet in Cannes only after being assured that Penelope Cruz had long gone.

Organisers made sure there was no possibility of a meeting between the ex-wife of Tom Cruise and his current girlfriend.

It was no coincidence that Cruz's film premiere, for Fanfan La Tulipe, opened the festival last week - and Kidman's was not until today.