A "vulnerable" Mike Tyson appeared at the Cannes film festival on Saturday for the premiere of a flattering documentary on the former world heavyweight boxing champion's tumultuous life.

The picture takes Tyson from his humble beginnings on the mean streets of Brooklyn through his phenomenal rise as a boxing champion and his epic fall marked by addiction, humiliation in the ring and a rape conviction.

Tyson, who has put on weight in recent years and now has a Maori tattoo around his left eye, flew to the French Riviera from his suburban Las Vegas home with a sizeable entourage for the premiere of 'Tyson'.

The retired fighter, who will be 42 next month, fielded reporters' questions after a packed screening at the world's biggest cinema showcase.

"Totally overwhelmed"

"I'm totally overwhelmed," he admitted.

"Really, it was shocking when I came into the grand opening and saw all those cameras. I didn't even want to see it (the film) because I get a little embarrassed because I'm so vulnerable up there."

The picture combines more than 30 hours of interviews with highlights of his boxing career.

Director James Toback, best known for his 1978 drama 'Fingers' which was re-made into a hit French movie in 2005, said he believed he had succeeded in presenting Tyson as a "complex and iconic and noble human being".

He met a teen Tyson in 1985 while directing 'The Pick-up Artist'. Tyson said their friendship was what allowed him to be so candid on camera.

"I have a great deal trust in him and I believed that it was going to be a decent project and once I committed to it, I did it wholeheartedly, I gave him everything that he wanted to have," he said.

Told entirely from Tyson's point of view, the portrayal allows the gentle giant with the high-pitched voice and a lisp to take the long view of his rocky past and extraordinary career.

Unique place in boxing history

Toback said Tyson occupied a unique place in the history of boxing.

"There are certain people in various fields, they just become the representative, iconic figure of that profession," he said. "Muhammad Ali as a personality and as an entertainer -- but to me as a boxer, as a fighter, it's Mike Tyson."

In the film, Tyson describes his start in boxing as a reaction to vicious bullying when he was a chubby child.

Locked up in juvenile detention at the age of 12, he began sparring and was eventually taken on by legendary trainer Cus D'Amato, whom Tyson describes as a father figure who built up his battered self-esteem.

Even before his body was steeled by countless hours of training, D'Amato taught him the tactical tricks necessary to bring an opponent to his knees.

"I knew all the skulduggery," Tyson says. "Most of these guys lost the fight before it even started."

Tyson, who went 50-6 with 44 knockouts, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986 at age 20 and was the undisputed champion from 1987 until 1990, winning his first 37 fights with ferocious force.

A god in the ring

"Once I get in the ring, I'm a god," he says.

The now-vulnerable Tyson reflects upon his mistakes, including an unhappy marriage and bitter divorce from actress Robin Givens.

"We were just kids," a milder Tyson now says.

Tyson lost his crowns to Buster Douglas in Tokyo in 1990 and the flaring temper returns when he recounts his three-year stint in prison after his 1992 conviction for raping an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant.

"I may have taken advantage of women before but not of that woman," he insists. "That still bothers me today."

Tyson reclaimed the heavyweight throne but lost to Evander Holyfield in 1996 and bit Holyfield's ears twice in a 1997 rematch, adding banishment to his ridicule.

Tyson filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after squandering an estimated $400-million and retired two years later.

"I just didn't have it in me anymore," the father of six says. "I lost the desire to be a champion."

The documentary is screening in the festival's "Un Certain Regard" sidebar section and is to be released later this year.

AFP