Finer things in life. Curated by a Monaco-based connoisseur.
Cannes Film Festival: Iconic Moments
To sum it up in a few words – Cannes Film Festival is twelve days of sun, sand and screenings on the French Cote D’Azur with around 200,000 people, including film stars, movie makers, celebrity and star gazers dotting La Croisette with their every move tracked by 4,000 journalists. We take a look at some of Cannes’ most iconic moments.
1939 was the year of the planned Cannes Film Festival debut to rival the Venice Film Festival, however the festival was canceled that year due to the start of World War II.In 1954, B-movie starlet Simone Sylva ripped off her bikini top on the Cannes sands. She was stripped of her Miss Festival title and asked to leave.At the 1954 festival, the young American actress Grace Kelly was introduced to her future husband Prince Rainier of Monaco by journalist Pierre Galante.Saucy French stunner Brigitte Bardot – the grand dame of the starlet phenomenon – began her dizzy rise to stardom with a brief appearance as an unknown actress at the 1955 Cannes Festival, the same year that saw the birth of the famous Palme d’Or.Sophia Loren causes a stir at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the most photographed woman at the event. She was a regular at Cannes through her early career and won the Best Actress prize in 1960 for her role as Cesira in ‘Two Women’.Married earlier in the year, theatre and film producer Mike Todd and Elizabeth Taylor brought some high octane glamour to the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. Wearing a tiara and drop diamond earrings, Liz looked regal.Alain Delon’s film career began at the Canned Film Festival in 1956, soon after her became a regular often holidaying with his legendary love Romy Schneider.Table dancing takes on a whole new meaning at Cannes – in 1958 French actress Jeanne Moreau strode down a long table, gingerly stepping over silver ice buckets and bread plates, at an official dinner.Jayne Mansfield shows off her chihuahua and her bikini body on May 1964. The year before, Mansfield had become the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a film, in ‘Promises! Promises!’Andy Warhol paid for his entourage of eight people to join him for his movie ‘Chelsea Girls’ screening in 1967. The film got pulled out of the programme due to some male nudity. It was the first time ever that an invited film was never screened.Gina Lollobrigida arrives to Cannes to promote ‘King, Queen, Knave’, the film adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov novel. On May 17, 1972 she steals paparazzi attention for the dress that matches her three dalmatians.Royal observers at the 1987 festival were the first ones to notice that red carpet visitors Prince Charles and Lady Diana seemed ‘bored’ and ‘detached’ from each other.Madonna turns heads at Cannes in 1991 with a Jean-Paul Gaultier conical bra, at the premiere of ‘In Bed with Madonna’.Jane Campion, who won the Palme D’Or for her film ‘The Piano’ in 1993, is the only female director to have picked up the award in seventy years of the festival.Eva Herzigova poses for a Helmut Newton (and about hundred other photographers) at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996Hundreds of audience members walked out of the 2003 screening of director Vincent Gallo’s ‘The Brown Bunny’, in which Chloe Sevigny performed full-on fellatio on Gallo. Respected critic Roger Ebert dubbed it “the worst film in the history of the festival”Bridget Bardot’s legendary bikini was finally outdone in 2006 when Borat turned up on the Cannes beach with a couple of lovelies and a outrageously revealing “mankini”.Monica Belucci and Sophie made a dramatic entry in 2008 wearing almost identical gowns: Monica wore a body hugging Christian Dior while Sophie opted for a strapless YSL. The two ladies hugged and cuddled each other, igniting unhealthy interest for their movie ‘Don’t Look Back’.Naomi Campbell met her current boyfriend, property tycoon Vladislav Doronin at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008 and the two have been inseparable ever since.While discussing their film ‘Kung Fu Panda’ in 2008, Jack Black accidentally announced that his co-star Angelina Jolie was expecting twins.2011: The French First Lady, super model and now actress, billed simply as Carla Bruni, debuts in Woody Allen’s exquisite film ‘Midnight In Paris’, however she was no where to be seen at the movie premiere. The news leaked by Sarkozy’s father confirm that Carla will soon give birth to her second and president’s fourth child.
Haute Today 