Dekolte Anite Ekberg, mladi Majkl Kejn i negliže Šeron Stoun Anita Ekberg’s cleavage and other scandals: young Michal Caine and Sharon Stone’s negligee
Celebrated names of cinema jostle side-by-side with completely anonymous filmmakers who become stars after appearing in Cannes, the cream of the global film industry, a parade of vanity, starlets, parties... No festival is as simultaneously elitist and democratic as Cannes. What awaits us at its jubilee edition this year, from 17 th to 28 th May? T he films, posters, juries and times that follow the festival are what change in Cannes from year to year. What remains the same is the treatment of the films that are screened in the halls of the festival’s palaces - Lumière, Debussy, Bazin. A screening at Cannes is the best way to present a film, but it also poses a risk for the film’s future if critics and audi- ences don’t like it. Cannes has always been a magnet for great directors, movie stars, and those whose time has not yet come, as well as those filmmakers who find refuge here from censorship in their home countries. Cele- brated names of the film world jostle side- by-side with completely anonymous film- makers who become stars after appearing in Cannes, the cream of the global film in- dustry business, a parade of vanity, starlets, parties... It’s not easy to explain the nature of this festival, but it is certain that Cannes is simultaneously elitist and democratic. It all started way back in 1939, when the enraged French withdrew from the Ven- ice Film Festival, which they considered as being awash with fascist propaganda. And so they organised their own festival in the south of France, on the Cote d’Azur, on the Cannes Croisette, awarding the Festi- val Grand Prix as the main prize. The festi- val continued after the war, in 1946, when it experienced a new edition.
During the first year it was held in Sep- tember, due to the need to take revenge against the Venice Film Festival, which took place at the same time, but in 1952 the fes- tival switched to May, which is still today the traditional time to screen movies from all overtheworld.Theawardchangedindesign and name in 1954, with the introduction of the Golden Palm, the Palme d’Or, which is also the main element of the coat of arms of this city on the Cote d’Azur.
conies of famous hotels. However, the in- cident when French actress Simone Silva decided to pose topless for photographs alongside Hollywood star Robert Mitchum ensured that the whole world heard about the Promenade de la Croisette. From that moment onwards, stars and photographers began to regularly attend the festival that had a legend that began with a scandal. With the inclusion of starlets, Cannes’ scandals were transferred to the cinema halls, where real battles were fought, like the one following the screening of Michel- angelo Antonioni’s The Adventure in 1960, when a crowd attacked the film crew, show- ering them with insults and throwing rotten tomatoes at them. That same year saw an- other film of an Italian great, Federico Fel- lini’s la Dolce Vita, spark fierce controversy and the rage of the Catholic Church, which threatened to excommunicate any of the faithful who went to watch the controver- sial Anita Ekberg. This was probably the best
ONE TOPLESS EXPOSÉ WAS ENOUGH
The first winner of the Palme d’Or was American director Delbert Mann, for the romantic drama Marty. At that time the Cannes festival still had a provincial air – renowned directors and actors gave inter- views in cafés, they went on foot to film screenings and posed along the way for photographers on the beach or on the bal-
Lupita Njongo i Irina Šajk Lupita Nyong‘o and Irina Shayk
| 27
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator