Juliette Binoche, Cannes 1984
Jacques Tati at Cannes in 1974.
The making of 2012’s Palme d’Or
The prestigious trophy is awarded to the winner of the Best Film category at the Cannes International Film Festival every year. In 1997, Pierre Viot, then President of the Festival met Caroline Scheufele. He was so charmed by the creativity and energy of Chopard’s Co-President, that he asked her to redesign the Palme d’Or. Since 1998, craftsmen make a unique Palme d’Or every year.
Caroline Scheufele offered a new interpretation of the famous trophy awarded to the best film of the Festival: a delicately curved 18-carat gold stem with a small heart at its base, reminiscent of the symbol of the firm. The stem is adorned with leaves appearing to have been caught in mid-motion and it rests on a crystal cushion shaped like an emerald-cut diamond. This precious detail makes each Palme d’Or unique, for Mother Nature never creates two identical crystals…
Thérèse Desqueyroux (Claude Miller, 2012)
In the Landes region of France, near Bordeaux, marriages are arranged to merge land parcels and unite neighboring families. Thus, young Thérèse Larroque becomes Mrs. Desqueyroux. But her avant-garde ideas clash with local conventions. In order to break free from the fate imposed upon her and live a full life, she will resort to tragically extreme measures…
Anna at the 26th Annual Cannes International Film Festival, 1973. She was there with her film Vivre ensemble.
Brigitte Bardot photographed in France at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival by Kary Lasch.
History adds that before or after dying he found himself in the presence of God and told Him: ‘I who have been so many men in vain want to be one and myself.’
The voice of the Lord answered from a whirlwind: ‘Neither am I anyone; I have dreamt the world as you dreamt your work, my Shakespeare, and among the forms in my dream are you, who like myself are many and no one.’
— Jorge Luis Borges, Everything and Nothing
Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc Godard, and François Truffaut call for a halt to the 1968 Cannes Film Festival due to the ongoing nationwide strike in France.
Gilles Jacob:
Why did you stop the Cannes Festival?
François Truffaut:
Because it was the logical thing to do. France was closing down, therefore Cannes had to close down. While I was driving to Cannes on May 17 to take part in a press conference about the Cinémathèque affair, I was listening to the radio and every half-hour came reports of more factories being occupied. I wasn’t sorry to see France paralyzed, the government was in disarray. Next day, when I asked for the Festival to be stopped, I wasn’t thinking particularly of a gesture of solidarity with the workers—I’d have been more likely to feel solidarity with the four students who were sentenced to jail after a hasty session in a Sunday court. I wasn’t really thinking of challenging or reforming the Festival, of doing away with evening dress or making it more cultural. No, I just felt that in its own interest the Festival should stop of its own accord rather than be halted a few days later by the force of events. I didn’t see it as a military coup, I simply wanted an unambiguous situation. In fact, this is how it happened.
During the night I was told of the creation of the Etats Généraux du Cinéma and their decision to stop the Festival, and I talked to a few people about it. We had no idea how difficult it is to stop this kind of big business event. We just adopted the tactics that had worked for the Cinémathèque: producers who had films in competition would withdraw them, jury members would resign. We made a mistake in not giving more information about the situation in France to people who for a week had been reading nothing but the Festival daily. (You feel differently according to whether or not you’ve been listening to the news.) This was especially true of foreign journalists and delegates, who naturally had qualms about joining in an anti-government movement…
Anyway, we had to get the Festival stopped and we did. It could maybe have been managed more elegantly, but in circumstances like this you’re inclined to check your manners with your hat—and someone probably throws away the cloakroom key. I know that a lot of people will hold our attitude at Cannes against us for a long time to come, but I also know that a few days later, when there were no more planes and no more trains, when the telephones weren’t working and we’d run out of petrol and cigarettes, the Festival would have looked utterly ridiculous if it had tried to carry on.Sight and Sound, Autumn 1968.
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Claudia Cardinale, Cannes 1960
Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012) trailer
Alain Resnais on set of Vous n’avez encore rien vu (2012)
Confession of a Child of the Century (Sylvie Verheyde, 2012)
