A B CANNES
In precisely a week (always the third week of May), the boulevard in Cannes, also known as La Croisette, will sparkle and bang. In order to get into the mood already, here’s an old-fashioned ABC.
Say Cannes and Film festival and you’ll think of all those L’Oréal ambassadors that have main sponsored the event for years. Doutzen Kroes, Eva Longoria, Mila Jovovich, Jane Fonda, they’ll all tread the red carpet. Sylvie will see it all from her sofa this year. L’Oréal ended their collaboration because of the turbulence in Sylvie’s private life.
It all happens in an area of about a stretched kilometer. That’s what makes it so fun. The thought that the biggest movie stars of the world are literally a arm’s length away.
The place where the stars reside and the paparazzi hang out. You can call it the fanciest and most famous hotel of Cannes. Yes, you definitely can.
Had enough of your hotel’s garden or the private beach pier? Got on a speedboat and go to Eden Roc. A restaurant that you can reach by water (or helicopter) and where the Provence thin ladies push around their crudités (sans vinaigrette naturellement) on their plates and see them spoon their chihuahuas some Voss water.
Especially known at employees from movie firms and the PAs of the stars that come to party. When the Americans are talking about The Grand, you know where to go to.
Ordinary folk travels by easyjet and takes the taxi. Real stars take the helicopter. Quick and incognito.
The official name of the festival
It varies every year. This year it constitutes a motley crew with Sofia Coppola and Willem Dafoe (Wild at Heart, The English Patient) as the most famous ones.
The film Grace Kelly was the opening film of the 67th edition of the Cannes film festival. The lead’s played by… you guessed it, Nicole Kidman. Kidman that belongs to the festival’s furniture.
A boulevard doesn’t go by some anonymous name in Cannes. It’s called the Croisette. La Croisette.
This is where the movie production companies are staying the night. The hotel’s got a lot of small cinema rooms that Tristars, Colombia, Warner’s, and Universal rent to show clients fresh movies. Besides, this hotel’s the nearest to the Palais de Festival, just cross the streek and you’re there. Though you’ll still take a limo for those thirty metres. It’s all about the right appearance.
So many stars in only a couple of hundred meters asks for extreme security. Without the right invitation or card, you can forget it in Cannes. No, no, no is the word. Tip. Book a room early at the Martinez or the Majestic (pronounce as mah-ges-tee-cuh) and your room key’s the key to the stars.
Has been the main sponsor of the event for years. With pleasure because the prettiest actresses are their ambassadors. A better match is hard to find.
These two fight for the honour. Everything happens at the Palais des Festival, but it’s all about the Palm. The Palm’s what they want to put on their fireplaces. Or nightstand, either two.
Quentin Tarantino closing the festival with a trubute to the world famous spaghetti western director Sergio Leone. Think of Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and A Fistfull of Dollars.
They’re the longest and most impressive in Cannes. When you walk it you feel like you’re floating. The screams of the photographers are drowned by the classical music, giving everything such an eerie feeling.
You won’t do for less. Otherwise you could’ve stayed at home, right?
The uniform has its own interpretation in Cannes. Azzedine Alaïa, Raf Simons for Dior, CHANEL couture, Elie Saab, and Cartier jewellery, for example.
Just happens when you go there.
Paparazzi could have learned Russian and Mandarin if they’d spent their time usefully. Hours and hours and hours of waiting in front of hotels, besides the carpet, waiting for that one perfect shot.
Everyone who hasn’t got it isn’t welcome. Sorry.
The place where the real deals are made. Where movie executives have big lunches and walk barefooted and with a glass in their hand to the next monster project celebration.
