Jacques Tati

 

 Cannes Film Festival 1958, Jacques Tati and Alain Bercourt walk towards the Carlton Hotel, Henri Cartier-Bresson

I have a crush on the late Jacques Tati, MG first told me about him years ago but I had never seen one of his films.  Fast forward to today and a chat to the Post Master at my local village post office, the conversation was sparked off by all the gorgeous retro film posters advertising Jacques Tati films, which decorate the walls of the tiny post office, the Post Master is a fan.

 "Oh Madame, but you must see his films, I know you are a lady of taste, you will love them". With that kind of flattery from the handsome Post Master, who could resist? Once home I googled him straight away and now I am hooked. I see inspiration from Charlie Chaplin and I see where Peter Sellers got his inspiration from. Below is a clip, but you can see the whole of part one of Mon Oncle here and that will bounce you onto the whole film, if you feel so inclined and get hooked as I did, in fact I whiled away an hour or so watching the entire film on u tube when I was supposed to be working! It's a great comedic insight into post war France. 

Cannes Film Festival, The Retro Edition

Faye Dunaway, This Years Poster Girl

The 64th Cannes Film Festival is now under way, it's always been a media circus and much more so nowadays, Cannes is best avoided at the moment, (in 1966 there were 700 journalists covering it, by 2008 this figure rose to 3541) as well as all the celebrities, junkets, journalists and paparazzi the place will also be crawling with wannabes, hookers and celeb spotters, for what it's worth you will not find a parking space!

Jean Gabriel-Domergue's proposed poster for the festival that never was

At the end of the 1930s, shocked by the interference of the fascist governments of Italy and Germany in the selection of films for the Mostra del cinema di Venezia, Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, decided to create an international cinematographic festival in France,on the proposal of Philippe Erlanger and the support of the British and Americans. Many towns were proposed as candidates, as Vichy, Biarritz or Algiers, although finally Cannes was the chosen one; thus, Le Festival International de Cannes was born.

In June 1939, Louis Lumière agreed to be the president of the first festival, set to be held from 1 to 30 September 1939. The German attack on Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the declaration of war against Germany by France and the United Kingdom on 3 September, ended the first edition of the festival before it started.

The festival was relaunched after World War II in 1946, in the old Casino of Cannes, financed by the French Foreign Affairs Ministry and the City of Cannes. Although the initial spirit of the French festival was to compete with its Italian counterpart, a secret agreement took place between both nations, so that they will celebrate their international festivals in alternating years. The first Cannes Festival had a considerable success, so when the Franco-Italian agreement was made public it was heavily criticised and considered as a "capitulation of France"

The Poster for the First Festival

I have been following some of the coverage on French TV and looking at some of the fashions on the internet, once again I am disappointed, the glamour, elegance and fun of it seems to have been replaced by something much more corporate and false, I am probably just being an old cynic after all the objective is and has always been the business of promoting, selling and distributing films, hopefully great European films.

I have found some photographs of the golden age of the Cannes Film Festival and I think the stars of yesteryear were clearly having a lot of good old, genuine fun.

 

Bella Darvi in front of The Carlton 1956

Paparazzi 1962

Cannes Beach 1955

 Marlon Brando, keeping it real, 1954

Brigitte Bardot

Grace Kelly

 Sophia Loren

Elizabeth Taylor

Natalie Wood

'The way they were; Natalie and Warren'

Gina Lollobrigida

Ester Williams

Robert Mitchum and friend!

Jayne Mansfield

The gorgeous Alain Delon and Bella Darvi

Ingrid Bergman

Yves Montand

Kirk Douglas

Alfred Hitchcock

Kim Novak

John Lennon

Liza Minnelli and Otto Preminger

John and Yoko

Jane Birkin

Geraldine Chaplin

Michael Caine

Andy Warhol

Brian Jones, Anita Pallenburg and Bill Wyman

Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson promoting Easy Rider.

Things have been a bit hectic round here and I am behind with everyone's posts I am looking forward to reading them and visiting new followers in the next couple of days.

Swans

Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly waiting a little nervously backstage to present awards at the Oscars, 1956.

I meant to post this at Oscar time but got sidetracked. I have to say I was not particularly enamoured with any of the red carpet offerings this year.  Next stop, The Cannes Film Festival, it's usually more relaxed, so lets hope we see a bit more self styling.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

XXX