Cannes Film Festival; Classic Cannes Photos - Then And Now

The 62nd Cannes Film Festival began last week on May 13 and runs through May 24th. The glamorous tradition has always attracted high profile celebs, models and film folk. Bikini clad beauties lounge on the beach, luxe shopping and an unbeatable venue have always made the festival a destination for the Uber cool.

Many bloggers and sites have great coverage, from the fashions to the films, videos, live feeds and more. All you have to do is google it. So, instead of covering that, I wanted to share with you some classic and fab historical photos from LIFE magazine and Getty Images over the years.

First off a few comparisons between then and now.

The very first Cannes Film festival Poster:


This Year's 2009 Cannes Film Festival Poster:

above: the official poster of the 62nd Festival de Cannes is inspired by a photogram of l’Avventura (1960), the timeless masterpiece of that master of film, Michelangelo Antonioni. The poster was created by Annick Durban. Poster Credit: L'Avventura - M. Antonioni. Société cinématographique Lyre - Cino del Duca ©AFFIF

A brief history:


The Festival International du Film was supposed to begin in Cannes in 1939, but due to the war, the launch date was put off. Finally, on 20 September 1946 the Festival de Cannes opened its doors, the first great international cultural event of the post-war period.

The Festival was organised as a non-profit organisation, managed by a Board of Directors and was to become "state-approved" as in 1972.

It has taken place every year - with the exception of 1948 and 1950 - first in the month of September, then in May as of 1952. After years of "Grand Prix", the Palme d'Or was created in 1955.

Here's a few photo comparisons of then and now for you.

The venue (Carlton Hotel) then:

The venue (Carlton Hotel) now:

At this years' festival:

The beach then:

The beach now:

Paparazzi then:

Paparazzi now:


factoid: The number of journalists has grown from just 700 in 1966 to 3541 in 2008.

Now, here are some classic Cannes photos from the days of true Hollywood glamour. The photo titles and captions are courtesy of LIFE.com:

Bardot on the Beach

French actress Brigitte Bardot sits on the beach during the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. The festival was started in 1939 as a response to the way the fascist governments of Italy and Germany interefered with a film festival in Venice. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, Jan 01, 1953

Arnold and the Cannes Starlet Flex

Arnold Schwarzenegger finds a unique way to promote "Pumping Iron" on May 19, 1977 at the 38th Cannes Film Festival. Photo: AFP/AFP/Getty Images, May 19, 1977

Grace Kelly Adores Boats

Grace Kelly poses dockside during the Cannes Film Festival on May 6, 1955. The first film festival was planned for September 1939. A little inconvenience called World War II nixed that idea. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 06, 1955

Easy Rider Kickin' Back

Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson form up a kick line at the Cannes Film Festival to promote "Easy Rider" in 1969. Six years later, the Palm d'Or would finally be reintroduced. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, Jan 01, 1969

Sophia Loren Summons Her Inner Juliet

Sophia Loren poses with flowers on the balcony of her Cannes hotel on May 13, 1959. Years later, another Italian sex symbol, Monica Bellucci, would say, "When I have to go to Cannes, that is boring to me." Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 13, 1959

Otto Preminger and Liza Minnelli Eat Cannes Up

Otto Preminger, Liza Minnelli, and Ken Howard enjoy a repast in between promoting "Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon" at Cannes on May 12, 1970. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 12, 1970

Alain Delon Goes Topless

Alain Delon and Bella Darvi go boating during the Cannes Film Festival on May 5, 1958. The festival was launched for real in 1946, and made a secret agreement to take alternate years off so as not to compete with the film festival in Venice. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 05, 1958

Jane Birkin on the Other Side of the Lens

Jane Birkin takes up photography at Cannes in 1975. Twenty years earlier, the festival had introduced the Palm d'Or award for the first time. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images, Jan 01, 1975

Merv Griffin Interviews John Lennon

Talk-show host Merv Griffin interviews John Lennon at Cannes for his show in May 1965. The year before, the festival had stopped handing out the Palm d'Or and resumed the Grand Prix award, because of a copyright issue. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 01, 1965

Natalie Wood Looks Up

Natlie Wood smiles upward at the Cannes film festival in 1962. That was the first year of the International Critics' Week sidebar. Photo: Paul Schutzer./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, Jan 01, 1962

Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty Step Out

Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood are caught by the paparazzi at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962. Photo: Paul Schutzer./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, May 01, 1962

Yves Montand Captains His Ship

Yves Montand regards his passengers on board his yacht at Cannes during a holiday on the Cote d'Azur on July 28, 1965. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images, Jul 28, 1965

Alfred Hitchcock Slays Himself

Alfred Hitchcock stages a suicidal pose on May 27, 1972 at Cannes. The master of suspense never won the Palm d'Or. Photo: AFP/AFP/Getty Images, May 27, 1972

Barefoot Bardot

Brigitte Bardot runs barefoot on the sands at Cannes in 1956. That year she appeared in the film that launched her to international stardom, "And God Created Woman." Photo: George W. Hales/Getty Images, Apr 28, 1956

Lollobrigida and Her Dalmatians

Gina Lollobrigida arrives in a dress that kind of matches her three dogs on May 17, 1972. She was there to promote "King, Queen, Knave," the film adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov novel. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 17, 1972

Anita Pallenberg and the Rolling Stone

Anita Pallenberg and Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones attend a party in Cannes on May 6, 1967. That year, Pallenberg left Jones for bandmate Keith Richards while on holiday in Morocco. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images, May 06, 1967

Jayne Mansfield Shows Off Her Chihuahua

Jayne Mansfield strolls on the beach with her chihuahua on May 11, 1964. The year before, Mansfield had become the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a film, in "Promises! Promises!" Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 11, 1964

Geraldine Chaplin Smokes a Cigar

Geraldine Chaplin smokes a cigar at the Cannes Film Festival on May 2, 1967. Two years earlier, she was at Cannes to promote "Dr. Zhivago." "Although I went all over the world promoting it, I'd never got to see more than the credits before being whisked away. Finally, at Cannes, I was to sit through the whole thing through. When I appeared for the first time, I fainted from the shock -- and woke up in the ladies room," she said. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 02, 1967

Michael Caine Gives His Stamp of Approval

Michael Caine poses with models while promoting "Alfie" in 1966. That year, the Grand Prix was shared by an Italian movie and a French movie with very similar titles: "Signore e signori" ("Ladies and Gentlemen") and "Un homme et une femme" ("A Man and a Woman"). Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 01, 1966

Kirk Douglas Lets His Feet Do the Talking

Kirk Douglas lets his feet do the talking on May 9, 1966. The word "ciao" ("hello" or "goodbye" in Italian) is written on the sole of his shoe. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 09, 1966

Hitchcock Amazes at Cannes

Alfred Hitchcock casts a spell at the Cannes Film Festival with his wife, Alma Reville, and actress Tippi Hedren to promote "The Birds" on May 11, 1963. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, May 11, 1963

Esther Williams Stays Dry

Esther Williams, famous for her swimming movies, throws autographs off a balcony to her fans during the Cannes Film Festival on April 27, 1955. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, Apr 27, 1955

Kim Novak Suffers No Vertigo

Kim Novak looks like she could use a break from the height of fame at the Cannes Film Festival on April 24, 1956. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, Apr 24, 1956

Robert Mitchum Keeps Hands Off Silva's Surprise

"Miss Festival" Simone Silva poses topless with Robert Mitchum during the Cannes Film Festival in April 1954. This pose caused a rush in which one photographer broke his arm and another his leg as the paparazzi scrambled for pictures. Actress Silva was subsequently asked to leave Cannes. Photo: RDA/Getty Images, Apr 01, 1954

Bergman Gets Ready

Ingrid Bergman adjusts an earring as she sits at a cocktail table at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956. Jacques Cousteau's "The Silent World" won the Palm d'Or that year, the only documentary to do so until 2004, when Michael Moore won for "Fahrenheit 9/11." Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images, May 01, 1956

Brigitte Bardot Arrives

Brigitte Bardot arrives at the Cannes Film Festival amid a flurry of admiring men in 1956. A few years later, tired of the scrutiny that her celebrity brought her, Bardot moved to southern France and became a recluse. Photo: Haywood Magee/Getty Images, May 12, 1956


The Official Cannes Film Festival site

Ten Fun New Finds For The Home

Ten fun items to add some design, humor and whimsy to your life or home. Clock wise from top left:

• Tord Boontje's bare bulb covers are flat packed and come in three different designs

• Gold Knuckles mug. Glazed mug in white red or black with 14k gold plated brass knuckles handle! Packs a punch.

• Building Blocks Candles (can't call them Legos- copyright and all).

• Stainless steel backgammon set by Yap

• Stainless steel skull doorbell

• Plush Sweet Meats (for you or your dog)

• The Moo lamp, glowing moose light faux trophy

• Flaming skull doorbell (you know... in case the plain skull doorbell just isn't enough)

• Sausage rugs (in 4 different cold cut designs)

• Filigree Skull Money Box in porcelain

Click on each photo above for more info and the place of purchase. And be sure to check out my over 3,200 hip items posted on thisnext.com here.

The Puppet Show By Photographers Winkler + Noah

above: detail of Giacomo, 2008



In the photographers own words:
How can we forget the scent of dolls? A smell of plastic mixed with vanilla, with an after-taste of Roberts talcum powder, that enchanted you at the first encounter. You felt you could eat them. Their names were Sissy, Corolle, Dennis and Stellina. There they were in the play-room, you pressed a button and like magic some sang, some walked and others did a pee.

They had blue or brown eyes, with those mechanical eyelids that closed when you laid them down. But sometimes they stuck and the eyes stayed open even when they slept. Their hair was curly or straight, red, black, fair or blue. Until the day a jealous little brother cut it all off.

Now, years later, you find the same faces here. They look at you with the same big eyes.


above: Edouardo, 2008

Their names are Sofia, Luigi, Filippo, Melissa, Giordano, Gioia, Lucrezia. They talk, laugh, dance and joke… like children. Because that’s what they are.


above: Sara, 2008

Children we ask too much of, to be perfect, like dolls.


above: Cristina, 2008

Who speak at least two languages correctly, go to lessons in riding, dancing, swimming, judo, singing, fencing and athletics.


above: Julia, 2008

Children who behave themselves at the table, who know when to speak and when not to. And who don’t whine too much.


above: Lorenzo, 2008

Children who have become sons and daughters of perfection, pretense and image, manipulated by the media and the social context and who are inevitably losing their naturalness.


above: Liera, 2006

This is The Puppet Show, the new artistic project by the photographers Winkler+Noah: 30 portraits of children from two to eight years old, taken very naturally and transformed into dolls by a subtle play of retouching.


above: detail of Beatrice, 2006

The photo of Beatrice, the blonde child whose portrait is the symbol of the show, has already received two of the most important awards on the international photographic scene: American Photography of New York and publication in the volume “200 Best Photographers Worldwide” by Luerzers Archive.

The proceeds of the works displayed will go as charity to Epsilon, the non-profit organization which has always dedicated itself to the defense of children in the most distressed areas of the world.

The project will be transformed into a travelling show in Europe, collected into a book with all the photos, the credits and the stories of the protagonists. An exhibit which becomes a starting point for reflection, sociological research and introspection, to better understand ourselves and the world around us. And to understand that the best present we can give to children is to let them be children.

Here are all 30 images from the project. Please click on each photo to enlarge:






Each print is available in a limited edition; signed, numbered and embossed:




The book (shown below) is a signed, hardback bound, 80 page book limited to 500 editions, contact them to purchase.



Winkler + Noah Photography
WINKLER + NOAH
ph. +39 348.56.68.284
wn@winkler-noah.it

Funky Find Of The Week: Four Of The Wurst Rugs Ever From Flachbild

There seems to be no limit to the unusual forms that area rugs are taking on thee days. And this project by a German company has got to be one of the least appetizing, but certainly fun for a kitchen or deli.

Flachbild of Germany has created their interpretation of sausage for the home in the form of four different area rugs (Wurstteppiche).

The first collection consists of four different cold cuts (or sausages) as round area rugs: salami, ham (pimento loaf), mortadella and black pudding (also known as blood sausage).

Mortadella:

Blood Sausage:

Salami:

Ham (or pimento loaf):

details:


The carpets are made of pure wool, round and available in sizes ranging from one meter to five meters in diameter. The carpet thickness is about 1.8 centimeters.

Available for order from Germany online, the prices are based on model and size. Please ask for further information or a quotation here.

contact info:

Flachbild
Ritterstrasse 12
50668 Köln
Telefon: 0221 / 250 84 38
info@flachbild.de
www.flachbild.de