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1946, THE 1^ST CANNES. FILM FESTIVAL

For a fortnight every year since 1946, Cannes is queen of world cinema. Here we take a look at the most glamorous festival in the universe.

Born in 1939, through the French government’s desire to organise a great gathering of the film world in a place famed both for its sunshine and its enchanting surroundings, the Cannes Film Festival did not really start to take off until 1946. As the hastily constructed Palais des Festivals was still incomplete – the tarpaulins replacing the roof were blown away during a storm that broke the day before the prize-winners were due to be announced – the opening ceremony for the first Cannes International Film Festival, and indeed the first major international event of the post-war period, took place on September 20th, 1946, in the town’s Casino. This first edition saw the birth of Italian neo-realism, with Roberto Rossellini’s “Rome, Open City”.

In a prime position at the epicentre of all the excitement, the Carlton quickly became a major player at the Festival, offering its legendary decor as background to meetings of the jury as well as lending its perfect profile to some of the greatest directors of our time. Thus, in just a few years, did the luxury hotel become one of the world’s most sought after film locations...

ANECDOTE
During the screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious, the projectionist got the reels mixed up and showed the end at the beginning! And, on another occasion, George Sydney’s The Three Musketeers was projected upside down – with the feet at the top of the screen and the heads at the bottom!