2018 Cannes International Film Festival

An interesting mix of different in the final days of Cannes.

Do we come to fashion because of the names and faces or for the art and spectacle? As the rest of the world took their place on the famous stairs and the usual parade of a thousand models.

So the curtain finally came down on the 71st Cannes Film Festival with one last glamorous red carpet that had the full jury, led by Cate Blanchett, walk filmdom’s most famous staircase, followed by the cast of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the closing film which was screened after the ceremony. The Terry Gilliam movie is legendary for the production nightmares which plagued it and the decades-long legal wrangling in which it became entangled, resulting in a 30-year delay in its eventual completion and wrapping it in an aura of ultimate film maudit.

BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee’s instant Cannes hit, walked away with the Grand Prix, holding the second spot to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters, winner of the 2018 Palme d'Or. The jury led by Cate Blanchett also awarded an unprecedented Special Palme d’Or to Jean-Luc Godard, for his Image Book, and for being, in Blanchett’s words, “a cinematic artist who is continually striving to define and re-define what cinema can be.

The 21st Cannes Film festival began like any other, on May 10th, 1968. The opening film was a freshly restored version of Gone with the Wind,  hosted by  Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco.

Cannes was light on mega-stars this year but made up for it with diversity and the use of the red carpet for protests. Hair and showing everything were the main fashion topics.

Festival guest Truman Capote, still riding high on the success of In Cold Blood, enjoys the luxurious comfort of the Carlton Hotel in the company of his friend, Geraldine Chaplin, who plays the part of a dedicated hotel maid. Chaplin is in Cannes with director Carlos Saura's Peppermint Frappé - a movie that will soon be part of the festival history, not for being shown, but for not being shown.

Things have (thankfully) finally been stirring on the Croisette after a rather lukewarm start to the festival here with a couple of high profile movies hitting the big screen of the Grand Theatre Lumière. One is by perennial controversial Danish director Lars Von Trier (Antichrist, Melancholia) just back from a years-long time-out for bad behavior.

As we pass the Cannes mid-way point the only clear trend is: hair is making a statement. And men are predictable though sometimes surprising.

Fashion is fun and fantasy, and some of the fantasy is that many of the looks we embrace hold a different standard for men and women. Not only ageism, warmth, but comfort too.