Cannes 2017 International Film Festival

With the first weekend looming, Cannes is indeed in full swing and traffic on the Croisette, compounded by checkpoints, sold-out café patios and bumper to bumper black sedans  is reaching the customary frenzy. Alongside the main competitions the sidebars – Quinzaine and Semaine de la Critique - have also begun screenings.

Cannes is aspirational - the blend of unadultered Riviera douceur and Hollywood glamour creates a unique experience for novice and experienced festivalgoer alike. The small city - population 73,000 - changes with the influx of the show business travelling circus and the cohorts it drags around, and it has changed even more in the last couple of years, with heavier security everywhere.

Who wears the trousers? Women do – it’t he new trend at Cannes. Plus primary colors and a sense of élan.

You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the line of stragglers still snaking in front of the press office to pick up credentials, but Cannes Day one is in the books. The crowd of journalists is due to the 4000 some credentials which have been assigned for this 70th edition, and the hottest item in the lines is sunscreen: the weather is picture perfect but the sun in the Riviera’s azure skies can take a toll on critics’ delicate complexions.

At 70, the Cannes Film Festival – opening today with the gala screening of Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts - feels as young and fresh as ever. There’s a notable presence of works from young filmmakers, from the US’ Sean Baker, of Tangerine fame, in the Directors’ Fortnight with his newest, The Florida Project, to France’s Arthur de Pins, directing an animated featured based on his comic book series Zombillenium.

The opening gala of the 70th Cannes Film Festival made a strong style point - there was color on the Palais red carpet, yes, but the nudes/fairy tale flounces trend that started at the Golden Globes is still hot hot hot.  .

Security was tight, the weather was balmy and the stars came out in full force - the 70th Cannes Film Festival is officially open.

The Golden Globes precede the Cannes Film Festival by five years –  Cannes is celebrating 70 years and the Globes will have their 75th gala on January 7th, 2018. But the two events caught up with each other rather quickly.

A little party never killed nobody. from the Great Gatsby The word party may not be French, but it might as well have been invented for the Cannes Festival.

With Venice, Cannes is the grande dame of film festivals one of the last bastions of pure cinema in its original form: an art form made to be seen in a theater. But even these last bastions of cinematic purity there are intimations of growing pains.