Vintage Cannes

The war had barely ended, the wounds and scars were still open and painful. The arts could be a powerful balm for all the pain that remained from the past horrors.

After many great performances -  his spectacular tour de force in Goodfellas, among many  - Ray Liotta finally landed on the Croisette, with the cast and director of Killing Them Softly, in competition in 2012: Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini, Andrew Dominik. Three years later he would go back to Cannes, but this time for the MIPTV, the international market for TV and streamer content, with the miniseries Texas Rising.

Brad Pitt had been seen on the Croisette in the past - a very recluse visitor, for sure. In 2009 the paparazzi managed to spot Pitt and Angelina Jolie in town, but it was only three years later that the actor/producer was officially invited to Cannes.

Tutte buona gente: Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Sergio Leone, James Woods, Danny Aiello. This distinguished group of talent was in Cannes with Once Upon A Time in America, which had its worldwide premiere in the Palais.

Two years before making this appearance in Cannes for the first time, David Bowie had been his grand entrance in cinema, starring Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth (he was Thomas Jerome Newton, the man who fell to Earth). Now, two years later, Bowie - and a team very easy on the eyes - was in Cannes to promote the David Hemmings-directed Just a Gigolo, the tale of a World War I hero who becomes a gigolo in Berlin, under the watching eye of a madam played by Marlene Dietrich.

30 years before the spectacular opening of this year's Cannes Film Festival, Tom Cruise - with then-wife Nicole Kidman - made a more discreet visit to the Croisette. Cruise and Kidman were the stars of the film that close the festival: Far and Away, directed by Ron Howard.

It's 1991 and les frères Coen leave their mark on the Croisette, taking the Palme d'Or for Barton Fink (which will go on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for John Goodman, supporting actor). Cannes in the 1990s is absolutely in love with les indies américains (and Asia), and more Palmes will rain on the Sundance generation throughout the decade.

May 22, 1965 - Bondmania hits the Croisette. Sean Connery and some would-be Bond Girls promote Thunderball in Cannes.

Director Constantin Costa-Gavras' Missing was a major hit in Cannes 1982. A family drama set against the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that ousted elected president Salvador Allende and led to the apprehension, torture, and death of hundreds of people, Missing won the Palme d'Or that year (split with the equally political Turkish film Yol ).

In 1977 David Lynch tried to get his first film, Eraserhead, into Cannes. 'It didn't happen', he told us.