Skin: Ready for the festival again for parties?

Some people think the best parties are the ones you don’t remember.

That said, Cannes dropped some shadows that were so spectacular that they still linger in public memory after more than a decade. After two years in the COVID void (although the festival was last year, parties were, at least officially, off the menu), many are now awaiting the return of the usual festive cruise ship vibe. “The fur better come back to the party this year, I hope!” Says Kerem Ayan, director of the Istanbul Film Festival and a regular representative of Cannes. Top Gun: Maverick s Elvis It appeared to be adapted to increase wildlife detection. But whatever is on offer in 2022 will take some of the most legendary soirees of recent years.

A party that tops the all-time list is train sighting The party was held in 1996 at the Cavernous Palm Beach Casino, where electricity pioneers played Leffield, outside lines were broken and, according to one festival attendee, “every bluff possible” was used to win a golden ticket. .

“It was the loudest thing I’ve ever played… Playing ‘Born Slippy’ by Underworld, it felt like the sound waves were squeezing my lungs,” said Dr. Mark Cassins, a Northern Irishman who was then director of Edinburgh. Film. . Festival. “Mick Jagger was dancing next to me. There were Damon Albarn and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as Harvey Weinstein, who sat on the throne like Louis XIV. I was young, tanned, a doll, somehow beautiful and crazy on an epic scale. After all, this is the Dionysian life I’ve been dreaming of.” Veterinarian Associate and PR Charles MacDonald says he initially set the “end, end” cutoff at 4 am but blinked into daylight at 8 am, “after the sound system vigorously shook my internal organs.”

The end of COVID-era restrictions and the end of the curfew should add energy to this year’s skin party scene. Although the 2 a.m. beach curfew, introduced in mid-2010, means that Baz Luhrmann Elvis It will be difficult to compare with Bakanalia from 2001 Moulin Rouge The party featured Fetboy Slim on deck and the entire cast of the film, including Nicole Kidman and Evan McGregor, on the dance floor. Even Rupert Murdoch, then head of 20th Century Fox at Moulin Rouge Studios and clueless about party life, was seen in the back, experiencing the action at a bank.

Another sign of Cannes festivities, according to the regularity of the festival, was 1998 velvet gold mine Fetti was kept in a ruined castle on the edge of a cliff. The film’s international publicist Jonathan Rutter said there were “every celebrity in Cannes”, including McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Christian Bailey, Tony Colette, Eddie Isard, Michael Stipe, Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. Instead of doing things like regular sardines, where people are forced to line up to receive a hot rose in plastic cups, it was “inspiring but not overwhelming,” Rutter recalls. “I still remember being in the garden under the warm evening breeze, looking out to sea, talking to someone and realizing my glass of champagne was coming from upstairs and I didn’t even notice,” he said, adding that the event had taken place. . “elegance.” And the class “has not been found since.

Even before Kovid, the party scene in Cannes was moving away from the big party to “more intimate and cool stuff,” says the international sales executive. Part of the reason is financial: declining movie revenue means a lower “advertising” budget for these skin blasts.

One of Cannes’ last legendary parties is also a cautionary tale. Red Granite Pictures 2011 launch event (which has just announced funding wolf of wall street) It had it all: a celebrity guest list (including DiCaprio, Farrell Williams, John Ham and Bradley Cooper), a forbidden approach to food and drink, as well as a decent live performance from Kanye West (Jamie Foxx at one point). joined the “Gold Digger Song”).

“And it wasn’t just one of those 10-minute performances that can’t be paid for: over 90 minutes of absolutely incredible spectacle,” says programmer Wendy Mitchell of the Sundance Film Festival: London. “It really was a party I shouldn’t have been invited to.”

The red granite, of course, burned a few years after it was hit by Malaysia’s 1MDB multibillion-dollar corruption scandal. Which could have resulted in a huge fortune being spent on the party (and no one wanted to emulate that example).