What it’s like to walk the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet on opening night
Haute couture, dramatic trains and millions of dollars worth of diamonds are on show – but taking selfies with your phone is definitely a ‘non-non’ in France
From afar, the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival always appeared to be one of the most glamorous places on Earth.
Sure, there are plenty of red carpets in Hollywood – I’d venture to guess one is literally rolled out somewhere in Los Angeles every night – but the ones in Cannes looked like nothing I’d ever experienced.
If you’re anything like me, you spend far too many hours every May rapidly clicking through photo galleries from the festival, judging beautiful people in outfits you could never afford.
Every film premiere seemed like its own miniature Met Gala, replete with haute couture, dramatic trains and millions of dollars worth of diamonds.
So this year, when I was given the green light to head to the south of France for the first time, I was disappointed to read a slew of articles decrying the death of all things glitzy at the festival.
With just two American films competing for the Palme d’Or, fewer big-name celebrities would head to the two-week event.
Because festival organisers did not allow Netflix productions to vie for the top prize, the streaming platform pulled out of Cannes entirely – meaning no parties thrown by them.