Description of the attraction
The Palace of Festivals and Congresses in Cannes is the one that millions of people around the world see in their reports about the famous Cannes Film Festival. That is why it is worth seeing the palace, although, perhaps, on weekdays it will not make a strong impression.
Its history is inextricably linked with the history of the festival itself. In the late thirties of the 20th century, French cultural figures were outraged by the open interference of Mussolini and Goebbels in the organization of the Venice Film Festival. Film critic Émile Villermo and writer and actor Rene Jeanne proposed to the Minister of Education in the Popular Front government, Jean Zai, to organize a world film screening in France. The idea was supported by the Americans and the British, who boycotted the film screening in Venice.
The great Louis Lumière agreed to become the president of the first festival. The Americans, who had just released the Quasimodo tape, promised to erect a replica of Notre Dame de Paris on the Cannes beach. But on September 1, 1939, the opening day, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, war broke out, and the celebration was canceled.
The first Cannes Film Festival took place shortly after the end of the war, in 1946. In 1949, the city municipality built a special palace for the film festival on the Croisette, but it gradually became small (on the site of the Croisette palace there is now the Marriott-Cannes hotel). And in 1982 the festival got a new home - where there used to be a municipal casino, at the beginning of the Croisette, not far from the old port. It is this palace that is now known to all TV viewers as the venue for the world's largest film festival.
The films of Fellini, Bergman, Antonioni, Waida, Bunuel, Kurosawa gained worldwide recognition here. But not only the prestigious Palme d'Or glorified the festival: in 1955, Prince Rainier of Monaco met the American actress Grace Kelly. They got married a year later, and the current ruler of the principality, Albert II, is their son.
The building is huge: 35 thousand square meters. However, its aesthetic merits are very controversial, it looks something like a palace of conventions of the times of socialism: a lot of concrete and glass (the townspeople from time to time even propose to rebuild the "bunker"). A wide “ladder of success” leads to the main entrance. On the days of the festival, a red carpet is lined in front of it, on which the stars are photographed. On ordinary days, tourists take pictures of each other on the stairs. The Avenue of Stars runs along the façade; tiles with handprints of famous actors and directors are mounted on its sidewalk.
Inside, the building is impressive: it is full of modern equipment, excellent lighting and acoustics. The upper floors and terraces offer amazing views of the old town, the port, the Croisette, the Lerins Islands. The palace hosts exhibitions, conferences and congresses, international festivals: advertising ("Cannes Lions"), jazz, flamenco, games, fireworks. In 2011, it was here that the G20 summit was held under the chairmanship of France.
