Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, film producer Mike Todd, were pictured on the opening night of the Cannes film festival in May 1957. The event marked the 10th edition of the prestigious festival, and Bernard Levin of the Manchester Guardian was on hand to capture the glamour and chaos.
A Night of Stars and Delays
Levin described the scene: 'Zut,' said a starlet as he trod on her dress, and he stifled his surprise, reflecting that this was, after all, the first night of the 10th Cannes film festival. The film chosen for the opening performance was Mike Todd's Around the World in 80 Days. The world of cinema had turned up in force to pause on the steps for photographers, to spot each other in the crowd, and to ignore the microphone's increasingly desperate appeals for the audience to be seated.
The game of spot the celebrity was in full swing. Attendees included Madame Suzy Volterra, M Jules Dassin, Miss Dorothy Dandridge, and the guests of honour, Mr Todd and Miss Elizabeth Taylor. Not forgetting M Cocteau, without whose white hair and mellowed expression the festival would hardly be worth holding.
Mr Todd's Extravagant Party
The performance was opened only half an hour late by M André le Troquer, speaking from a dress circle built entirely of flowers. Later, at the Casino, which Mr Todd had hired for the night, the festivities continued. Mr Todd, as became apparent, was not a man who did things by halves. The ambassador's room had been transformed with strings of balloons into a charming imitation of a circus big top, honouring Cantinflas, one of the film's stars who began his professional life in a circus. Immediately outside the enormous windows, a small pride of lions prowled, causing not a few guests to send a morsel of chicken down the wrong way as they caught the baleful eye of a lion looking as if it would have been delighted to join the party and dine off the guests.
Mr Todd offered a few words ('In Europe I am known as Mister Elizabeth Taylor'), but the guests, who were there at his invitation and expense, would stop neither eating nor talking. Cantinflas spoke, and the floor show began. At three in the morning, it showed no signs of stopping, so Levin began to show signs of going.
Brigitte Bardot and the Film
The next day, one repaired to the beach, the Carlton Bar, or the cinema to find Mademoiselle Brigitte Bardot at all three, wearing the shortest shorts and the longest hair even Cannes could boast.
As for the film, since it had yet to be shown in Britain, criticism had to hold back. Suffice it to say that everybody one has ever heard of is in it: Mr AE Matthews for 15 seconds, Sir John Gielgud, Noël Coward, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, John Mills, Charles Boyer, and dozens of others for scarcely longer. It has more of everything than any other film ever made, cost two million pounds, and withal is a very good film. It seems infused with an enormous gusty sanity, a wryly benevolent outlook on the follies of the world. It can be no accident that Mr Todd's next film is to be Don Quixote. Levin found it healthy, unfashionable though that may be, and noted its reluctance to take itself seriously.
Levin concluded by reporting that there had so far been no international incidents and no disputes over the jury's awards. Since the festival was less than a day old and the jury had not yet made any awards, this was perhaps not surprising.
