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Culture The main cultural event is the International Film Festival, which was first planned for 1939, cancelled because of the outbreak of war, and then rescheduled for 1946. The festival gradually grew in size and importance, with the participation in the 1950s and 60s of Cocteau, Bardot, Truffaut and Goddard and the addition of the International Film Market, International Critics' Week and Directors' Fortnight. By the 1970s, the Festival had become big business, as important for networking as for awarding the prizes (including the prestigious Palme d'Or) and increasingly presenting mainstream Hollywood films. The year 2000 awarded the coveted Palme d'Or to Lars von Trier, of Breaking the Waves fame for Dancer in the Dark featuring Icelandic pop-icon Björk in the role of factory-worker, Selma. The summer season opens with the Festival of Music, and free shows all over town, followed by the International Fireworks Festival, a competition that draws 1.5 million spectators. The Musical Nights of Le Suquet takes place in mid-July in Le Suquet. The winter season includes the unusual International Festival of Marionettes and Animated Forms and the unfailingly good International Dance Festival. For ticket reservation contact Palais des Festivals (tel: (04) 9298 6277), groups should contact SEMEC (tel: (04) 9299 3108) for reduced prices. Music: During the Musical Nights of Le Suquet, international orchestras perform in the Palais des Festivals and chamber orchestras play on the steps of Notre Dame de l'EspÉrance in Le Suquet. Leading orchestras present during the festival, such as the Cannes Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur Regional Orchestra; others perform throughout the year, most notably during the biennial International Classical Music Festival. Other principal venues include the ThÉâtre Debussy in the Palais des Festivals and the ThÉâtre Palais Croisette in the Hotel Noga Hilton. MIDEM (International Market for Records and Music Publishing) programmes jazz, classical and contemporary concerts in January. Theatre: During the International Actors' Performance Festival, small venues are used to stage humorous sketches, which can be enjoyed over a drink. Productions are often performed in the Espace Miramar (tel: (04) 9368 9192) on the corner of La Croisette and rue Pasteur, ThÉatre La Licorne (formerly known as Prosper MÉrimÉe) and the smaller theatre Alexandre III, 19 boulevard Alexandre III (tel: (04) 9394 3344). Actors training at the prestigious theatre school, ERAC (Cannes' Regional Actors' School) put on regular productions. Dance: The Ecole SupÉrieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower, 5 rue de Colmar (tel: (04) 9306 7979; fax: (04) 9306 7978), prepares 7- to 18-year-olds for their BaccalaurÉat and a career in international ballet. In addition to regular performances, the biennial International Dance Festival, presided over by Rosella Hightower herself, is a mix of neo-classical, contemporary, minimalist and postmodern dance. Film: Since the International Film Festival (website: www.festival-cannes.fr) is reserved for professionals only, the Cannes Festival Forum in May organises meetings and screenings for film fans. Young critics are targeted at numerous writing workshops during Cannes' Cinematographic Meeting in December. In Festival Panorama, ten feature films that have won awards in various international festivals compete. Cinemas in the city of the cinema include: Arcades, 77 rue FÉlix Faure (tel: (04) 9339 0098 or (08) 3668 0039), Olympia, 16 rue de la Pompe (tel: (04) 9339 1393 or (08) 3668 0029) and Studio 13, 23 avenue du Dr Picaud (tel: (04) 9306 2990). Salle Raimu, avenue de la Borde (tel: (04) 9347 2116) shows original versions of art films. Literary Notes F Scott Fitzgerald is the most famous writer to glamorise the Riviera. The literary fruits of his frequent visits between 1924-29 created a myth of 1920s excess, best exemplified in his novels The Great Gatsby (1925) and Tender is the Night (1934), in which he wrote: 'Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo - began to glow through their camouflage, whispering of old kings come to dine or die, of rajahs tossing Buddha's eyes to English ballerinas, of Russian princes turning the weeks into Baltic twilights in the lost caviar days.' Films made in Cannes and the Riviera include Truth or Dare/In Bed with Madonna, Henri Decoin's The Man in the Iron Mask and the Cary Grant and Grace Kelly classic To Catch a Thief. |