With the Oscars now gone, one of the next big events in the film season is the The Cannes Film Festival, and to open it this year, they’ve gone for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe. Cannes has a history of picking big headline grabbing movies to open the festival, even if the film in question can be a bit hit and miss (e.g. 2009 – the wonderful ‘UP‘. 2006 – the less than wonderful ‘Da Vinci Code‘…)
Still, that doesn’t stop a long line of the non opening film-makers using everything in their toybox to pull the media attention back to them. The tradition goes as far back as 1953 when Brigitte Bardot started a whole new swimwear trend by turning up to a photoshoot wearing just a bikini in 1959 to promote her latest flick. Thankfully Sacha Baron Cohen‘s lime green mankini to promote ‘Borat‘ in 2007 didn’t have the same effect… Over the years there’s been a number of weird and wonderful promo’s. From actor/producer Jacques D’Azur rolling up to the premiere of ‘Les Quatre Cents Coups‘ with a group of natives from the Yamamena tribe in tow in 1959, to Disney turning Cannes into a winter wonderland to promote ‘A Christmas Carol‘ in 2009. Anything goes when your trying to grab headlines.
We’ll just have to see what Cannes 2010 brings…
Hopefully no more mankinis…