Cannes 2011-Day 1:Opening Ceremony
64th FESTIVAL DE CANNES
1: OPENING CEREMONY &
"MIDNIGHT IN PARIS" PREMIÈRE
Yes, the Cannes Film Festival has opened with a massive red carpet Opening Ceremony, a marvellous new film to watch from Woody Allen and a splendid dinner at which there were loads of star guests all dressed up to the nines in their red carpet best !!
I have picked out what I consider to be the very best of the red carpet goodies, and a few people who really should have done better with their money...
BEST DRESSED
The Opening Ceremony was, as usual, very well attended by all the stars present on the first day - the day's itinerary included what seemed like several hundred Press Calls and photo-shoots during the daytime, followed by the Red Carpet in the late afternoon and the big Opening Ceremony show, held in the Palais des Festivals, and a Gala Dinner, followed by the Opening Ceremony Première - this year it was Woody Allen's new film, "Midnight in Paris"...
Remember, during the whole festival, a lot of stars don't arrive until the actual day their film is due to be screened, usually due to other work commitments...however, the stars who are free usually try and be there from Day 1, as it has to be said that Cannes is probably the most fun Film Festival in the world...this year, it runs from May 11th - May 22nd and will include many, many films starring many, many big stars, who will turn up in their finest for their Red Carpet premières...
(Here we are on Day 4 and already there have been several major film premières, and a major party thrown by Calvin Klein...phew - I already have catching up to do !!)
Away we go then...
AISHWARYA RAI
Aishwarya always attends the Cannes Film Festival and she always looks amazing !! This year, she arrived at the Opening Ceremony wearing this stunning, white one-shouldered dress encrusted with appliqué flowers and beading - from the Elie Saab Spring 2011 Couture Collection, she looked absolutely gorgeous !!
Sadly, this wasn't one of the dresses I featured when I covered this collection a while back - I wish I had because then I could award her a Red Star to go with the Gold one...
ANGELA ISMAILOS
Angela is a film director most famous for her short documentary made last year, entitled "Great Directors" in which she interviewed the ten directors who she most admired...
She attended the Opening Ceremony at Cannes wearing this amazing Flamenco-style dress, which certainly wowed the crowd, and the scary crowd of press photographers, who can be seen ranked behind her in this photo...
I loved this fabulously over-the-top dress, especially the white-edged ruffles - there's something very exotic about them...and the straps end in a braces-style V-shaped attachment which is quite unusual, and makes for an interesting back view...
I also liked her bejewelled flower hair clip and her hair taken back in a fan-shaped chignon...she kept her make-up very glamorous and very old Hollywood, with the eye-liner and red lipstick.
For the evening Gala Dinner, she let her hair down, and changed into this beautiful turquoise and cobalt-blue floral print dress...
Sadly, I haven't been able to identify either of these dresses, but she really pulled out all the stops for the opening night this year !!
ELODIE BOUCHEZ
Elodie Bouchez is a French actress and a member of the Jury at Cannes this year...she chose an amazing print dress from the Yves Saint-Laurent Pre-Fall 2011 Collection - and very good it looked too...I liked the unusual scalloped edging everywhere and the circles print in gold and silver on black...
As the dress itself is so busy, it's a good thing she kept everything else quite plain and understated !!
ELSA ZYLBERSTEIN
Elsa is a French film and TV actress who always seems to attend the Cannes Film Festival - I have featured her quite a few times before in my Best Dressed lists and she always seems to look good !!
She attended the Opening Ceremony in this beautifully slinky oyster-satin number with sequin embroidery down each side of the halter-necked bodice - she kept her hair swept up and back in a very smooth chignon and wore glamorous make-up to match her dress...
FAN BINGBING
Fan Bingbing is, of course, a very famous actress in her native China, and she is now getting pretty well known here too, and not just for her acting !! She has an amazing fashion style and has regularly wowed us all on the red carpet at Cannes for the last few years now...
She wore a traditionally inspired Asian dress on the red carpet, in red with an embroidered white crane design...and it looked absolutely gorgeous !! In fact, it looks as if it might be one of those modern designs that have been inspired by the traditional Korean Hanbok, as it has the bow-ribbon across the top edge of the bodice and a train coming from the back...although the fitted sheath-shape with the fishtail shaping at the bottom is more Western in its styling than Korean, but anyway, she looked absolutely the business in this !!
Original, eye-catching and amazingly desirable all of a sudden, by virtue of the fact that it is quite unlike anything else around at the moment !! She completed her total Look with very pale face make-up, flawless red lipstick and dark eye-liner, and a swept up hairdo which looked like one of those Geisha-like top-knots...absolutely fabulous !!
She carried a little pearly-white clutch which almost looked like it has wings carved into it and she wore some eye-catching jewellery on her fingers too...
A big Gold star for looking totally amazing !!
GONG LI
Gong Li is also a Chinese actress, more famous over there than over here, although she has done some work on American TV...she first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and she has been in "Miami Vice" and "Memoirs of a Geisha."
She walked the red carpet wearing the most amazing dress designed by Roberto Cavalli from his Couture Collection for Spring 2011, and looked a million dollars in it too...
Oh gosh, I adore this dress - it's exactly the sort of design I love, being a rich dark colour, a sexily sheath-like shape with a ton of layered chiffon training out of the back - and the tiny tubular strips of rolled satin, which have been sewn together to form the bodice and then encrusted with beading - absolutely gorgeous !!
HOFIT GOLAN
Here's Israeli TV journalist Hofit Golan attending Cannes this year as usual...although she isn't taking part in any of the films being shown at the festival this year, she always shows up as a star on the red carpet anyway, all dressed up, and she looks pretty good most of the time, although she has had her moments !!
Here, she wore a beautiful black-chiffon-over-silver-grey dress designed by Alberta Ferretti...and I think she looks lovely in this with her hair all swept up and nice understated make-up...
INES DE LA FRESSANGE
International model and newly re-instated Karl Lagerfeld favourite, Ines de la Fressange wore a very unusual black wrapped dress, designed by Carven...
I wasn't absolutely sure about this dress at first, but now it's had time to grow on me, and I simply love her highly eye-catching Roger Vivier sandals and matching clutch - beautiful !!
KAROLINA KURKOVA
This is the second time in as many posts that Karoline Kurkova has made it into my Best Dressed list - and this time she wore a cobalt-blue sequinned dress designed by Armani Privé from the Autumn 2009 Collection...
I chose this dress at the time, so she gets a Red Star to go with the big Gold one that I have awarded her for looking amazing !! She also gets this star for being a trouper on the red carpet - she had a degree of trouble with the strap which kept falling down her arm and revealing all the bits of tape trying to hold it in place...however, she carried on with a gracious smile and walked the red carpet anyway, with total professionalism...
I love the diagonal sweep of deep cobalt blue sequins all over this amazing dress, and I love her swept back curls - and her wide smile in the face of sartorial difficulty !! She looked simply fabulous...
LINN ULMANN
Linn Ulmann is another member of the Jury at Cannes this year, and is an award-winning writer, journalist and columnist in her own right...born in Norway and a graduate of New York University, she has written four critically acclaimed novels, published throughout Europe and the USA: "Before your Sleep" (1998), "Stella Descending" (2001), "Grace" (2002) and "A Blessed Child" (2005)...
She chose a beautiful mid-calf length dress in pale grey silk, in a swept-to-one-side design. This suits her very well actually - it's elegant and simple and very chic !! I liked her ultra-simple clutch and jewellery with this, and her well-cut bob hairstyle...
Although this wasn't as dramatic as what some of the other stars wore, nevertheless this caught my eye because everything went well together and looked good !!
MELANIE GRIFFITH
Now then - Melanie !! I am very happy to see Melanie back on the red carpet after all her recent woes, but OMG...
I'm sure that you are as shocked as me to see how much older Melanie looks after all her attempts to stave off the ravages of ageing - with all the botched plastic surgery issues, she looks to be in her 60s at least...
Well, this is a well-documented case so I won't go into it much here, except to say that the reason I was absolutely gobsmacked was because I was unaware and only just discovered that she is, in fact, only one year older than me - she was born in August 1957 which makes her only 53...
That doesn't alter the fact that I really liked her beautiful black dress with its floral embellishment detailing all over each shoulder !! That coupled with her emerald and diamond earrings and an elegant updo, and she looked better than she has for a while...she looked very happy to be on the red carpet with her husband, Antonio Banderas,(who is well known for not wanting her to have any surgery at all) and full of enthusiasm to be there...
She has, over recent years, undergone planned refresher visits to the rehab clinic for addictions to alcohol, cocaine and pain-killers, and also undergone surgery to remove the first stages of skin cancer from her face, which left her with a black eye for a while - so you see, there are various other reasons for her to be happy to be there too !!
However, all the bad stuff notwithstanding, this has to be one of the best adverts against self-imposed plastic surgery ever - here she is back in her thirties, just to remind you all how pretty she used to be...
MELANIE LAURENT
Melanie Laurent is a French actress best known to the American audiences for her role in Quentin Tarantino's film "Inglourious Basterds " from 2009...she wore this beautiful Christian Dior dress with a massive and slightly see-through skirt and heavily beaded and pleated bodice...
Incidentally, this is the first design to be created by the in-house team without a head designer, at the House of Dior, and is from the forthcoming Autumn 2011 Couture Collection - Melanie was selected to wear the archive-inspired dress at the Cannes Opening Ceremony...
I wasn't convinced I liked this dress at first, but this was another design that has grown on me - I am rather fascinated by the interesting treatment of the strips of chiffon running down the skirt with their intermittent twisted and knotted effects...
She kept her hair down and natural, although it would have suited the dress better if it was up, I think, but she still looks good !! I liked her bracelet too...
It will be very interesting to see the rest of this collection when it comes out in July, as they still haven't appointed a replacement for John Galliano yet, so watch this space !!
NANSUN SHI
Nansun Shi, born Shi Nan-Sun, is a Hong Kong film producer, presenter and a former Senior Advisor for Media Asia Group. She has been in the film industry for nearly thirty years, and has contributed a lot to the Hong Kong cinema scene since the late 1970s. Shi is also the wife of celebrated director Tsui Hark. She is also a member of the Jury at Cannes this year...
She walked out on stage at the Palais des Festivals Opening Ceremony Show dressed in the most amazing Chinese dress - I love this and I do wish I could get a better look at it...the silver and gold embroidery is utterly gorgeous !! The design down the front looks rather like a Chinese chrysanthemum kind of design, but it may be some other kind of flower - anyway, the black, red, silver and gold colour combination is stunning !!
NIEVES ALVAREZ
Nieves is a Spanish fashion model of some repute, and she looked beautiful at the Opening Ceremony wearing a gorgeous tiered black chiffon gown by Alberta Ferretti...
This may be from a forthcoming collection, possibly for the Resort 2011 show in June, as I can't find this design anywhere...it's lovely though, and so typically Alberta Ferretti - layers of chiffon ruffles and one wide gathered strap embellished with beading...
I rather liked her black drop earrings too !!
RACHEL McADAM
Here's a dress I certainly can identify !! This is, of course, from the Marchesa Autumn 2011 RTW Collections, and is one that I featured when I looked at this show back in February...that's why Rachel gets the Red Star...
She looks absolutely delectable in this, but I can't help feeling that these very long trains are all very well when they look amazing on a runway, or in a presentation where the model is standing on a static block, which is what Marchesa favours, but when it comes to actually walking around in them, say at Cannes for instance, they can become a bit of a liability if you're not practised !!
Rachel had to gather up the train at the back in order to walk up the steps, and how awkward is that ?!! Having said that, this dress does go up at the front and so for the most part, she was able to walk unhindered when on the flat !!
She looks lovely though, especially with her hair down, and dark-eyed, but still fairly natural looking make-up...
ROBERTA ARMANI
Roberta is the niece of Giorgio and is also the Director of Public Relations for the Armani empire...therefore it's inevitable that she should be wearing an Armani Privé dress...and so she is !!
Very lovely it looks too - I like the tiny little seed beads across the bodice and the straight slim lines of this column dress...
She wore it with her hair down, a simple square clutch, and a bracelet of square crystal beads which looks great with it !! It gives the dress a bit of sophisticated sparkle...
SALMA HAYEK
Salma Hayek chose a beautiful Gucci Première dress to wear on the red carpet...you may remember that the Gucci label chose last year's Cannes Film Festival to launch its first couture collection onto the unsuspecting public, with great success - and this year, they are doing something similar...
This is one gorgeous dress actually - I love all the little loops of silver beads encrusting the bodice and the finely pleated and very full skirt...
The only thing I can't help thinking is that it's a shame that Salma chose this pale grey colour for this event - as she is a Latino beauty and therefore looks fantastic in bright and sizzlingly rich colours, I can't help feeling that this is a teensy bit dull for her, I think...
Don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful dress but she would have got a gold star if it had been a better colour...
UMA THURMAN
Uma Thurman is also on the Jury at Cannes this year...and she looked somewhat sensational as she always does - she chose a Versace dress from the Autumn 2011 Collection, which is one that I chose too...
As you can see, she chose to have it slightly modified by filling in the cut-outs in the front of the bodice, but that doesn't take away from the dress at all...it still looks amazing - she is very tall and can carry this kind of dress off perfectly !!
I loved her gorgeous emerald drop earrings too - they were very covetable...and she showed them off very well by having her hair up in a slightly messy ponytail, high on the back of her head !!
VAHINA GIOCANTE
Vahina is a French actress and she looked absolutely stunning in a real show-stopping kind of way, when she walked out on the red carpet in this huge dress - it has a real 1950s look about it, doesn't it, with the huge chiffon layers in the skirt and the plunging neckline - I love it to bits !!
She has an enviably curvy but slim figure, so she can wear dresses like this with ease...I liked her Hollywood glam hair and her amazing diamond necklace...
WORST DRESSED
So who really didn't make it into my Good Books at this Opening Ceremony last Wednesday evening ? Well, there really weren't that many awful dresses, but there were four people who I did think could have done an awful lot better, frankly...
DENISE RICH
I really didn't much care for Denise's overly colourful dress - it reminded me of those blindingly bright prints we had back in the 80s!! It's too much of a big-scale design, too random and too colourful - even for me...and I like rich colours !!
Also, I do think that Denise may have had far too long under that sun-bed, don't you ?!! She looks positively orange...
LAMIA KASHOGGI
Lamia is the wife of Saudi entrepreneur and arms dealer Adnan Kashoggi...and therefore she has untold wealth and resources for any kind of fashion choices she cares to make - why, oh why, then, did she go for such a weird and slightly S & M flavoured corset-laced dress with a see-through skirt ?!!
No-one else has commented on this, but I can't help thinking there is something a bit sad about someone as old as Lamia clearly is, choosing such a young, and daringly fashion-forward style...it looks a tad ridiculous, as everything is a bit too tight, and she comes across as a slightly fierce Madame actually - the sort who may well do a brisk line in whip-brandishing if you asked her nicely...
Having said all that, I quite like her black ruffled satin bag and her diamond bracelet...
MARTINA GUSMAN
Martina Gusman is a Jury member too, and she was looking pretty good until I got to see the full length shots of her slightly crazy dress with the more than crazy necklace...
I thought that this would have been better without the short mini-dress effect at the front. Actually, I would have loved to see this as a full length dress all the way round...
This is a typical rise and fall gown that doesn't really quite make it...it would have even been better maybe if it had been a full skirt - at least than she could swish around in it - and that's got to be one of the best things about a rise and fall gown...
This isn't the worst dress I've seen and it wasn't the worst dress at this opening red carpet event, but still...I really didn't take to it at all - I don't suppose she'll be the last of my fashion disasters at this year's Cannes Festival either !!
TIZIANA ROCCA
Italian PR expert Tiziana wore this rather odd, pale custard-yellow dress with its peculiar wide oval-shaped cut-out over one leg, and diamanté crystal-beaded edging, on Wednesday evening...
I have to say that I really can't understand the attraction of this awful colour - what is it exactly that people like about it ?!! We have occasional seasons where we get umpteen shades like this at work, and they're always left over for the Clearance in July - and sometimes the paint colour for the seasonal colour walls on the fashion floor is this kind of thing too, and all I can see is some slightly cold custard, possibly with lumps in it !!
The dress isn't the best fit in the world either - it all looks a bit clingy around her middle section, I must say...
Having said all that, out of so many stars parading the red carpet at Cannes for the Opening Ceremony, only four bad dress choices isn't too bad, is it ?!!
Next up will be the first few film premières and maybe the first of the parties - the Calvin Klein Party which took place on the 12th May...
1: OPENING CEREMONY &
"MIDNIGHT IN PARIS" PREMIÈRE
Yes, the Cannes Film Festival has opened with a massive red carpet Opening Ceremony, a marvellous new film to watch from Woody Allen and a splendid dinner at which there were loads of star guests all dressed up to the nines in their red carpet best !!
I have picked out what I consider to be the very best of the red carpet goodies, and a few people who really should have done better with their money...
BEST DRESSED
The Opening Ceremony was, as usual, very well attended by all the stars present on the first day - the day's itinerary included what seemed like several hundred Press Calls and photo-shoots during the daytime, followed by the Red Carpet in the late afternoon and the big Opening Ceremony show, held in the Palais des Festivals, and a Gala Dinner, followed by the Opening Ceremony Première - this year it was Woody Allen's new film, "Midnight in Paris"...
Remember, during the whole festival, a lot of stars don't arrive until the actual day their film is due to be screened, usually due to other work commitments...however, the stars who are free usually try and be there from Day 1, as it has to be said that Cannes is probably the most fun Film Festival in the world...this year, it runs from May 11th - May 22nd and will include many, many films starring many, many big stars, who will turn up in their finest for their Red Carpet premières...
(Here we are on Day 4 and already there have been several major film premières, and a major party thrown by Calvin Klein...phew - I already have catching up to do !!)
Away we go then...
AISHWARYA RAI
Aishwarya always attends the Cannes Film Festival and she always looks amazing !! This year, she arrived at the Opening Ceremony wearing this stunning, white one-shouldered dress encrusted with appliqué flowers and beading - from the Elie Saab Spring 2011 Couture Collection, she looked absolutely gorgeous !!
Sadly, this wasn't one of the dresses I featured when I covered this collection a while back - I wish I had because then I could award her a Red Star to go with the Gold one...
ANGELA ISMAILOS
Angela is a film director most famous for her short documentary made last year, entitled "Great Directors" in which she interviewed the ten directors who she most admired...
She attended the Opening Ceremony at Cannes wearing this amazing Flamenco-style dress, which certainly wowed the crowd, and the scary crowd of press photographers, who can be seen ranked behind her in this photo...
I loved this fabulously over-the-top dress, especially the white-edged ruffles - there's something very exotic about them...and the straps end in a braces-style V-shaped attachment which is quite unusual, and makes for an interesting back view...
I also liked her bejewelled flower hair clip and her hair taken back in a fan-shaped chignon...she kept her make-up very glamorous and very old Hollywood, with the eye-liner and red lipstick.
For the evening Gala Dinner, she let her hair down, and changed into this beautiful turquoise and cobalt-blue floral print dress...
Sadly, I haven't been able to identify either of these dresses, but she really pulled out all the stops for the opening night this year !!
ELODIE BOUCHEZ
Elodie Bouchez is a French actress and a member of the Jury at Cannes this year...she chose an amazing print dress from the Yves Saint-Laurent Pre-Fall 2011 Collection - and very good it looked too...I liked the unusual scalloped edging everywhere and the circles print in gold and silver on black...
As the dress itself is so busy, it's a good thing she kept everything else quite plain and understated !!
ELSA ZYLBERSTEIN
Elsa is a French film and TV actress who always seems to attend the Cannes Film Festival - I have featured her quite a few times before in my Best Dressed lists and she always seems to look good !!
She attended the Opening Ceremony in this beautifully slinky oyster-satin number with sequin embroidery down each side of the halter-necked bodice - she kept her hair swept up and back in a very smooth chignon and wore glamorous make-up to match her dress...
FAN BINGBING
Fan Bingbing is, of course, a very famous actress in her native China, and she is now getting pretty well known here too, and not just for her acting !! She has an amazing fashion style and has regularly wowed us all on the red carpet at Cannes for the last few years now...
She wore a traditionally inspired Asian dress on the red carpet, in red with an embroidered white crane design...and it looked absolutely gorgeous !! In fact, it looks as if it might be one of those modern designs that have been inspired by the traditional Korean Hanbok, as it has the bow-ribbon across the top edge of the bodice and a train coming from the back...although the fitted sheath-shape with the fishtail shaping at the bottom is more Western in its styling than Korean, but anyway, she looked absolutely the business in this !!
Original, eye-catching and amazingly desirable all of a sudden, by virtue of the fact that it is quite unlike anything else around at the moment !! She completed her total Look with very pale face make-up, flawless red lipstick and dark eye-liner, and a swept up hairdo which looked like one of those Geisha-like top-knots...absolutely fabulous !!
She carried a little pearly-white clutch which almost looked like it has wings carved into it and she wore some eye-catching jewellery on her fingers too...
A big Gold star for looking totally amazing !!
GONG LI
Gong Li is also a Chinese actress, more famous over there than over here, although she has done some work on American TV...she first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and she has been in "Miami Vice" and "Memoirs of a Geisha."
She walked the red carpet wearing the most amazing dress designed by Roberto Cavalli from his Couture Collection for Spring 2011, and looked a million dollars in it too...
Oh gosh, I adore this dress - it's exactly the sort of design I love, being a rich dark colour, a sexily sheath-like shape with a ton of layered chiffon training out of the back - and the tiny tubular strips of rolled satin, which have been sewn together to form the bodice and then encrusted with beading - absolutely gorgeous !!
HOFIT GOLAN
Here's Israeli TV journalist Hofit Golan attending Cannes this year as usual...although she isn't taking part in any of the films being shown at the festival this year, she always shows up as a star on the red carpet anyway, all dressed up, and she looks pretty good most of the time, although she has had her moments !!
Here, she wore a beautiful black-chiffon-over-silver-grey dress designed by Alberta Ferretti...and I think she looks lovely in this with her hair all swept up and nice understated make-up...
INES DE LA FRESSANGE
International model and newly re-instated Karl Lagerfeld favourite, Ines de la Fressange wore a very unusual black wrapped dress, designed by Carven...
I wasn't absolutely sure about this dress at first, but now it's had time to grow on me, and I simply love her highly eye-catching Roger Vivier sandals and matching clutch - beautiful !!
KAROLINA KURKOVA
This is the second time in as many posts that Karoline Kurkova has made it into my Best Dressed list - and this time she wore a cobalt-blue sequinned dress designed by Armani Privé from the Autumn 2009 Collection...
I chose this dress at the time, so she gets a Red Star to go with the big Gold one that I have awarded her for looking amazing !! She also gets this star for being a trouper on the red carpet - she had a degree of trouble with the strap which kept falling down her arm and revealing all the bits of tape trying to hold it in place...however, she carried on with a gracious smile and walked the red carpet anyway, with total professionalism...
I love the diagonal sweep of deep cobalt blue sequins all over this amazing dress, and I love her swept back curls - and her wide smile in the face of sartorial difficulty !! She looked simply fabulous...
LINN ULMANN
Linn Ulmann is another member of the Jury at Cannes this year, and is an award-winning writer, journalist and columnist in her own right...born in Norway and a graduate of New York University, she has written four critically acclaimed novels, published throughout Europe and the USA: "Before your Sleep" (1998), "Stella Descending" (2001), "Grace" (2002) and "A Blessed Child" (2005)...
She chose a beautiful mid-calf length dress in pale grey silk, in a swept-to-one-side design. This suits her very well actually - it's elegant and simple and very chic !! I liked her ultra-simple clutch and jewellery with this, and her well-cut bob hairstyle...
Although this wasn't as dramatic as what some of the other stars wore, nevertheless this caught my eye because everything went well together and looked good !!
MELANIE GRIFFITH
Now then - Melanie !! I am very happy to see Melanie back on the red carpet after all her recent woes, but OMG...
I'm sure that you are as shocked as me to see how much older Melanie looks after all her attempts to stave off the ravages of ageing - with all the botched plastic surgery issues, she looks to be in her 60s at least...
Well, this is a well-documented case so I won't go into it much here, except to say that the reason I was absolutely gobsmacked was because I was unaware and only just discovered that she is, in fact, only one year older than me - she was born in August 1957 which makes her only 53...
That doesn't alter the fact that I really liked her beautiful black dress with its floral embellishment detailing all over each shoulder !! That coupled with her emerald and diamond earrings and an elegant updo, and she looked better than she has for a while...she looked very happy to be on the red carpet with her husband, Antonio Banderas,(who is well known for not wanting her to have any surgery at all) and full of enthusiasm to be there...
She has, over recent years, undergone planned refresher visits to the rehab clinic for addictions to alcohol, cocaine and pain-killers, and also undergone surgery to remove the first stages of skin cancer from her face, which left her with a black eye for a while - so you see, there are various other reasons for her to be happy to be there too !!
However, all the bad stuff notwithstanding, this has to be one of the best adverts against self-imposed plastic surgery ever - here she is back in her thirties, just to remind you all how pretty she used to be...
MELANIE LAURENT
Melanie Laurent is a French actress best known to the American audiences for her role in Quentin Tarantino's film "Inglourious Basterds " from 2009...she wore this beautiful Christian Dior dress with a massive and slightly see-through skirt and heavily beaded and pleated bodice...
Incidentally, this is the first design to be created by the in-house team without a head designer, at the House of Dior, and is from the forthcoming Autumn 2011 Couture Collection - Melanie was selected to wear the archive-inspired dress at the Cannes Opening Ceremony...
I wasn't convinced I liked this dress at first, but this was another design that has grown on me - I am rather fascinated by the interesting treatment of the strips of chiffon running down the skirt with their intermittent twisted and knotted effects...
She kept her hair down and natural, although it would have suited the dress better if it was up, I think, but she still looks good !! I liked her bracelet too...
It will be very interesting to see the rest of this collection when it comes out in July, as they still haven't appointed a replacement for John Galliano yet, so watch this space !!
NANSUN SHI
Nansun Shi, born Shi Nan-Sun, is a Hong Kong film producer, presenter and a former Senior Advisor for Media Asia Group. She has been in the film industry for nearly thirty years, and has contributed a lot to the Hong Kong cinema scene since the late 1970s. Shi is also the wife of celebrated director Tsui Hark. She is also a member of the Jury at Cannes this year...
She walked out on stage at the Palais des Festivals Opening Ceremony Show dressed in the most amazing Chinese dress - I love this and I do wish I could get a better look at it...the silver and gold embroidery is utterly gorgeous !! The design down the front looks rather like a Chinese chrysanthemum kind of design, but it may be some other kind of flower - anyway, the black, red, silver and gold colour combination is stunning !!
NIEVES ALVAREZ
Nieves is a Spanish fashion model of some repute, and she looked beautiful at the Opening Ceremony wearing a gorgeous tiered black chiffon gown by Alberta Ferretti...
This may be from a forthcoming collection, possibly for the Resort 2011 show in June, as I can't find this design anywhere...it's lovely though, and so typically Alberta Ferretti - layers of chiffon ruffles and one wide gathered strap embellished with beading...
I rather liked her black drop earrings too !!
RACHEL McADAM
Here's a dress I certainly can identify !! This is, of course, from the Marchesa Autumn 2011 RTW Collections, and is one that I featured when I looked at this show back in February...that's why Rachel gets the Red Star...
She looks absolutely delectable in this, but I can't help feeling that these very long trains are all very well when they look amazing on a runway, or in a presentation where the model is standing on a static block, which is what Marchesa favours, but when it comes to actually walking around in them, say at Cannes for instance, they can become a bit of a liability if you're not practised !!
Rachel had to gather up the train at the back in order to walk up the steps, and how awkward is that ?!! Having said that, this dress does go up at the front and so for the most part, she was able to walk unhindered when on the flat !!
She looks lovely though, especially with her hair down, and dark-eyed, but still fairly natural looking make-up...
ROBERTA ARMANI
Roberta is the niece of Giorgio and is also the Director of Public Relations for the Armani empire...therefore it's inevitable that she should be wearing an Armani Privé dress...and so she is !!
Very lovely it looks too - I like the tiny little seed beads across the bodice and the straight slim lines of this column dress...
She wore it with her hair down, a simple square clutch, and a bracelet of square crystal beads which looks great with it !! It gives the dress a bit of sophisticated sparkle...
SALMA HAYEK
Salma Hayek chose a beautiful Gucci Première dress to wear on the red carpet...you may remember that the Gucci label chose last year's Cannes Film Festival to launch its first couture collection onto the unsuspecting public, with great success - and this year, they are doing something similar...
This is one gorgeous dress actually - I love all the little loops of silver beads encrusting the bodice and the finely pleated and very full skirt...
The only thing I can't help thinking is that it's a shame that Salma chose this pale grey colour for this event - as she is a Latino beauty and therefore looks fantastic in bright and sizzlingly rich colours, I can't help feeling that this is a teensy bit dull for her, I think...
Don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful dress but she would have got a gold star if it had been a better colour...
UMA THURMAN
Uma Thurman is also on the Jury at Cannes this year...and she looked somewhat sensational as she always does - she chose a Versace dress from the Autumn 2011 Collection, which is one that I chose too...
As you can see, she chose to have it slightly modified by filling in the cut-outs in the front of the bodice, but that doesn't take away from the dress at all...it still looks amazing - she is very tall and can carry this kind of dress off perfectly !!
I loved her gorgeous emerald drop earrings too - they were very covetable...and she showed them off very well by having her hair up in a slightly messy ponytail, high on the back of her head !!
VAHINA GIOCANTE
Vahina is a French actress and she looked absolutely stunning in a real show-stopping kind of way, when she walked out on the red carpet in this huge dress - it has a real 1950s look about it, doesn't it, with the huge chiffon layers in the skirt and the plunging neckline - I love it to bits !!
She has an enviably curvy but slim figure, so she can wear dresses like this with ease...I liked her Hollywood glam hair and her amazing diamond necklace...
WORST DRESSED
So who really didn't make it into my Good Books at this Opening Ceremony last Wednesday evening ? Well, there really weren't that many awful dresses, but there were four people who I did think could have done an awful lot better, frankly...
DENISE RICH
I really didn't much care for Denise's overly colourful dress - it reminded me of those blindingly bright prints we had back in the 80s!! It's too much of a big-scale design, too random and too colourful - even for me...and I like rich colours !!
Also, I do think that Denise may have had far too long under that sun-bed, don't you ?!! She looks positively orange...
LAMIA KASHOGGI
Lamia is the wife of Saudi entrepreneur and arms dealer Adnan Kashoggi...and therefore she has untold wealth and resources for any kind of fashion choices she cares to make - why, oh why, then, did she go for such a weird and slightly S & M flavoured corset-laced dress with a see-through skirt ?!!
No-one else has commented on this, but I can't help thinking there is something a bit sad about someone as old as Lamia clearly is, choosing such a young, and daringly fashion-forward style...it looks a tad ridiculous, as everything is a bit too tight, and she comes across as a slightly fierce Madame actually - the sort who may well do a brisk line in whip-brandishing if you asked her nicely...
Having said all that, I quite like her black ruffled satin bag and her diamond bracelet...
MARTINA GUSMAN
Martina Gusman is a Jury member too, and she was looking pretty good until I got to see the full length shots of her slightly crazy dress with the more than crazy necklace...
I thought that this would have been better without the short mini-dress effect at the front. Actually, I would have loved to see this as a full length dress all the way round...
This is a typical rise and fall gown that doesn't really quite make it...it would have even been better maybe if it had been a full skirt - at least than she could swish around in it - and that's got to be one of the best things about a rise and fall gown...
This isn't the worst dress I've seen and it wasn't the worst dress at this opening red carpet event, but still...I really didn't take to it at all - I don't suppose she'll be the last of my fashion disasters at this year's Cannes Festival either !!
TIZIANA ROCCA
Italian PR expert Tiziana wore this rather odd, pale custard-yellow dress with its peculiar wide oval-shaped cut-out over one leg, and diamanté crystal-beaded edging, on Wednesday evening...
I have to say that I really can't understand the attraction of this awful colour - what is it exactly that people like about it ?!! We have occasional seasons where we get umpteen shades like this at work, and they're always left over for the Clearance in July - and sometimes the paint colour for the seasonal colour walls on the fashion floor is this kind of thing too, and all I can see is some slightly cold custard, possibly with lumps in it !!
The dress isn't the best fit in the world either - it all looks a bit clingy around her middle section, I must say...
Having said all that, out of so many stars parading the red carpet at Cannes for the Opening Ceremony, only four bad dress choices isn't too bad, is it ?!!
Next up will be the first few film premières and maybe the first of the parties - the Calvin Klein Party which took place on the 12th May...
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