Jean Cocteau used to say, smiling: "
Cocteau is not the plural of cocktail!"
".
He thus evoked these social evenings which he frequented assiduously in literary Paris but also, almost every year, on the occasion of the Cannes Film Festival.
To discover
Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection
Discover here the
"
Cinepanorama
"
by François Chalais with Jacques Tati
Regularly present since 1946, he thus entered the history of the event by chairing the jury in 1953, but also the following year, which had never happened and will probably not happen again anytime soon.
Read alsoThe Cannes Film Festival in the footsteps of François Chalais
Nicknamed "
Cocteau the Magnificent
" by the press, he showed exemplary professionalism by seeing each film twice and asking the other members of the jury to do the same.
The choice to award the Grand Prize to the film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot,
The Wages of Fear
was thus the subject of long debates.
In 1954, a few hours before the closing ceremony, Cocteau demanded that an additional trophy be created for a feature film which, to his regret, did not appear on the prize list.
A special prize was born that day.
René Clément was the winner for
Monsieur Ripois
.
In 1954, the poet will work hard so that the Palme d'Or goes to
The Gates of Hell
, a Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa.
What the critics will not appreciate.
Appointed Honorary President in 1957, he returned in May 1959 to announce his next film, which was to begin shooting in September at Les Baux de Provence,
Le testament d'Orphée
.
He then promises François Chalais to grant him, when the time comes, an interview for
Cinépanorama
.
He will keep his word...
Find François Chalais'
Cinépanorama
programs on Madelen, the Ina platform.
