by Nathaniel R
Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave at Cannes '67Fifty years ago on this very day over in France the 20th annual Cannes Film Festival opened with the French film I Killed Rasputin directed by Robert Hossein. The jury was headed by the influential Italian director Alessandro and featured both Shirley Maclaine and Vincente Minnelli, two of our favorites.
When the festival closed that year the awards were spread out (as they should be) with lots of countries winning something. The Palme d'Or went to Michelangelo Antonioni's brilliant Blowup at the end of the festival (a film we tried to interest y'all in a few years ago to crickets. *sniffle*). Check out Vanessa Redgrave's frankly awesome full-body get-up on the red carpet with her then brand new lover Franco Nero (of Camelot fame). They finally married 11 years ago!
Both of the acting prizes went to young actors...
Elvira Madigan (1967) starring Pia Degemark
The Best Actor prize went to the 30 year old Israeli Oded Kotler for Three Days and a Child a role that also won him a Golden Globe nomination for promising newcomer later that year. The Best Actress prize proved a sadder event.
The honor went to the then 17 year old Swedish actress Pia Degemark for her film debut as Elvira Madigan. Like Kotler, she was also nominated for a Golden Globe (they both lost to the stars of The Graduate Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross). Degemark also landed a similar BAFTA nod. Though Elvira Madigan role won her sudden international fame, and offers reportedly flooded in, Pia only worked for a few more years in films. She led a troubled personal life which included anorexia, drug addiction, lost custody rights to her child, and prison time. She's still alive, though, so we hope she'll have a happy ending. (The last article I could find on her was from a Swedish magazine 12 years ago in which she appeared to have been through a lot of therapy and recovery and had moved into the handicraft business.)
I can sense that you'd like a few more photos from the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. Here you go...
Gina Lollobrigida arrives
Shirley Maclaine with her jury president on the red carpet
Andy Warhol and entourage (including Nico)
Michelangelo Antonioni with Italian goddess Monica Vitti and Vanessa Redgrave (curious that Vannesa is wearing the same dress as one of Warhol's women!)
Cannes always brings out the auteurs: Here we have Robert Bresson and François Truffaut
Geraldine Chaplin smoking a cigar because why not?