Carla Bruni On France's Reaction To #MeToo And Her Cannes Film Festival Packing Essentials
As one of the biggest moments in the satirical and film industry calendar, it’s no wonder that France pulled out all the stops when it came to its guest list of red carpet attendees at the 77th Cannes Film Festiva.
From Charlotte Gainsborough and Isabelle Huppert to Eva Green and Juliette Binoche, in the last two weeks the Festival has been set alight with French actors, as well as Gallic fashion royalty, including Italian-born and French naturalised singer and supermodel, Carla Bruni.
A longtime guest of the Cannes Film Festival for almost three decades, the former First Lady of France famously wore a beaded lilac Celine gown to the festival in 2022, almost 25 years since wearing a brown jersey dress from the brand in 1998. For one of her appearances at the 2024 festival, Bruni and her stylist Clement Lomellini opted for an ivory-hued custom Celine column dress which featured a thigh-high split at the side and an embellished halterneck.
‘The Cannes Film Festival is very special to me,’ she tells ELLE UK about her memories of the Festival. ‘It’s the first festival I received an invitation too by the jewellery house Chopard. It’s an interesting festival because it has a very interesting case of movies, which are chosen very carefully from all over the world.’
When asked whether the film industry is changing for the better for women, she notes: 'It's about time women have winning moments in the industry of film. It was about time that #MeToo finally reached the French film system... I was very happy to see Meryl Streep, Demi Moore and Greta Gerwig being honoured. I'm so proud when women are honoured.'
Here, Bruni shares her diary from the 77th Cannes Film Festival:
'When I think about what I’m going to wear for the Festival of Cannes, I work alongside my stylist, Clement Lomellini.
, to look for dazzling dresses. I'm kind of classical, so I never go too eccentric or too far [with my look] but I do like a little boldness for the red carpet in Cannes.
'When I'm packing for Cannes Film Festival, I'm not packing all of these beautiful dresses I borrow, rather I'm packing comfy clothes that I hang out in the hotel, like Birkenstocks, jeans, T-shirts and books while I'm getting ready. Cannes is a real fun time, hard-working yet creative time.'
'So my stylist Clement and I always like to dress thinking of the light that we might have. And Cannes is in the South of France, so the light has a golden quality that the North light doesn't have. So we can go for colouring and to get ready for the red carpet, I start around one-hour-and-a-half before so I have all the time I need.'
'My favourite memory in Cannes was at the end of the Nineties I was in Cannes to watch one of the films my sister Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was in, a film from Marco Bellocchio. We were meant to share the same room, but it ended up being nine of us in one room. It was quite good fun.'
'The Cannes Film Festival still holds and importance in the film calendar because it's very intentional, as is the jury. The choice of the films are always very open. We get to see European, British, American films but also African, Asian, Japanese, Chinese etc films. It's a very rich choice and that's the secret of Cannes.'
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