Photography exhibition ‘Chronicles of a festival’

In 1989 and 1990, Le Monde sent Gérard Rondeau to cover the Cannes Film Festival with the mission of delivering one photograph per day, accompanied by a caption written by Danièle Heymann.
Where many photographers bow to the festival's constraints (tuxedos in bright sunlight, conventional shots of starlets and artificial appearances), Rondeau adopts a unique perspective, both loving and uncompromising.

His lens was not limited to the expected images: he revealed what went on behind the scenes, the truth of Cannes.
He captured the loneliness of the great figures of cinema in the impersonal rooms of luxury hotels, the light-heartedness of passers-by delighted with sandwiches and autographs, the Croisette in the early morning, cleansed of its excesses, and the fleeting grace of Nastassja Kinski.
His eye also transforms symbols: Polanski's Pirate ship becomes a shrunken memory, a snake man entertains the crowd in front of the Palais, Gregory Peck slips away with a farewell gesture...

Organised by the Culture and Heritage Department.