Cannes neither shy nor retiring

Film festival celebrates its 65th birthday with typical glamour and glitz, says Don O’Mahony

CANNES has gone birthday-cake crazy for its 65th film festival. There’s Marilyn Monroe adorning the posters, about to blow out a single candle. Inside the Palais Des Festivals building — the nerve centre of the festival, where films are screened and deals are done — the images of cake-eating excess hang high above.

Among those celebrating with a cake are Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Errol Flynn and Clark Gable. Kirsten Dunst, in the title role of Marie Antoinette, provides one of the few on-screen images of confectionery excess. In the week that saw the Socialist Francois Hollande become president of France, the message from Cannes is: let us eat cake.