Cannes Film Festival’s ’high-heels only’ red carpet policy draws ire from stars

Cannes, France: After years of rumbling discontent, a rebellion against the Cannes Film Festival’s insistence that female guests must totter up the red carpet on high heels may finally be about to erupt.

Palais du Cinema door guards’ rejection of several middle-aged women invited to Sunday night’s premiere of Carol, the lesbian drama starring Cate Blanchett, created a ruckus that by Tuesday morning found even Benicio del Toro – possibly the most unequivocally masculine star on the screen – joking that he would wear high heels to his own premiere in protest.

At a press conference for Sicario, an action drama about CIA covert operations against Mexican drug cartels starring Emily Blunt as a tough, door-kicking cop, director Denis Villeneuve joked that he, along with the film’s male stars Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, should wear high heels instead of the plain black shoes required by the male dress code.

Emily Blunt, a self-confessed tomboy, was aghast when asked about the compulsory heel rule. ”That’s very disappointing, just when you kind of think there are these new waves of equality,” she said. ”I think that everyone should wear flats, to be honest.”

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The festival’s rule on high heels has been in force since anyone can remember. I have been turned away from a screening on these grounds myself, after being openly jeered by a couple of security guards for my temerity in wearing strappy gold flats.

This year, however, the festival has made a belated run to appear more female-friendly. There are more films by women directors in the official selection than ever before; for only the second time in its history, the festival opened with a film by a woman, Emmanuelle Bercot’s Standing Tall, instead of the usual big-budget costume spectacular along the lines of Grace of Monaco or The Great Gatsby.

Men and women are in roughly equal numbers on the various juries. There are daily high-powered seminars on women and the film industry featuring speakers such as Jane Fonda, Isabelle Huppert and producers Christine Vachon and Megan Ellison.

Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, who would have been 100 this year, is the face of the festival; her fresh, make-up free smile beams from posters on every second wall in Cannes. Of course, the great irony was that the issue should come to a head at a film about closeted lesbians in the 1950s. Sixty years later, a woman still isn’t allowed to wear comfortable shoes.

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Why supermodel Gisele Bundchen swapped runway for motherhood

”I think the most important thing in someone’s life is their health,” says Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen when we meet among a crowd of admirers at Chanel’s Cruise 2016 show in Seoul this month.

We are talking about the continuing controversy surrounding the bodies of high-fashion models, leading to the French government backing an ultra-thin size zero ban in March.

”I eat everything I want, but I exercise daily,” says the genetically blessed 34-year-old mother of three. ”It’s really a lifestyle – listen, you can buy everything else in your life but you can’t buy your health.”

Bundchen retired from the catwalk last month, saying emotional goodbyes from her last runway show at Sao Paolo fashion week, her native country’s most high-profile fashion event. She says she couldn’t have done it anywhere else, ”It’s my country, it’s where I come from. It was important to get closure where I started.”

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Her final walk was extremely emotional, ”everyone was crying. It was like a movie playing in my head. All the challenges in the beginning, how difficult it was and overcoming those and being here 20 years later.”

”I’m not quitting, because I’m not a quitter,” she says. ”I’m just permanently stopping.” She still looks every inch the tan, statuesque Amazonian beauty we’ve grown to love in a world dominated by fragile, young waifs. Honey-tinged, 183 cm tall, and impossibly beautiful in person, as much as in the many campaigns she’s headlined over her 20-year modelling career, Bundchen has managed to charm the industry with her cool, easy attitude and that infectious Brazilian warmth. The self-confessed ”jeans girl” is a powerful champion of the sunny, relaxed nature of Brazilian fashion and lifestyle.

”I don’t think it’s worth sacrificing health for anything. When you are very young maybe you don’t know that yet,” adds Bundchen, who stops at firmly agreeing about whether there should be stricter rules enforced in the industry.

But as a mother of three and wife to leading sportsman Tom Brady you’d imagine that health hits home. She’s also one of the more philanthropic celebrities, donating millions of US dollars over the years and acting as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.

And Bundchen’s clout might not even wane as she retires from the runway, since she remains one of Brazil’s most famous exports.

So how did it feel to be on the other end of the runway for a change; for once, just an audience member?

”It felt wonderful,” she beams. ”I always felt a little bit nervous on the runway. It’s a very different energy; I’m so much more relaxed being in the audience. I can just look and say ’Wow that’s a beautiful dress.'”

Bundchen was one of the world’s highest paid models when she retired. Although there is that ”sense of accomplishment”, now that chapter is closing ”to make space for other things”.

Demanding schedules and its impact on her body and ties with family were cited as her main reasons for the decision.

”My kids are my priority now,” she says. ”This is the biggest job I’m ever going to do. I don’t get a second shot at it.”

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