Cannes Film Festival. On a par with the Met Gala , it is widely considered to be the most glamourous soirée of the summer. A time when A-listers flock to the South of France and the biggest films to bookmark are celebrated (or canned...not naming any names here.)
But, the film festival has not gotten off to the best start already. Unveiling the Cannes 70th edition poster, eagle-eyed tweeters couldn’t help but notice a major alteration.
Its organisers have been accused of ‘thinning down’ an archive image of the Italian actress Claudia Cardinale in 1959 – pictured swirling her skirt on a Roman roof - featured on the event's official poster.
‘Why the need to alter Claudia Cardinale's body so dramatically for #Cannes2017 official poster?’ filmmaker Anna Rose Holmer wrote.
French culture magazine Telerama echoed a similar blasting over the photoshopped picture: ‘While the poster is magnificent, the photograph has clearly and deplorably been airbrushed to thin the actress's thighs.’
The festival, and the original muse, have now responded to the claims regarding the alterations of the image which ‘sparked a lively controversy on the Web and social media’:
‘I have no comment to mark about the artistic work done on this image,’ Cardinale wrote in a statement. ‘It is a poster that, beyond representing me, represents a dance, a flight.
‘The concern for realism does not have to be here, and as a convinced feminist, I see no disrespect to women’s bodies,’ she adds. ‘There are more important things to discuss in our world. It is only cinema, let us not forget.’
Cannes comeback? ‘Indeed, it is not a photo, it is a poster and a graphic design. The Festival thanks the Agence Bronx (Paris) for its beautiful creation and reiterates its full support to them.’
Hmm, okay. So, got that?
The next time you see a woman’s body altered on a billboard or on the big screen, put it down to ‘creative freedom’.
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