Carla Bruni On France's Reaction To #MeToo And Her Cannes Film Festival Packing Essentials (2024)

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 guestlist of red carpet attendees for the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

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 award winning actors, as well as Gallic fashion royalty, including Italian-born and French naturalised singer and supermodel, Carla Bruni.

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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 she graced the carpet in a brown jersey dress from the brand in 1998. For one of her appearances at this year's festival, Bruni and her stylist Clement Lomellini agreed on 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,’ Bruni tells ELLE UK about her fond 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 list 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 and about 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:

'My stylist Clement and I always like to dress thinking of the light we might have. And Cannes is in the South of France, the light has a golden quality which the North doesn't have. As a result, we can go for colouring. To get ready for the red carpet, I start around one-hour-and-a-half hours before hand, so I have all the time I need.'

'My favourite memory of Cannes was at the end of the Nineties. I was in Cannes to watch one a film my sister Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's was in by Marco Bellocchio. Valeria and I were meant to share the same room, but it ended up being nine of us packed into one room. It was quite good fun!'

'The Cannes Film Festival still holds an 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 of film, and that's its secret.'