Painted wallsEver mindful of improving the quality of life of its residents and enhancing the appearance of the city’s neighbourhoods, since 2002 the Municipality of Cannes has been developing an extensive programme of giant murals. These paintings, enjoyed by residents and visitors alike, adorn the walls of buildings along streets and avenues at various locations across the city. Based on film-related themes, these murals pay homage to the long and fruitful love story between Cannes and the cinema. As you amble around the city, you might stumble across a wall painted with a huge effigy of Belmondo or Depardieu, Truffaut, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Bourvil, Jean Gabin, Batman, etc.


© Fresqu’île Hôtel de la Plage Place du Suquet 7 rue Saint-Dizier Jacques Tati, our favourite Uncle, walks out of the hotel where Monsieur Hulot was on holiday. He may be off to see Jour de fête at the local cinema…	© A.Fresco Charlie Chaplin 10 boulevard Vallombrosa Charlie, the Tramp, the eternal vagabond in the Kid. The tender gaze of two children, one big and one small, captured on the celluloid of our memories. Black and white - the colour of the heart…	© Fresqu’île Trompe l’œil Le Barbarella Place du Suquet 16 rue Saint-Dizier Cinema is an illusion, like this façade. Nothing of what you think you see actually exists: no balconies or windows, no room with a view. The magic of cinema may sometimes be on our own doorstep.


© 7^e Sens L’envers du décor 7 rue des Suisses What about behind the camera? What is concealed from us to preserve the magic of cinema? A tribute to those men and women in the shadows who dedicate their lives to keeping us entertained, to taking us on a journey through their imagination, from the simple technician to the director, they work as one away from the camera’s gaze. Silence, we’re shooting…	© Fresqu’île Buster Keaton 29 boulevard Victor Tuby (angle 9 rue des Frères) Buster Keaton, the stone-faced comic, impassively shoots The Cameraman while triggering catastrophes timed down to the split-second. The first genius of visual gags he was poetry in motion, transforming the most commonplace objects into sources of hilarity.	© A.Fresco Le 7^e Art Place du 18 juin (pont Carnot) Like Eddy Mitchell, everyone knows the fate of neighbourhood cinemas: they end up as garages, housing blocks or supermarkets; but in Cannes, there’ll be no last showing! This mural, known as the ‘7th Art’, represents the sixteen cinemas that await you in Cannes and where you can enjoy the latest in cinematographic artistry.


© A.Fresco Marilyn Monroe 16 boulevard d’Alsace The eternal goddess of cinema, Marilyn Monroe, is resplendent in all her timeless beauty, ready to climb the steps of the Festival Hall to the paradise of the stars. Cannes didn’t need a Seven-Year Itch to reserve a special place for a tribute to her on its walls.	© Fresqu’île Harold Lloyd 9 rue Louis Braille Maison des associations Harold Lloyd, one of silent film’s greatest comics, who performed all his stunts himself, tried to stop time. Although he probably didn’t succeed, posterity has given him what he may have been seeking: immortality in the minds of all those in whom he inspired laughter for decades.	© A.Fresco Gérard Philipe 3 boulevard Victor Tuby Mischievous and radiant, here we see Gérard Philipe at the height of his glory (which was brutally interrupted at the age of 37) in Christian-Jacque’s Fanfan la Tulipe in 1952. Born in Cannes, Gérard Philipe has continued to be one of the most popular French actors thanks to his commitment to humanist causes and the memory of his immense talent on stage and on the silver screen.


© A.Fresco Plein Soleil - Alain Delon Avenue Francis Tonner Blazing youth, blazing beauty: Alain Delon sets his course to the Blazing Sun in front of René Clément’s camera. One of the stars of French cinema in the zenith of an outstanding career, as feline as he would be in the The Leopard, with the dark stare of his character in The Godson…		© A.Fresco Cannes movie car museum Parking Berthelot-ex Diabolika At the Berthelot car park, the vehicles of regulars and visitors stand alongside the cars of the stars of the silver screen, impatient to get back behind the wheel: Bonnie and Clyde, Mad Max, Batman, the Ghostbusters, Starsky and Hutch. And if you’re looking for a Taxi driver, avoid Robert de Niro…


© A.Fresco Les baisers de cinéma Boulevard de la République Gabin-Morgan in the Port of Shadows, which almost hides her pretty eyes, the Notorious Cary Grant-Ingrid Bergman, DiCaprio-Kate Winslet ready to melt an iceberg, Clark Gable-Vivien Leigh who were Gone with the Wind, Bogart-Bacall in To Have and Have Not, Marcello Mastroianni-Anita Ekberg for a moment of incomparable Dolce Vita… Stolen Kisses in the Cinema Paradisio of our memory…		© A.Fresco Cannes Cinema Place Cornut-Gentille - 2 quai Saint-Pierre The scene has been set the camera is poised to capture the stars of one hundred years of cinema: R2-D2 and Mickey Mouse, Fred Astaire dancing, Bourvil and de Funès being shot at, Batman and Superman on the lookout for bad guys, Belmondo and Depardieu chumming up…


© A.Fresco 20 000 lieues sous les mers Passage Pierre Sémard		© Collectif Vertical Pulse La Leçon de Piano de Jane Campion (Palme d’Or 1993) Pont Alexandre III


Pulp Fiction de Quentin Tarantino (Palme d’Or 1994) Pont Alexandre III		© Collectif Vertical Pulse

The walls of Cannes (pdf : 2,3 Mo)
Giant wall paintings: L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat and Jean Gabin (pp. 14-15) don't exist anymore.

Cannes and cinema