The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its official poster for this year’s 71st edition, featuring an iconic image…
… c’est une femme et un homme qui s’embrassent.
To be exact, the image (“featuring a woman and a man engaged in a passionate kiss”) is of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina leaning out of their cars to share a kiss in Jean-Luc Godard’s quintessential work Pierrot le fou (1965). The two actors play lovers on the run who settle down for a time on the French Riviera, which is also where the Festival International du Film de Cannes takes place every year.
Credit: © Flore Maquin / Photo: Pierrot le fou © Georges Pierre
The poster, designed by 27-year-old graphic designer Flore Maquin, has worked with Universal Pictures, Paramount Channel, Europacorp, Wild Side, and Arte, revisiting or creating alternatives for film posters. Her design for Cannes is inspired by the work of Georges Pierre (1927-2003), the still photographer whose 30-year career beginning in 1960 comprised of some of the biggest names in French cinema, including Jacques Rivette, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle, Bertrand Tavernier, as well as international auteurs such as Polish directors Andrzej Żuławski and Andrzej Wajda. Pierre also founded the Association des Photographes de Films, tasked with defending the material and moral interests of cinema photographers in order to achieve recognition for still photographers as artists in their own right.
For a look back at some classic and beautiful festival posters, check out: