From the article :
“There is a certain preponderance of flesh, lust and concupiscence at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In Valerie Donzelli’s Marguerite & Julien, there is incest. In Todd Haynes’ Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, there is forbidden love. And then there are Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, in which Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel ogle women, and the great enfant terrible Gaspar Noe’s 3D sex film Love.
Even when there is no actual sex on the screen, there is always a great deal of intensely publicised sexiness at the festival. Long before reality TV and the Kardashians, the concept of Z-list celebs publicly cavorting in a state of undress was pioneered at Cannes with the semi-official tradition of “starlets” appearing in skimpy swimming costumes on the Croisette. In 1953, 18-year-old Brigitte Bardot posed in a bikini opposite Kirk Douglas. The next year, the now-forgotten actor Simone Silva went topless at Cannes opposite a bemused Robert Mitchum. In 1964, Jayne Mansfield also appeared in her swimming costume and did an unedifying dance called the monkey bird with her chihuahua. Each event triggered huge overexcitement among the jostling photographers, in an age when this kind of photo opportunity was not as strictly policed as it is today.
But there was also a good deal of scandal up on the screen.”
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