Carlton Hotel: Where it All Happened in Cannes

Gina Lollobrigida

The French love their chiens, so it was no problem when Gina Lollobrigida showed up with four Dalmatians in tow for the 1972 festival to promote the film King, Queen, Knave, then to hand out trophies at the closing ceremonies.

Carlton Hotel

Brigitte Bardot was an immediate sensation when she first hit Cannes in 1953, and by 1956 — there to promote her movie Naughty Girl — she had become a regular. Remembers Gurrieri with a sigh, “Brigitte Bardot, for me, that’s a great woman.”

Raquel Welch

Welch at Cannes Film Festival in 1966.

Sean Connery

Attempting to break away from his James Bond image, Sean Connery appeared in 1965 in support of his latest film, Sidney Lumet’s military prison drama The Hill, but there was no evading the fans and photographers waiting for him in front of the Carlton. “Every night at the Carlton, the artists would leave and we’d follow them,” recalls veteran photographer Mario Gurrieri.

Tony Curtis

The actor arrived to Cannes in 1982 to promote the film Black Commando where he played Colonel Iagovich.

1954 Cannes Film Festival

Robert Mitchum (second from left) outside the Carlton during the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.

Catherine Deneuve

The Repulsion star was known as a Cannes style icon.

Sophia Loren

On one of her many visits to the hotel, Sophia Loren posed in 1959 on the balcony of room 431, but when the hotel decided to honor her with a suite in her name, it upgraded her to suite 720. During the festival, the stately hotel is transformed into a Belle Epoque billboard, with movie promotions — like the 2010 displays for The A-Team and Gulliver’s Travels — adorning its facade.

Jayne Mansfield

Proclaimed Jayne Mansfield when she arrived at the Nice airport in 1958, “I’ll do anything my publicity man tells me to do,” and that included leaning over one of the Carlton’s balconies at a dangerously dizzying angle.

Cary Grant, Grace Kelly

Tourists watched in 1954 as Cary Grant and Grace Kelly waded into the bay in front of the hotel for a scene from Hitchcock’s romantic thriller To Catch a Thief, in which the glamorous Carlton dazzles nearly as much as the movie’s two stars.