Actress who ran barefoot to pick up top Cannes prize

Cannes, France, May 26, 2017 (AFP) - The Cannes film festival -- the world's greatest movie showcase - celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.

AFP asked actors and directors who made their names at the festival to recount their highs and lows at the star-studded event.


Canadian actress Suzanne Clement's first memory of Cannes was doing press for "I Killed My Mother," the first feature by Canadian wunderkind filmmaker Xavier Dolan, which premiered at the festival in 2009.

The film went on to win three Directors' Fortnight prizes at Cannes, catapulting Dolan to the forefront of Canadian cinema.

But Clement's highlight at the festival came three years later when she won Best Actress for her role in Dolan's "Laurence Anyways".

She had to run back to her hotel in shorts and sneakers to get her credit card in order to purchase a "gown at an exorbitant price".

"I changed directly in the boutique where I left my clothes and ran barefoot, heels in hand, to receive" the prize, she said.

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, best known for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," said his most striking memory of Cannes was the 2006 premiere of "Pan's Labyrinth," which he produced.

"It was a very difficult film" for actor director Guillermo del Toro, he said. "I remember seeing him in the middle of the room, where the audience started applauding and didn't stop. The applause lasted 15 minutes. They just kept clapping."

"He tried to crack jokes and they just wouldn't stop applauding. He didn't know what to do, if he should go hide somewhere. I said, 'Memo, this is your moment. Enjoy it. They love you,' " Cuaron said.

For Canadian actor Gabriel Arcand, Cannes "is absolutely amazing, it's a bit an affair."
"It's big, it's very big," he said. "Everyone talks about the same thing for 10 days, in cafes, in the streets, people are only there for the cinema. I remember having conversations with bartenders who knew South American or Middle Eastern cinema much better than me."