The Cannes Film Festival Sizzles with the Stars of the Interview Archive

Welcome to Thirstory, where we whet your appetite with pages from the Interview archive that were almost too hot to print. This week, we’re saying au revoir to our Netflix subscriptions, and bonjour to Cannes—the legendary Cote d’Azur destination, which welcomed back the film industry and a slew of Interview’s favorite movie stars in full force for its 74th annual gathering.

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Cannes you hear that? Listen closely—that’s the faint buzz of a thousand flashbulbs going off at this very moment at the Cannes Film Festival. Early last week, the international glitterati dispatched to the Cote d’Azur, the sandy and sumptuous coastline where the 74th annual festival resumed after being canceled last year due to COVID-19. If Miss ‘Rona has one lesson to learn about the film industry, it’s that you can’t keep an actor off a red carpet for long. Reclaiming their rightful place along the Croisette, every célébrité known to man has alighted along the French Riviera to see and be seen on the cinema circuit. Among them is the dapper Spike Lee—the legendary screenwriter and director who was named this year’s jury president— who will be presiding over the competition for the coveted Palme D’Or. Adam Driver, famous for his nose and acting chops, received a 5-minute standing ovation, alongside the cast and crew of  Annette—an over-the-top musical in which Driver allegedly serenades co-star Marion Cotillard’s lady parts. Actress Jodie Turner-Smith served eleganza as she promoted her sci-fi flick, After Yang, which sounds like a cross between Star Wars and The Baby-Sitters Club. Val Kilmer debuted Val, a self-directed documentary spanning 61-years of his life, while Matt Damon got teary eyed at the critical acclaim for his new Amanda Knox-inspired film Stillwater.  Timothée Chalamet and Tilda Swinton—best friends for life and co-stars in Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch— got chummy on the red carpet. And, in an act that trumped all of the theatrics of the actual films, supermodel Bella Hadid stole the scene in an haute couture ensemble by Schiaparelli.

Below, take a look at our favorite portraits of some of Canne’s most alluring celebutantes— straight from the Interview archive. 

Jury President, Spike Lee, photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe, Interview, March 1987.

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The French Dispatch star Timothée Chalamet, photographed by Craig McDean, Interview, June/July 2017.

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Bella Hadid photographed by Pierre-Ange Carlotti, Interview, March 2019.

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Annette star Adam Driver photographed by Steven Klein, Interview, December/January 2017.

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Jodie Turner-Smith, who stars in After Yang, photographed by Tina Tyrell, Interview, September 2019.

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Stillwater star Matt Damon photographed by Bruce Weber, Interview, December 1997.

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The French Dispatch actor Tilda Swinton, photographed by Cindy Palmano, Interview, April 1992.

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“Val” subject, Val Kilmer, photographed by Herb Ritts, Interview, November 1990.