Cate Blanchett Joins Gathering of Film Industry Luminaries in Cannes

It was a casual Cate Blanchett who attended the family-style dinner hosted by Baz Luhrmann and film industry veteran Charles Finch during the Cannes Film Festival.

Blanchett, who has been a prominent figure in the film industry, arrived at the dinner in a T-shirt and blazer to discuss cinema with fellow guests including directors Abel Ferrara, Leos Carax, and Whit Stillman; actresses Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni, as well as Cannes Film Festival general manager Thierry Frémaux and Marrakech Film Festival director Melita Toscan du Plantier.

Finch, in collaboration with Chanel, was celebrating directors Paul Schrader and Valeria Golino, as well as the latest issue of his A Rabbit’s Foot film magazine.

“I honor you tonight with the most important award of your whole life, a rabbit pin,” Finch said as he bestowed the token upon Golino and Schrader. The gesture was met with cheers from the crowd in the tiny Fred l’Ecailler restaurant.

“I’m honored, I really am moved,” Golino said. “A Rabbit’s Foot is a beautiful magazine where you can really, really read, like a book, not just watch videos, but beautiful articles about film. It’s been alive for three years, so I ask, how many have you awarded in three years?”

“A lot, it’s not necessarily exclusive,” joked Finch to howls from the audience.

Schrader then good-naturedly accepted his pin by simply quoting a line from the film “Chinatown.”

“Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough,” the veteran filmmaker joked of his 50-plus years in cinema.

“Charles is a master of ceremonies in this kind of a setting. And A Rabbit’s Foot is a rather singular media for film aficionados. The connections between us were effortless,” said Lanvin deputy general manager Siddhartha Shukla of Finch’s command of the raucous room.

The party was also a celebration of sorts for the brand’s new boutique in Cannes. Lanvin decided to forgo a splashy party to mark the event.

“Lanvin is a couture house with a historic association with the Riviera and a beautiful new boutique on La Croisette, but this was a moment to spotlight the possibilities at the intersection of fashion and cinema in an intimate context, with the avant-garde, and not on the red carpet,” Shukla said.

“This was an opportunity to celebrate the filmmakers and film connoisseurs in Cannes, the individuals with deep expertise and authority. Paul and Valeria are artists with depth and dimension, and Charles has become synonymous with the power and greatness of the film industry,” he added.

With that, skilled waiters danced around tables passing plates of fried anchovies, avocado and salmon tartare, and artichoke salad that came in fast and furious courses that numbered at least a dozen by the end of the evening.

Guests spilled into the street of the open-air restaurant that sits next to a pétanque park and well off the beaten party path, as a live band played favorites like “La Bamba” to close out the exuberant evening that seemed more a celebration of cinema chums than a branded Cannes bash.