Cannes

In the 1970s and ’80s, the Cannes Film Festival was more than a red carpet — it was a spectacle of freedom, fame, and excess. Photographer Ole Christiansen was there, camera in hand, capturing a time when the world’s biggest stars mingled with dreamers, directors, and the beautiful chaos of the Côte d’Azur.

Cannes unfolds a visual story from an era when the festival was still intimate, wild, and gloriously unfiltered. Christiansen’s lens brings us close to icons like Grace Jones, Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, and many others — not as distant celebrities, but as part of a living, breathing scene of glamour, sun, and seduction. Through rare, candid, and often daring photographs, the book celebrates a time when film, fame, and freedom collided — when the nights were long, the parties endless, and the line between cinema and life seemed to disappear in the glow of the Riviera.

Ole Christiansen is a Danish photographer whose career spans more than five decades across reportage, portrait, and documentary photography. With a sharp eye for atmosphere and human presence, he has captured moments where culture, fame, and reality collide. In the 1970s and ’80s, Christiansen became a familiar face along the Croisette, photographing the Cannes Film Festival during its most iconic years — a time defined by freedom, glamour, and raw spontaneity. His archive from this period offers a rare glimpse into a world before red carpets became controlled stages — when stars mingled with the crowd and stories unfolded in the sunlight and smoke of the Riviera.