Hotel Carlton, Cannes, France
The InterContinental Carlton Cannes is a 343-room luxury hotel built in 1911, located at 58 La Croisette in Cannes on the French Riviera and listed by the Government of France as a National Historic Building. During the Cannes Film Festival it is the most prestigious place to stay and the undisputed headquarters of motion picture industry deal-making.
Hitchcock's Films
To Catch a Thief (1955)
The hotel and its private beach are featured in several sequences in To Catch a Thief, although most of the interiors were recreated on the Paramount sound stages.
During initial discussions about the screenplay for the film, John Michael Hayes told Hitchcock that he'd never been to the south of France. The director quickly organised a two week research trip to Cannes for Hayes and his wife during December 1953 and booked them into the Carlton.[1]
So we went over, and they got a French assistant director as our guide, and we went down and did research. But I said to Hitch, "I don't really need to go. I've written Westerns and murders and other things, and I don't have to do it to know it." Hitch insisted, "It will make it much easier for me and for you to get a feel of the place and not just have to look at picture books." So we spent two weeks there, had a wonderful time, and I thought of the scene in the flower market because of it. It was my wife's birthday, and as I walked through the flower market, I ordered a whole lot of them, and filled our hotel room with so many flowers, it looked like a florist's shop.
— John Michael Hayes[2]
During the location filming, the main cast and senior crew members stayed at the Carlton, arriving at the hotel in mid-May 1954. Amongst them was Hayes, who worked with Hitchcock to tighten the script prior to the start of principal photography on May 31st.[3]
Rooms 623 and 625
Although rooms 623 and 625 feature heavily in the film, they were recreated entirely on the soundstages at Paramount.
Room 623 is now known as the "Alfred Hitchcock Suite".
The Birds (1963)
Following the screening of The Birds out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 9th 1963, Hitchcock hosted a formal dinner for around 300 guests at the Carlton.
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Selection of film frames: Intercontinental Carlton Cannes Hotel
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Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...
Links
Notes & References
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, pages 490-91
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 91-92
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 105-6
