Forty Cannes film festivals viewed through one photographer's lens

FILE PHOTO: The 75th Cannes Film Festival - Screening of the film "Crimes of the Future" in competition - Red Carpet Arrivals - Cannes, France, May 23, 2022. Guests arrive. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

(Reuters) - When Eric Gaillard first went to photograph the Cannes Film Festival in 1981, it was a smaller, more intimate affair - the kind of place where you could see the greats from Hollywood's Golden Age like Lauren Bacall or Ava Gardner wandering alone on the esplanade or having fun on the beach without bodyguards.

Returning for his 40th time, Gaillard finds a different beast - larger, more multicultural, with more restrictions on where photographers can stand to try and get that viral snap or capture that moment when a movie star gets caught off-guard sharing an intimate smile, striking a goofy pose, or having a bad hair day.