Perched on the peaks of the JW Marriott hotel in Cannes – a block of frozen concrete with large turquoise bay windows, built at the end of the 1980s, equidistant from the Palais des Festivals and the Martinez – La Terrasse by Albane is a penthouse of 1,800 square meters. This year, we will certainly see directors Paolo Sorrentino and Jacques Audiard celebrating the presence in competition of their respective films (Parthenope for the first, Emilia Perez for the second), but also the actors Adèle Exarchopoulos and François Civil, starring in Love phew, by Gilles Lellouche, also in competition. Actors, directors, agents, journalists, friends, luxury and fashion bigwigs will come and taste the “zucchini flower stuffed with Bresse chicken” by three-starred Argentinian chef Mauro Colagreco, or simply dip their lips in a flute of Moët & Chandon. A discreet hideaway for relaxing or making connections, a few meters from the Croisette and its thousands of onlookers.
Champagne corks popping, stars posing in dresses loaned by luxury houses, a few freeloaders… nothing surprising so far. Aren’t glamor and wild parties part of the “Cannes myth”? In the past, the evenings took place in villas on the heights, rented by producers delighted to play moguls by inviting journalists and festival-goers, who came out in the early morning full of gratitude for their host. Or even in yachts, which billionaires in search of glitter chartered for the occasion.
Even today, the Cannes beach, segmented into ephemeral spaces, is the place where the average festival-goer has fun, waiting a long time at the bar to get a drink. On his way out, quite soaked, he will perhaps come across the last guests of La Terrasse by Albane, also tired from the excesses. As for Albane Cleret, whose name is associated with the most exclusive Cannes festivals, she will go to bed serenely, thinking about the evening of the next day. And sober, since it only runs on water.
“I’m a camel, I don’t drink anything. Anyway, I don’t like alcohol.”, she clarifies, pulling a Vogue cigarette from its case, making it blush in the flame of a Dupont collector’s lighter. At the end of April, she entertains in her Parisian apartment with a view of the Tuileries. It is here, too, that the headquarters of its three-employee agency, Albane Communication, are located. The Haussmannian office, with bronze cherub sculptures, photo of Kate Moss on the wall and Trudon candle placed on the black marble table, is suddenly very calm.
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