The journey of Gilles Jacob or a 30 year history of the Festival de Cannes and a passion for cinema…

What the papers say:

"Overseeing this international, hysterical and carnivalesque event is as much of a mental rodeo as directing a flea circus. It’s like Versailles by Louis XIV."
Marc Lambron (Le Point)

"It’s the written version of the red carpet. Sprung straight from a joyous, melancholic and very precise memory, all the men and women Gilles Jacob has adored, and served so well, are here."
Jérôme Garcin (La Provence)

"He receives the biggest international names in the world of cinema at the top of the steps to a Palais that one would believe was his own, if only its architecture were better."
Philippe Dupuy (Nice Matin)

"It’s about a man who fell in love with Jeanne Moreau on Saturday 29th February 1953, at ten past nine in the evening."
Eric Neuhoff (Le Figaro)

"You’ll appreciate cinema and filmmakers even more, and you’ll admire the writer for his precision and his sense of humour… This man is amazing, I’m proud that he holds me in high esteem."
Jeanne Moreau, Le Journal du dimanche

"A stroll among the stars of cinema that is as amusing as it is moving."
Gloria Satta (Il Messaggero)

"A biography of elegant modesty, in which finesse and humour fight it out for supremacy."
France Cavalié (Télé 7 jours)

"The Battle of Hernani was a kindly joke compared to certain other epic skirmishes."
Alain Dutasta (La Nouvelle République)

"The writer shows himself to be a great memorialist of the world of film."
Serge Siritzky (Ecran Total)

"An excellent surprise that makes one impatient for the release of his next book."
Geneviève Cheval (Le Havre Libre)

"Why not make it into a film?"
Hervé Chabaud (L’Union)

"Like a Scott Fitzgerald figure, Jacob has frequented the most beautiful actresses during the sweetest of a thousand and one nights in Cannes."
Serge Kaganski, (Les Inrockuptibles)

"With a little imagination, he’s the French Clint. He doesn’t shoot any bullets, but his words are as precise and as effective as a shot between the eyes."
Serge Kaganski (lesinrocks.com)

"Woody Allen, Fellini, Clint Eastwood…: the title sequence is worthy of the event presided by the man behind the talented quill."
Jean-Luc Douin (Le Monde)

"Gilles Jacob loves filmmakers, their foibles and their poetry, their intense desire for creation. He is of the same ilk."
Jonathan Schell (Slate.fr)

"Everyone, or almost, is in the book."
Jérôme Malline (Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace)

"From Hitchcock to Bresson, from Depardieu to Jeanne Moreau, the portraits are so tender and funny that the stars become human, so very human."
Jérôme Garcin (Le Nouvel Observateur)

"He opens the wings of his memory for the first time and those of Cannes at the same time."
Jean Serroy (Le Dauphiné Libéré)

"Real reading pleasure. This book is the work of a writer of great elegance."
Thierry Frémaux (Le Dauphiné Libéré)

"In the glaring spotlights of the festival, he’s the man standing in the shadows."
Pierre Vavasseur (Le Parisien Aujourd’hui en France)

"The rich and touching memories of the boss of the star of festivals. The pain and the glitter."
Eric Libiot (L’Express)

"Gilles Jacob is not a gossip. The reader is therefore pleasantly surprised by the, admittedly modest, confessions of Cannes’ master of ceremony about his childhood and his family."
Emmanuel Hecht (Les Echos)

"Film festivals would seem to be the greater or smaller kingdoms of their Artistic Directors. If this be so, among the hundreds of festivals throughout the world, the legend above all others is Mr. Jacob. This gentle, bald man with his eagle-like gaze above an always perfectly pressed suit, has walked arm in arm with dozens of film divas, from Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve to Nicole Kidman and Emmanuelle Béart. They all swear by him."
Ioannis Zoumboulakis (To Vima)

"The style is elegant, with a great sense of restraint and heart-wrenching melancholy."
Aurélien Férenczi (Télérama)

"A very good autobiography… in which he succeeds in creating a novel that will enthral every reader."
Gian Luigi Rondi (Il Tempo)

"This book should sit between Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (for the industry gossip), Tarkovski’s Diaries (for their technical love of the art) and Lelouch’s Memoirs (for their objectivity and infectious humour)."
Jean-Christophe Buisson (Le Figaro Magazine)