History

From 4^th to 10^th Sep­tem­ber 1978.
The star Glo­ria Swan­son came to Deauville! The Fes­ti­val paid her an excep­tion­al trib­ute, along­side King Vidor, Kirk Dou­glas and Nor­man Jew­i­son. On the fringes of these trib­utes, the Fes­ti­val decid­ed to « tip it’s hat » to one of the tal­ents of Amer­i­can 7^th Art. And in the great tra­di­tion of silent cin­e­ma, it staged an excep­tion­al screen­ing of The Crowd, direct­ed by King Vidor in 1928, with cre­ation and impro­vi­sa­tion on stage of the film’s music by vio­lin­ist Ivry Giltis. The Fes­ti­val cul­mi­nat­ed in a fren­zy with Grease, in the pres­ence of its young actors, includ­ing an actor-dancer of promis­ing tal­ent: John Tra­vol­ta. For the first time, the orga­niz­ers were oblig­ed to resign them­selves to engag­ing body­guards to ensure the per­son­al safe­ty of the vis­it­ing Amer­i­can stars.