Presidential reception, Oscars and of course Cannes Festival (which is currently in full swing): the red carpet is a must for prestigious ceremonies and events. We unroll it, we trample on it, we stop on it to have our photo taken in the middle of a delirious crowd… without really knowing why.
It’s a safe bet that most of the guests at the Cannes festival who climbed the twenty-four steps and some 60 meters of red carpet do not know the underside of this tradition. And why a carpet of this color? Pierre Niney, if you’re reading us, don’t move, we’ll explain everything to you.
Agamemnon and his carpet…purple
The very first mention of a red carpet dates back to ancient Greece. In a mythological tragedy bearing his name, written by the playwright Aeschylus in the Ve century BC, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, was the first to receive such an honor, after his victorious return from the Trojan War.
“Did I not order you to cover his path with carpets? Promptly! May his path be covered in purple, as he goes towards the home that no longer hoped to see him again, so that he may be led there with honor.can we read in Agamemnon. History does not say whether the Greek hero “flexed” as he should by strutting on this beautiful carpet rolled out just for him.
Wearing red cloth was considered a symbol of power and high status within society.
You will have understood, at the time, the carpet was not really red, but rather, as Aeschylus describes it, purple, a sort of dark shade of red. It is this color, even more than the carpet itself, which is loaded with symbolism here. Only the greatest leaders or high religious figures could afford to wear red at the time.
For what? Quite simply because the red pigment was extremely difficult to obtain. It was created using a marine mollusk found in the Mediterranean Sea, the purple murex, the capture of which was known for its complexity. As a result, to have red fabrics, you had to put your hand in your wallet.
Wearing red fabrics was thus considered a symbol of power and high rank within society. So what if we step on it, like Agamemnon? It is the height of glory, we almost place ourselves at the rank of a divinity, on the verge of arrogance and not far from alienating all the gods. Calm down Pierre Niney, let’s go back down.
Goodbye blue carpet, hello Yves Mourousi
If this tradition – and its symbolism of prestige – has spanned the ages, it has not been easy for the red carpet. From Agamemnon to the Croisette, a few centuries passed during which this practice disappeared from the radar… before re-emerging in 1821.
That year, an official visit would change everything. James Monroe, 5e President of the United States (1817-1825), was then welcomed on a red carpet during an official visit to South Carolina. This will obviously be enough to revive the red carpet fashion, which will appear in no time on trains (in luxurious carriages, of course), in flamboyant hotels, then in ceremonies. He notably made his appearance at the Oscars in 1961.
And the Cannes Film Festival in all this? From its first edition in 1946, it did indeed install a carpet… but in blue color. The guests “slayed” on it, before this little pleasure was taken away from them just three years later, in 1949. Hop, no more carpets! For more than three decades, stars simply climbed steps without covering, without color. Sniff.
In the 1980s, everything changed. The organizers want to transform the climb into a global theater of glamour. In 1984, the red carpet finally arrived in Cannes. We owe it in particular to a certain Yves Mourousi, illustrious journalist and presenter of the TF1 television news, who was then responsible for transforming the event into an unmissable ritual, bringing together crowds and the media. The red carpet is there, it will remain there until today.
And when we talk about the red carpet, we’re not talking about just any red. You should know that the Cannes Film Festival has its own crimson shade for its carpet. Since 2016, the carpet has indeed had colors exclusively developed for it (apologies). In the center of the steps, we find a Rosso red; on the sides, a darker red called Teatro. The objective? Use these shades to capture the photographers’ light and create a real stage setting. Everything for the glory, the prestige and the cameras. Enough to make Agamemnon, the true first star of the red carpet.
