PARIS,: Now it’s the world’s paramount filmfest. But the first Cannes festival held on September 1, 1939 lasted barely 48 hours, with guests turned away and just one film screened—Hollywood’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara.

Billed at the time as the free world’s cinematic answer to fascism, Cannes’ lights went off on September 3 when Hitler invaded Poland, pulling the curtain on peace as well as the filmfest. With 1,000 movies to be screened at this year’s 60th edition, and 15,000 film types and press on hand along with a slew of Hollywood and world celebs, the festival is a far cry from the modest good intentions of its founders