Calm before the storm

The Cannes film festival in the sunny South of France has always been the place to spot the celebrity de jour - but on May 8th 1963, it was really only the gentlemen of the press knew who this 'model' was; most of the general public didn't know yet that the young lady here walking calmly and unremarked (if not entirely unnoticed!) was Christine Keeler, who's name would fairly soon be known across Britain and the world as a byword for sleaze, impropriety, scandal and political intrigue, and whose face would become one of the most famous faces of the Century.

In 1961, A government minister was sharing his extra-marital bed with Christine, who, unfortunately, was also keeping very close company with a Soviet Naval attache. 1961 was the very height of the 'Cold War', but it was the ministers denial of the affair in March 1963 that would lead to this story unravelling slowly until, with a sudden rush in early June, the saga hit the headlines in a big way. More then. 

 

Meanwhile, at the Film Festival itself, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'This Sporting Life' were amongst the big winners, but there was upset as Hitchcock's 'The Birds' was deemed too late to compete.