News
and informations
78TH CANNES FESTIVAL: FINE HOMES AND ESTATES REVEALS ALL THE SECRETS OF THE GOLDEN PALM
For the 78th Cannes Film Festival, Chopard opens the doors of its manufacture to meet the craftsmen who shape one of the most prestigious trophies in cinema: the Palme d'or.
It is necessary to go back a few years to understand the link that unites Chopard to the Cannes Film Festival and its Palme. Created in 1955, the delicate golden branch whose design recalls the palm leaves of the Croisette has been designed in the Chopard workshops since 1998 but it all began in 1997 when the Swiss house was preparing to open a shop in front of the Palais des Festivals. Passionate about cinema, the artistic director and co-president of Chopard, Caroline Scheufele then meets Pierre Viot, president of the Festival, and explains that she wants to organize an event during the fortnight in Cannes, without a precise idea but knowing that the Festival still has no watchmaking or jeweler partner.
Looking at the library in his office, I notice the Palm. In gold plated and on a Plexiglas base, the object is in my opinion not up to what it deserves. I therefore propose to Mr Viot to beautify it,” she says.
Caroline Scheufele returns to Switzerland with the project of imbuing the trophy with the glamour she needs. The specifications are simple: carte blanche! A single criterion however, to respect the number of 19 leaflets of the palm branch, an international deposit that can not be derogated from: It is inspired by nature, infuses movement in the original design and adds a unique touch, wink to Chopard: the heart at the bottom of the stem.
“The emblem of the house that also symbolizes all the love we have for 7' art” she continues. Back in Paris where she presented her project to Pierre Viot who approved it with enthusiasm, the beginning of an official partnership between Chopard and the Festival, and a real jeweler’s trophy made for the first time in the workshops of a high jewelry house. Since that date, the House has exclusive responsibility for the creation of the Palme and other trophies presented at the closing ceremony. As the 78th edition of the Festival approaches, Chopard’s Geneva workshops are at work.
Although the Palm has never changed its design since Caroline redesigned it in 1998, it has nevertheless undergone some modifications. In 2017, for the celebration of the 70th edition of the Festival, it was set with 167 diamonds to mark Chopard’s 20th participation as an official partner. And in 2022, it was set with 100 diamonds for a total of one carat: 75 diamonds on a leaflet in tribute to the 75th Cannes Film Festival, and 25 diamonds on another in reference to the 25th participation of Chopard as official partner. Since 2014, the Palm has been forged in 18-carat yellow gold certified by Fairmined. Only film trophy made in ethical gold, precious metal respectful of the work of men and the environment, it weighs 118 grams and is fixed on a rock crystal shaped like an emerald cut diamond sourced in Austria and always unique, nature never gives birth to two identical crystals.
Five artisans are involved in the making of the Palm. The gold is first melted on site and then poured into a plaster mold where the trophy has been shaped in wax. This ancestral technique known as «lost wax casting» allows to obtain, after the wax has melted, a rough gold branch, almost black: The Palm becoming will be rinsed and bathed in water, acid and sand to give it more shine. It takes about 40 hours to make a trophy out of a recycled gold pile. The high jewelry workshops then take care of finishing. The coin is first cut off from its supply, the small base on which it rests, to make appear at the end of the stem the heart emblem of Chopard. Then it goes to the stage of casting again to give it a smooth appearance before being polished to get rid of excess material and reveal its shine. Then it is placed on its rock crystal cushion and literally attached to its case.A safety tab has indeed been added to fix it since the day when Catherine Deneuve made it fall on the stage of the Palace.
Carefully kept in a chest of the Maison Chopard, the Palm has joined Cannes and its mythical Festival.
Check out the Fine Homes and Estates magazine online at: https://openpressview.immanens.com/kiosk/HERO&CO/backto/kiosk/reader/7d99db4ef22bd014db3e3b4ebe68052daa11d5d71f2c97b6c647bda6bc2138/#117
