From a distance, it appeared that five different Audrey Hepburns were making the grandest of entrances as the yacht drew into Port de Cannes and the camera shutters went into overdrive. This ragtag group of ingenues wore the sunglasses and headscarves of 1950s starlets, which they paired with leopard-print chiffon, rainbow crop-tops, and sports-branded underwear. There was an elegant one, a redhead one, a childlike one, one who appeared to be upset about something, and one who appeared to be fresh from a mixed doubles set.
The Spice Girls swept ashore at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, waving to the throngs of screaming fans on the docks, ready to strut, pose, backflip, and karate-kick their way through the silver screen. They had arrived at the celebrated film festival to promote their debut cinematic venture, Spice World: The Movie, which had been released 25 years ago this week, and even somewhere as star-studded as Cannes had rarely seen such scenes of frenzied fandemonium.
“The Cannes Film Festival is a serious place, and it brought this burst of colour into a black-and-white world,” says Spice World co-producer Barnaby Thompson. “We put them on the roof of the Martinez Hotel, and there are 10,000 people outside. I’m not sure what Beatlemania was like, but there was a real buzz about everything.”
However, in the intervening quarter-century, it has gained the status of a credible cult classic: an end-of-innocence snapshot of an unrepeatable moment in both British cinema and pop music, when pop stars could still be a little magical and unreal, and their movies pure primary-colored lark.
Much of Spice World’s enduring appeal stems from its unabashed homage to classic Ealing comedy and The Beatles’ cinematic oeuvre. “A Hard Day’s Night was always one of my favourite movies,” Thompson says. “As a result, the prospect of performing A Hard Day’s Night with a female cast was very appealing.”
However, in the intervening quarter-century, it has gained the status of a credible cult classic: an end-of-innocence snapshot of an unrepeatable moment in both British cinema and pop music, when pop stars could still be a little magical and unreal, and their movies pure primary-colored lark.
Much of Spice World’s enduring appeal stems from its unabashed homage to classic Ealing comedy and The Beatles’ cinematic oeuvre. “A Hard Day’s Night was always one of my favourite movies,” Thompson says. “As a result, the prospect of performing A Hard Day’s Night with a female cast was very appealing.”
