As the Deauville American Film Festival Turns 50, Celebrity Hangout Ciro’s Gets a Makeover

As Deauville prepares to celebrate the 50th edition of the American Film Festival, it is sprucing up its famed boardwalk with the renovation of local institution Ciro’s, the seafood restaurant that has hosted everyone from Kristen Stewart to then-President Barack Obama.

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The French coastal resort has been a fashionable destination since the early 20th century, when Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel opened her first ready-to-wear store there, effectively launching modern sportswear. In the Roaring ’20s, the seafront became a gathering place for socialites, artists and celebrities.

Painters like Kees Van Dongen and Foujita were the precursors of today’s influencers, invited by local hotels in a bid to attract publicity. Foujita made the gossip columns with stunts like arriving at the Bar du Soleil walking on his hands, while cabaret star Josephine Baker strutted the wooden planks with a cheetah on a leash.

The town, two-and-a-half hours by train from Paris, has also been the backdrop of numerous movies, most famously Claude Lelouch’s 1966 classic “Un homme et une femme” (“A Man and a Woman”).

“Until then, it had been a magnet for the social set, but the film ‘A Man and a Woman’ propelled Deauville into another dimension,” says Mayor Philippe Augier. “It gave the town a glamorous, romantic aura.”

Since the creation of the American Film Festival, it has welcomed stars including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves and Meryl Streep, to name just a few. Chanel became a partner of the festival in 2019, adding an extra dash of glamour to its red carpet.

For the anniversary edition, scheduled to run from Sept. 6 to 15, the film fest will honor Michael Douglas. The star famously met his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, at the event in 1998, and has been a regular visitor since.

To show its love for American cinema, the town has painted the name of U.S. celebrities on the white parapets separating the cabins on the boardwalk, which welcomes 1.5 million visitors a year.

“It’s our very own Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Augier says in an interview at Les Franciscaines, a former convent turned state-of-the-art cultural center.

For its fall ready-to-wear show , Chanel highlighted its historic connection with the seaside town by turning its runway into a replica of the boardwalk, which celebrates its centenary this year. The show marked the unveiling of Chanel’s new advertising campaign featuring Penélope Cruz and Brad Pitt .

The stars appeared in a remake of “A Man and a Woman,” reprising the roles originally played by Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant. The scene where they flirt over dinner was shot at the restaurant of the Hotel Le Normandy, underscoring the venue’s historic links with the film industry.

Built in the style of an Anglo-Norman cottage with half-timbered facades, the Normandy has a suite named after “A Man and a Woman,” decorated with photographs of scenes shot at the hotel. During the annual film festival, the hotel is a hub for celebrity guests and jurors.

The Normandy is owned by the Barrière Group, whose history is closely entwined with that of the city. Augier recounts how Eugène Cornuché, the French entrepreneur who owned Maxim’s restaurant in Paris, helped to relaunch Deauville by building the Normandy and its adjoining casino in 1912, followed by the Royal hotel the following year.

To honor that legacy, Augier asked siblings Alexandre Barrière and Joy Desseigne-Barrière, the fourth generation of entrepreneurs to run the group, to join him for the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at the centenary celebration on the boardwalk in July.

Since taking the helm of the Barrière Group last year following a highly publicized battle with their father, they’ve set about modernizing the company, which operates 32 casinos, 19 hotels and more than 150 restaurants and bars, including Fouquet’s on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

The group tapped Friedmann & Versace to revamp its beachside eateries Ciro’s and the adjoining Le Bar de la Mer. The interior design agency is behind restaurants including Bambini and Mosuke in Paris, and is working on the first eco-concept Cartier boutique in Brussels.

At Ciro’s, designers Virginie Friedmann and Delphine Versace opted for an Art Deco-inspired nautical design inspired by the adjoining 1920s-era public baths and the proximity of Le Havre, the gateway for transatlantic cruises to New York City.

“We tried to recreate a decor that references great passenger ships of the early 20th century like the Normandie and the Titanic, which had these dark wood interiors. It’s a little like being in the dining room of an ocean liner,” Friedmann said. “We wanted the experience to be more immersive, because it’s always been a seafood restaurant.”

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A plaster fresco features motifs including fish, sirens and squid, while polished dark wood and plush fabrics create a cozy setting for the tables overlooking the vast beach and its signature colored umbrellas. Versace points out that the wall sconces, made of cast brass, were inspired by the deep shell-shaped soap holders designed for boats.

“We like to source elements that shine a spotlight on local heritage, rather than just coming in and putting our stamp on things,” she says. “We’re very respectful of the location and the client, and the type of ambiance and cuisine they want to offer, and make sure the storytelling backs that up.”

The restaurant has a new chef, Adrien Antzenberger, who trained under the likes of Guy Savoy and Alain Ducasse. He has reinstated signature dishes like bouillabaisse and the Billy By, a creamy mussels-based soup, served on custom Bernardaud tableware.

But regulars will be greeted by a familiar face. Patrick, the head wine waiter, has been on staff for 36 years and is a fountain of entertaining anecdotes, having served everyone from Mariah Carey to Harrison Ford.

Photos of illustrious visitors are displayed by the entrance of the restaurant, which hosted a lunch for the G8 heads of state in 2011 attended by Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, among others.

Augier, who’s been mayor of Deauville since 2001, leveraged the political summit to promote the town as a tourist destination. With attractions including a hippodrome, a golf course, the casino and luxury stores including Hermès and Louis Vuitton, it remains a popular weekend getaway.

Augier has worked to keep Deauville both chic — distancing the town from its “bling-bling” reputation of the early 2000s — and accessible, laying on a year-round program of cultural events aimed at everyone from local teens to well-heeled city dwellers with secondary homes, as well as international visitors.

While tourism numbers are back to pre-pandemic levels, with an estimated 5 million visitors a year, only 20 percent are from overseas. Twinned with Lexington, Ky., with which it shares a tradition of horse racing and auctions, the town also welcomes visitors interested in the history of the region during World War II.

Deauville marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a retrospective on legendary photographer Robert Capa.

Augier is also looking to seed images of the resort organically. In the run-up to the Paris Summer Olympic Games, Deauville hosted more than 200 Chinese athletes.

“They train for several hours a day and the rest of the time, what do they do? They take pictures around town and post them to their social networks, and Deauville is seen all over China,” he explains.

While the American Film Festival was rocked by scandal this year after its director Bruno Barde was suspended in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied, it remains central to Deauville’s tourism strategy.

Hopscotch, the parent company of the festival, has named Aude Hesbert artistic director for this key edition, and hopes major stars will be back after several high-profile cancellations last year due to the Hollywood actor’s strike.

The jury will be headed by French actor Benoît Magimel, while French director Christophe Honoré, who worked with Chanel on staging its most recent haute couture show at the Paris Opera, will curate a selection of 10 films in a personal homage to American cinema.

At Ciro’s, everything’s ready to welcome another round of glittering soirées. “Conscious of its long-standing relationship with American cinema, we wanted to make the place a little more glamorous, more elegant. That was top of mind for us,” Friedmann says.

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