What it's like to walk the red carpet on Cannes opening night

CANNES, France - From afar, the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival always appeared to be one of the most glamorous places on Earth. Sure, there are plenty of red carpets in Hollywood - I'd venture to guess one is literally rolled out somewhere in Los Angeles every night - but the ones in Cannes looked like nothing I'd ever experienced.

If you're anything like me, you spend far too many hours every May rapidly clicking through photo galleries from the festival, judging beautiful people in outfits you could never afford. Every movie premiere seemed like its own miniature Met Gala, replete with haute couture, dramatic trains and millions of dollars worth of diamonds.

So this year, when I was given the green light to head to the south of France for the first time, I was disappointed to read a slew of articles decrying the death of all things glitzy at the festival. With just two American