Wednesday evening’s Cannes opener contained all of the elements of an impossibly elegant fever dream. American actresses Naomi Watts, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, and Natalie Portman all turned up on the Palais des Festivals red carpet to pay tribute to the grand dame of French cinema Catherine Deneuve, who starred in the night’s film, La Tête Haute. Each star posed for the tuxedo-clad crowds of photographers on either side—Nyong’o swirling her dreamy, verdant Gucci gown for the shuttering lenses—as French fans, who had saved spaces on the street with lawn chairs several days before, cheered from afar.

Last month, Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux announced that the fest would discourage red-carpet selfies, calling the cell-phone practice “ridiculous and grotesque.” Frémaux did not, however, elaborate on how he might enforce this gallant notion. We imagined burly security guards batting iPhones from hands, but the French, as always, were more refined. Whenever guests withdrew their smart phones, men in black tie placed their gloved hand on the offender’s elbow, smiled, and offered a kind, “S'il vous plaît.” Please, they said, leaving the French words for “put your hideous vanity device away” unspoken. Although the Cannes Film Festival’s new protocol will not curb modern culture’s selfie-craving ways, it is refreshing to see someone trying to preserve red-carpet gentility and, even better, the old-school celebrity system. Sure, any imbecile with an iPhone can make themselves an Internet star these days. But the French remember that those heaven-sent humans with a certain je ne sais quoi are the real stars who deserve to be in front of cameras at a film premiere.

Inside the Palais, with cameras respectably stowed in pockets and purses, the glorious sensory overload began. A giant, gilded palm leaf—the literal Palme d’Or— fell from the theater’s ceiling Phantom of the Opera chandelier–style as French actor Lambert Wilson ran onto the stage. Although his opening remarks were spoken in French, he was so demonstrative and excitable that the speech was somehow fascinating even to foreigners.

After the remarks, this year’s competition judges were brought out onstage. Before introducing jury presidents the Cohen brothers, the festival presented a reel of the filmmakers’ work. (The Big Lebowski plays just as well to an international audience, it turns out.) The jury members were instructed to each sit on a glossy white chair (which our colleague likened to something straight out of The Hunger Games) and face the audience while snippets from all of the festival’s 2015 selections played behind them.

Then, because why not, Frémaux introduced Julianne Moore to the stage. You see, she had won last year’s acting award for her work in David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars. And for whatever reason, she had not collected the prize.

Did we mention that there was also an interpretive dance to the music of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo? As scenes from the 1958 picture played onscreen, dancers costumed as James Stewart and Kim Novak’s lead characters performed a gorgeous sequence choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet.

The entire introductory event was so lively and lengthy that afterward, perhaps forgetting that there was a feature presentation still to come, or possibly simply needing a cigarette, part of the audience swiftly exited theater. Later in the evening, a lucky few gathered at the rooftop suite rented by Chopard—the jeweler responsible for making the festival’s high prize, the Palme d'Or—for an elegant seated dinner. There, they overlooked the brightly lit Croisette, watched the opening-night firework display, and discussed the preceding gala. After all, it’s not every day that you see an award show, an interpretive dance to Hitchcock, a Coen brothers retrospective, Jake Gyllenhaal sitting in a Hunger Games throne, and Catherine Deneuve.

But just as we were feeling a bit overwhelmed by Cannes’s uncanny delights, our American seatmate leaned in and put the festival back into a more digestible perspective: “Remember when the Entourage guys were here?”