🇺🇦 The Tiger King of Provence

AIR MAIL: the château that just won't quit; Graydon Carter on the Cannes film festival; the making of "Apocalypse Now" and "Caligula"; Bardot fever; and more!

MAY 21, 2023 Issue N⁰ 201 It's AIR MAIL Day! Subscribe now for just $1/week. Hurry, only 48 hours left to save! Good Morning! Patrick Diter, a brash, self-made real-estate developer from the Paris suburbs, must have thought his luck had run out when France's highest judicial court ruled in December 2020 that the dream house he'd illegally built in Provence—a 30,000-square-foot, faux-Italianate Xanadu estimated to have cost upwards of $75 million—needed to be destroyed. Flash forward to today, and Château Diter is still standing—and open for business, as a high-end hotel and the set for Emily in Paris. Read the latest in John von Sothen's series on the château that just won't quit and its eccentric owner, and more of my favorite stories from our South of France special issue—Graydon Carter on the Cannes Film Festival! The making of Apocalypse Now and Caligula! Bardot fever! Monaco's battle of the billionaires!—below. —Nathan King, Deputy Editor The Château That Ate Provence Despite the looming threat of demolition, Château Diter is still standing. Has Patrick Diter become "the Tiger King of Provence"? The View from Here Here's why Cannes is my favorite film festival Beating the System When every studio in Hollywood passed on Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola became an independent filmmaker And God Created Brigitte A new biopic on Brigitte Bardot explores her revolutionary sexuality—and she wants nothing to do with it WikiLeaks in Vilebrequins In Monaco, a war raging between Prince Albert and a billionaire developer features plenty of sinister players A Cavalcade of Depravity Penthouse Pets, Roman costumes, Gore Vidal, and 450 gallons of fake blood … was Caligula the most ambitious porno ever made? Cannes Can! Summer-on-the-Riviera-inspired finds for every occasion Read Now Lastly, I would like to invite you to follow along with our team on the ground at the Cannes Film Festival this week on our Instagram account. We'll feature an intimate look at our party at the Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc in celebration of Warner Brothers' 100th anniversary on Tuesday May 23, starting around noon E.T. Watch on our Instagram Stories!

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