Increasing the anticipation of Moore’s second red-carpet appearance on Sunday night, is that it will commemorate her own debut in a film vying for the festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or – namely, The Substance. The plot of the “feminist take on body horror,” from French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, is top secret. Moore’s stylist, Brad Goreski, divulges that his client will flaunt a look evoking the film’s focus on feminine anatomy. In other words, Moore is method dressing. “Her red carpet look reflects themes in her film,” offers Goreski.
Moore’s taught physique remains as trim and tantalising as it did when, aged 29, she appeared in body paint by make-up artist Joanne Gair fronting Vanity Fair’s August 1992 issue. The legendary Annie Leibovitz image was published a year after a heavily pregnant Moore, flaunting nothing other than diamond jewellery, posed on the cover. Noting how a maternity bump became a badge of honour, rather than a burden, thanks to “buck naked” Moore, Vogue observed: “There was a seismic shift in the representation of pregnancy once the picture was printed.”
Moore’s body – said to be maintained by gruelling workouts that would put the Kardashians to shame – became her stock-in-trade and will surely light up the screen during The Substance. “She has the perfect body,” confirms Lou Eyrich, the costume designer/producer of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. The critical acclaim Moore has received for immortalising Ann Woodward, a New York socialite driven to suicide by rumours that she had murdered her husband, means her week at Cannes is about much more than her immediate obligations.