Ma premiere festival et la premiere du festival

Ohoho, an entry somewhat on time! You'll figure out why in my next post, but I'll give you two words to keep in mind for now: French holidays.

Lauren

16 May 2007

Cannes looked completely different on the first day of the festival, even though it already had the mini-facelift of film and festival posters a few days before. Barricades (how French!) took over all the main thoroughfares I had learned to use on the Croisette, and about 50 times as many people clogged the streets. We got a gentle introduction to the endless lines at the festival when Allison took us to get our Cinephile passes—she took care of most of the grunt work while we all enjoyed the fancy McDonalds across the street, and no old French people cut in front of us when we waited the short 20 minutes around 11:30 to get our badges. Sweet! I felt so official and made sure ASAP to keep my badge turned backwards so it looked more official than it actually was.

We tried for a half-hour or so to see the celebrities going to the My Blueberry Nights press conference, but they didn’t go on the then-under construction red carpet where we were standing. Jonathan, Geoffrey, and I got tired of doing nothing and walked down to the Hilton, where we got some extra trade mags to kill some time. Even though nothing except the opening film (Blueberry Nights) was playing in any of the official Cannes competitions, we saw a lot of market screenings and decided to take our chances with the hotshots at the Star Theatre.

Some precise navigation, a trip to FNAC (like Best Buy only BETTER), and a nonchalant “Invitation 14h00 SVP” sign later, we were talking to Pamela Rodi, executive VP of marketing for Myriad Pictures, and on our way in to see Factory Girl! It was reassuring to see that even a market person had some trouble with the screening procedure (Pam didn’t have paper tickets but just told the snotty guard that we had to be let in). We also had had no idea how easy/not embarrassing it would be to ask for tickets—she wanted us to see the movie as much as we did! I was grinning like an idiot and shaking a bit for the few minutes before the film started because I was so excited with our success (an easily-gotten but nonetheless impressive achievement, because it turned out that only one other group of about 5 guys got in to see a film that afternoon).

Factory Girl, a film about Andy Warhol’s muse Edie Sedgwick (who was played awesomely by Sienna Miller), was a good first film of the festival for me. It definitely had some intricate cinematic elements—lots of black and white grainy footage, weird drug scenes—but it wasn’t too over the top experimental like some films are. I also enjoyed how it tied into our experience at a film festival; the film toyed with the idea that Edie’s search for glamour in the film business with Andy Warhol led her to ruin, and you definitely have to check yourself and see the glitzy world of filmmaking as it is if you want to keep your integrity even at a film festival (really a business event)!

The train back to Juan-les-Pins got to Cannes about 40 minutes late—plenty of time to talk to the other successful filmgoers on our trip and to get used to the fact that French trains will never be there when you expect them to be. I had a whirlwind dinner of half a cup of cereal, half a yogurt, and half a pear (all left on my table), got dressed and made up in record time, and left only to remember something I’d forgotten in the room three times before I caught up with most of the UGA folks at the train station. Everyone looked so nice in their dresses and tuxedos—I can’t wait to see someone else’s photos on Facebook, because honestly after all the chaos the last thing I wanted to do was fuss with my camera!

We got to the Palais and dispersed to beg for tickets. The red carpet was an absolute mob scene, so I found a place in front of the side entrance to start smiling at old guys who might have tickets. I was photographed too many times by pros and tourists alike, and I was filmed three times (thankfully never interviewed). I really didn’t feel as exposed as a lot of people had warned me I would feel, but when 7:15 came and I hadn’t gotten a ticket for the premiere and hadn’t seen any celebrities I did feel a bit disheartened.

Samantha and I killed some time at the Majestic but eventually got out to hook for tickets to the later premiere, which turned out to be much more fun. We stood near the theatre exit at first and had a good laugh looking at all the non-celebrities walk slowly and gloweringly by the scores of cameramen in hopes of getting their pictures taken. Eventually I wandered further out and found Bill, and we seriously were talking for about two minutes, holding our signs but not looking at the crowd, when a man came by with two orchestra tickets. Maybe two minutes later than that a really nice (and handsome!) French man gave me an extra ticket and called his wife (!) to make sure that she really wasn’t coming and that he could give the ticket to “une jolie, jeune americaine.” Eventually we stood there and got enough tickets for all of the UGA kids who had stuck it out, and at 10:45 Bill, Samantha, Laura, and I walked up the red carpet.

No celebrities were there for the later screening, but walking up the red carpet was pretty exciting. (Bill was most pleased that he had three pretty girls walking with him. ;P) We didn’t take any pictures because we had been warned by the two students who did get into the 7:15 premiere that our cameras might be confiscated, but I was glad to be able to just take it all in. The Grand Theatre Lumiere seats a staggering 2000+ person audience, and we were escorted to the very front by some classy-looking ushers—how cool! We had tons of time to look around in awe and to enjoy being off our feet and in comfy chairs for the first time in several hours.

Call me a geek, but I did get goosebumps when the intro symbol for the Festival de Cannes appeared on screen. The movie itself was a combination of drooling over Jude Law, fidgeting from being achy and hungry, and puzzling over Wong Kar-Wai’s style’s translation into an English-language film. I generally liked the movie, despite some quibbles over predictable plot recurrences, goofy dialogue, and too many slo-mo and extreme close up shots. I had been wanting to see it for a while, and as always Wong Kar-Wai drew amazing performances from all of the actors (even silver-screen newbie Norah Jones, who lived up to a part written as more reaction than action).

We gathered about 15 UGA kids at the taxi outpost near the train station and took surprisingly cheap cab rides back to Couleurs Soleil. After writing down a few of my thoughts on the movie, remaking my bed in the wake of Wednesday’s maid service, and washing my face, it was 3:30 am. I got up at 8:30 to start my second day of the festival and still felt incredible.