I am still very tired (and excited!) from last night's opening of the festival. I couldn't get to sleep too well because my heart would not stop racing! It'll be awhile before I have time to write up yesterday's events (or post ANY pictures, for that matter), but here's what I was up to recently.
Lauren
15 May 2007
Last day of “freedom” before the festival! I got up at 9:30 to be ready for class, and still the electricity wasn’t working… So I let my hair dry on its own again, to no terrible result, and I got to talk to the cute electrician in French to get things sorted out. Then I got a text from Allison saying that class was postponed til 12! Bad for her, because it ended up that the trains were testing her gangsta and then the festival folks said we couldn’t get our badges until Wednesday after she got all the way out to Cannes… But then I had more time to get some groceries and eat my amazing discount banana/mango/coconut/almond granola (!!).
Today’s classes were more like real class. Everyone introduced themselves and said their favorite movies in Nate’s class, kind of nervously because it’s hard to tell what Nate likes (even though he says he doesn’t judge our film tastes, which is good). I felt like I defended my favorite Talented Mr. Ripley fairly enough. The class will definitely be a free-form, “speak up if you have an opinion” kind of thing, which I’ll need to work on, but it’ll be good once we’ve seen more movies and done more things—more material to talk about.
I think I’m really going to like Charlie’s class. He has a really cool approach about synthesizing your experiences in Cannes and gave some good examples of what other students saw and did to get us on the right track. He also gave us the skinny on why European films have less linear plots (not as much need to distribute as in the U.S.) and why there’s more sex than violence (apparently, European studies show that watching violence makes kids violent but watching sex makes kids more sociable and “productive” :P). I’ll need to keep up with my journals in dark theaters and train stations, but I’m sure the essay I want to write will strike me, as it usually happens in my strange, strange brain.
Everyone tried to go their own way to get to Cannes (for trade mags and maps to get oriented before the festival craziness), but we all ended up on the same late 4:00 train. Saw Charlie and his wife there, and they gave us the good tip that night premieres always rescreen at the Palais at 8:30 the next morning… It ended up that Samantha, Ryan, Jill, Geoffrey, and I wandered our way around the main drag, and we got a lot done! We saw some weird human-sized puppet show in the Canal+ tent on the beach, got most of our mags in the swank Hilton lobby (no guards!), got politely shown the door in the Carlton (lots of guards!), and inadvertently got filmed near the HollywoodReporter tent in the Majestic. I’m not sure, but I think Gael Garcia Bernal walked by me on the Croisette…!
We booked it back to the train station because I had misread the hourly departure time for JLP, but the train station was a zoo from what we heard was a transportation workers’ strike. ? Could be; it’s France. We met up with most of the other Cannes trip folks (some were just arriving), and eventually Tolu got wise and asked a station guard for directions and we followed her five minutes later to the correct train on the opposite side of the station. It was packed, but there weren’t as many smelly/complaining French people as there were yesterday, and we got back just fine.
I got back and ate a very “French” dinner of apple slices dipped in melted brie (a wheel the size of my face for 3 euros!). I also talked to my mom and sister tonight—yaaaay! It’s always good to hear from them, and it seems like they’ve had a fun time getting ready before Megan goes to Japan tomorrow. They’re probably going to read this soon, so hi y’all! :D
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