FESTIVAL de CANNES

It's been eight days.
I've changed my mind often, about what exactly I thought this festival was about. Below are excerpts from notes ive written in various places at various times when I had a free moment.

I understand living/existing in the city of Cannes before apart from the festival now.

I didn't understand until it was gone.

The festival intrudes upon the quiet french beach life here.

What is the festival like?
Extremely high profile- i love how much i dont fit it. its cool. rich fashionable business people. no thanks. the seperation from the somebodies and the bobodies. how about the anybodies?

INTERNATIONAL

This festival is pretty crappy though in terms of numbers and statistics. this is really the first time i have seen the effects of how horrible the world economy is. i hear the words ECONOMIC CRISIS, or some variation of that, all over the palais. the parties are downsized. less people everywhere. its all over the trades. thats all the business people talk/complain about.

my boss richard has the same joke he uses whenever someone asks how he is or hows it going:
Hey Richard, how's it going?
Ok. But ok's the new excelenet.
followed by middle aged man laughter.

sure the entertainment bussiness still makes money but considering this is supposed to be the largest film festival in the world and is covered almost as heavily as the olympics or the world cup- theres not much action. less tourists. less attention. less celebrities. -but i dont care about that.
what i have come to care about is business.
THERE ARE LESS BUYERS. oh no. here in the lerins in the palais, specifically at lighning entertainment R7S8 I work as an intern. Technically you could say I'm helping to sell films at the Cannes Film Festival, but really I'm a receptionist doing the bitchwork for the "industry" that my chosen major hinges upon for any sort of success. Admist the mundance-answering phones, making schedules, and running tickets, deal memos, and scripts to various personnel- i do take pride in being a face for lighning entertainment- we have some good movies. Taking Chances is a romantic comedy staring Justin Long. Human Contract features the directorial debut of Jada Pickett Smith. And we are presaling a gangster movie called The Irishman staring Dustin Hoffman. Of corse we also sell movies like The Reef- a horror film about sharks, throwback to Sharky anyone? And we also have a nice selection of erotics. Erotics at Cannes... hmmm.
I like to meet people and help direct inquiries, even the stupid ones, and especially in ones in different languages. Previously having no knowledge of how distributino among the film industry happens, I have managed to act knowledgable enough about our company to show clients trailers and catalogues, analyize audiences at our screenings, and distinguish the meaning behind industry jargon dropped casually. I'll be glad when my internship is finished to allow me more time to explore more of the festival life, but in some strange way I'll miss the forced importance of it all.

Seeing movies. Now, at first I was really disappointed, because my badge has very limited access and powers. In fact it's considered a technicians badge... It has a big N on it. for NO perhaps. its still possible to see movies regardless of the badge you have, but there is a whole system of tickets and colors and restrictions, and lines to wait in. And being that most of my time is spent at work, I don't have time to stand in line all day for a movie. Luckily as the week has progressed I have learned more and figured out the best ways to get into movies. Here are the movies I've seen and what my experience has been like:

L'Épine dans le Coeur de Michel Gondry. A documentary about his aunt, who is a teacher. I liked the movie because it was a personal look into a French Filmmaker's family. It had the simplicity of a home movie, with the exception of two scenes that were animated. Michel Gondry was present for the screening, so was most of the principal crew, and his aunt, the theater was smaller, an intimate experience for me to be surrounded by such imagination and creativity.

Then I tried to get into Precious, but failed. bummer. cause i read the book.

Les Yeux sans Visage de Georges Franju. 1960s French horror/frankensteinesk film about a doctor that tried to replace women's faces if they were damaged. obsessive freak. a good movie to watch with an audience, everyone was squirmy and apalled together. I sat next to a French old man in a white suit.

Dogtooth de Yorgos Lanthimos. A new Greek film that ultimately explained how self torrment and destruction are the only escpae to isolation and brainwashing. However the extreme amount of incestual sex scenes really bothered me, and I found the movie to be very distant from its audience.

I Love you Phillip Morris. Yeah!!! Finally something I could laugh during. Jim Carrey-reminded me of his role in Liar, Liar- and Ewan McGregor were fantastic. The tone and point of the movie held consistantly. Refreshing to see a Gay Romantic Comedy in a lighthearted tone.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS DE QUENTIN TARANTINO.
Hey Jen, do you want a ticket to the 12 oclock screening of Inglourious Basterds.
YES!!!
My boss, Mathilde, gave me her ticket!!!!completely unexpected, I downed my espresso, switched badges with an intern from a rival distribution company, and dashed away to the Lumiére theater- the largest theater of the Palais. Someplace I had only dreamed about stepping foot in. I pushed through the crowd. Smiled. Said Bonjour. Scanned Badge. Torn ticket. Metal Detector passed. I was walking up the steps of the red carpet. not really walking more like feet hop dancing - almost like a prance. I took my seat in the HUGE theater. I think I sat in the French people section- there were lots of French people around me. I sat and read quietly until the movie started. Opening credits, lots of cheering, this was one of the most highly anticipated films of the festival- and i was there! The movie was good, not as good as the hype held it up to me. It wasn't as much of a war film as I thought it would be. And I thought the title was misleading, The inglourious basterds, didnt really drive the plot as much as the revenge plot did. I like how Tarantino built the film for the Cannes festival audience: international, different langauges, film lovers. The movie could be sharpend, maybe a good 15 minutes, the end of the second act felt really long. I want to talk with more people who saw the film already and get some more opinions.

Today I recieved two more tickets under the certain regard selection: Morrer Como um Homen de Joao Pedro Rodrigues and Á Deriva de Heitor Dhalia. With unlimited potential to follow.

Oh yeah, I should also say I really don't want to leave.