Are You Keeping Up?

To my loyal readers: my apologies for the 2-day delay in writing on here. When the rain came to Cannes, apparently it also washed out all of my incentive to blog since we were a little down in the dumps. Fam, I know how this literally makes your life complete so here it goes. Monday and Tuesday. Are you keeping up with us so far?

Monday morning we woke up to another dreary day, but decided to get ourselves up early anyway (ahem, 6:30) to catch an 8:30 showing of a French in-competition film called You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. Now, normally on mornings like these when we take initiative to get up, we stand with our signs asking for tickets for approximately 10-15 minutes, get a bunch, and walk right in… because, let’s be real, how many people at Cannes are ACTUALLY gonna get their asses out of bed to see an 8:30 am movie. Alas, Monday morning we were too tired to beg and instead waited on the last minute access line, which 9 times out of 10 will get into the theater because again, we thought there would be no way ever that in the rain, at 8:30 am, 2,500 people would fill up the Grand Lumiere to see a French film. Well- joke was on us. Because they did…. So, we got herded to a secondary theater, in the rain, waited on line for an additional half an hour, in the rain, and then finally got in- tired and soaking wet, and have never been more relieved to take our seats. Lights dim, movie starts, cool opening scene, and then bam- next thing I know Hayley, Jaycee, and I wake up an hour and a half later and slept through the entire thing. Great film to see if you're in search of a nice nap!

Then, we left. Had no idea what just happened, and went back on line at that same theater with our other friends to catch another French in-competition film entitled, Amour. Now, I cannot even put into words what a DRASTIC difference there was between these two. Not only did I stay awake the entire film (which seems to be a feat here…) but I was so emotionally engaged for the full 2+ hour film. If it doesn’t win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, I will be absolutely SHOCKED. The film tells the story of an elderly couple, Georges and Anne, after Anne has a stroke and the right side of her body becomes paralyzed. There is no background music, no scenes shot outside of their apartment, no distractions—just pure, raw emotion. Though the film was in French, no language is even needed to gauge the amour between these two, and I cried for about half an hour.

We left the film, all of us shaken with emotion, and decided to head for lunch. Afterwards, we saw another film called In Another Country, which was good (not great) but definitely uplifting which was much needed after an emotionally draining and rainy day. We came back to the dorms after that film and stopped to do a little bit of shopping on the way back of course. Hayley bought herself her first romper (or as she often refers to it, a onesie). Go Hayls! We showered and changed for dinner- the first real dinner we’ve had in a while, as the timing of the premieres never coincides appropriately with dinner. We made a reservation at a great restaurant on this cobblestone street we need to take to get into the main town, and it was so delicious. We had bottles of rose wine, great steak/fish/pasta, etc. and then AMAZING desserts. Definitely a great night, and the rain was in our favor and died down while we were out and about.

                                                            ***

Tuesday morning we woke up to more rain (womp). I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this in the blog before and currently too lazy to go back and look, but there is a coffee shop right across the street from the dorms we’re staying at that we stop at every single morning on our walk into town. They have SUCH amazing croissants (and recently discovered, fruit salad) even better coffee (obviously uber-important, even though they're like baby sized…). Anyway, this same nice man every single day (who we assume is the owner) helps us and speaks perfect English and is always so, so nice and helpful. Tuesday was the day we finally introduced ourselves to him. His name is Olivier and word on the street is from past participants that if you befriend him, he’ll give you free coffee by the end of your trip. Done and done. Still waiting on that café ole, Olivier!!!

We walked into the main town area at around 11 to catch an 11:30 showing of a British in-competition film called The Angels’ Share, by veteran Cannes director Ken Loach.  The movie is about a criminal who turns his life around once his girlfriend gives birth to their first son and after visiting a whiskey distillery, is inspired to seek a new way out of his hopeless life. It was really funny and overall fantastic. In the film, they took a trip to a whiskey conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was really cool to see since I am traveling abroad there for a semester in the fall!  We all were so happy to have an emotional break from all the heavy movies we’d been seeing and came out smiley. The sun started to peek out (FINALLY!), which we could see through the windows of the Palais, but before going outside, we stopped to see one more film in a smaller theater in the main building, Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview (per my request). It wasn’t exactly a movie, per se, but it was only screening once at Cannes and I knew I couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to see it. I learned about the interview when I was doing tons of reading about him after he died. In 1995, Jobs was interviewed for a huge multi-episode TV special, but in those days before computers (hehe), one of the interview videocassette tapes managed to get lost in the shuffle of it all, never to be found again until about a year ago when it was uncovered in one of the producer’s garages. The interview was only 70 minutes long, but I soaked up every minute of it. I won’t bore you with the details (although naturally, I remember most of them), but it was SO GREAT. He is beyond a genius, and the movie made me realize that whenever I am asked who the one person I would have dinner with, dead or alive, it would be him. For sure. In case you ever are wondering how I would answer that question…

We got out of the movie all starving because it was late in the afternoon and none of us had really eaten all day, so we decided to mix it up a little and went over to Planet Sushi for a little taste of home. The sushi here is so interesting and really different than in the US so it was a nice French spin on a group favorite food. We devoured it after waiting an absurd amount of time for a table, but at that point the sun was out (finally- and just in time for the slew of American premieres hitting Cannes this week) so we were chillin on a bench outside waiting. After sushi, we had some of the best gelato we’ve had all week (I had Oreo and Pistachio. YUM.).

Now, for the best part of the day- red carpet numero 7. The premiere for Brad Pitt’s newest film, Killing Them Softly, was last night, and we all believed it would be impossible to get tickets for since, well, who in their right mind would give up a ticket to see a movie in the same theater as Brad? Certainly not me. BUT, as fate would have it, some dude walked over to Jaycee and I with three tickets in hand that he gave us, and we were done. What a feeling of relief, actually having tickets an hour before the movie- such a novel thought, huh? Rawson, Adam, Hayley, and I all met up and took some cute pics in front of the beach and some artsy pics on the carousel (one of which is now Adam’s background) and then walked the red carpet. 

                                              Hey P. Diddy! Nice white tux.

We casually brushed arms with P. Diddy and walked down it the same time as him- NBD. Then, we took our seats, and saw Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson arrive – love. Then, Brad arrived on the big screen. He looked, well, not so good actually… His hair and beard are both WAY too long. Come on, Brad. He took time to sign autographs for fans (the first star I’ve seen to do that), which I thought, was really nice, but Adam thought it was a little self-indulgent. He kept taking pics on his iPhone of all the paparazzi and the people on the red carpet, which I thought was so sweet, but then again I also know they're probably being sent to the kiddies. He was also wearing these super cool sunglasses that you could see all the camera flashes reflected in- true celeb life. I kept waiting for Angie, but to no avail- she didn’t show. To Angelina Jolie (who I’m sure is an active follower of this blog): WHERE WERE YOU?! I almost cried. Adam saw it. I was sad. It was sad. The end.

            The movie, on the other hand, was great. I loved it. Most of my friends didn’t, but still doesn’t change my opinion. It was about a man who is brought in to assassinate three people for breaking up the underground Poker scene in what is assumed to be some small northeastern town. Pitt was fabulous in his role as the nihilistic assassin, and the film (set in the backdrop of the 2008 presidential election) speaks to how this one man operated in the “business” rather than the country of America. The ending dialogue (although Adam will disagree- see his review!), I thought, was one of the best scenes of any movie we’ve seen here so far.

            After the movie, we all went for dinner to this really swanky restaurant with a live musician playing called Grille. It had the best bread I think we’ve had all trip. Definitely a small deet to remember… Afterwards, we stopped by the beach on the walk home to see an unexpected fireworks show from boats on the water. It was so beautiful. But, eventually, the entire city became enveloped (en-vel-upped, thanks for the pronunciation, Adam) in a smokey haze and it became not so pretty anymore. We got back to the dorm and Rawson, Arthur, Hayley, Adam, and I changed into sweatshirts and sat on the beach near the dorms in the darkness- talking and laughing for an hour. It is something that we so rarely get to do, and such a memorable end to our evening.