Keeps Gettin' Better

   Somehow, the days keep getting better. Yesterday was the biggest killer of them all- we saw 4 movies, 3 of which were BACK TO BACK PREMIERES in the Grand Lumiere. Yep, that meant 3 red carpets in a row. How did we manage to pull that off? Read on.
   The day began when Hayley, Rawson, Arthur, and I got up to see a movie a bunch of others saw the day before called Beasts of the Southern Wild, a film in the Un Certain Regard competition by director Benh Zeitlin. The buzz was that it was amazing, but I had no idea just how amazing it was until I saw it. It was by far the most incredible film I have seen all trip, and it put me on a high for the rest of the day despite the dreary weather. The film chronicled the life of a young girl and her father who live in the "Bathtub" of Louisiana and refuse to leave when weather threatens to destroy their entire home. The film seemed to last for an extremely long time (in the best way possible) and was poignant and inspiring. I laughed, gasped, and cried-- it was truly an unforgettable emotional rollercoaster. The loyalty that one can have for their people and their home really left an impact on me, and it made me reflect on my life and be thankful for the things that I have. It was so real, raw, and brilliantly done, and as soon as it is released in America (Fox Searchlight just acquired the film for distribution at Cannes), I HIGHLY RECCOMEND you all go see it.
   After the movie was over, the four of us went to a cute little corner restaurant for lunch and unable to forget about the film, proceeded to talk about it for the next hour or so. We had to return back to the dorms after lunch to hear our first guest lecture by a Penn alum at Cannes, Gregory Quinn, who now runs a company called Caribbean Cinemas. He spoke for an hour and a half about the exhibition arm of the film industry, and it was cool to hear about the Caribbean cinema culture and larger exhibition trends in general.
   In comes the best part of our day. There were three back to back premieres on the schedule for the night: the highly anticipated American film by John Hillcoat, Lawless; Australian film The Sapphires, and the world premiere of Dario Argento's revamped version of Dracula in 3-D. Our goal was to get into all of them, a challenging feat that was by no means a guarantted success, and one that would never be able to be topped again (rarely are there ever 3 big premieres in one night- let alone 3 screenings in the Lumiere back to back at all). Well, as the spoiler above indicated earlier, WE DID IT.
   Lawless was the first major American in competition film to premiere (aside from Moonrise Kingdom, which was a unique case because it was opening night), so we knew going in it was going to be extremely difficult to score a ticket. We got outside to beg and quickly realized we were 3 out of like 30 people looking for tickets. First Hayley got one (read about her adventures on her next guest blog...) and then Adam. I started to loose hope very quickly because it was 6:20 and the movie started at 7, with the red carpet ending at like 6:45. However, as luck would have it, a man holding two tickets was swarmed by a bunch of people looking for tickets and he was asking to see their badges (tickets are color coated blue and orange- and you can only get in with the orange one if you have a certain level of badge- which, thankfully, we do- YAY PENN!). I swooped in with my badge and in my sweetest voice, pleaded with the man that all my friends had tickets besides me, and it did the trick because 5 seconds later, a coveted Lawless ticket was in my hand. Adam and I rushed on line to get in, absolutely THRILLED. We walked the red carpet together and got two seats side by side smack in the center of the balcony. It could not have worked out more perfectly. When we walked the red carpet, we saw the cast at the base of it, but were rushed inside so that they could take all of their photos, etc. But we got to see them enter on the big screen- and what an all-star line up it was. Shia LaBeouf (second time seeing him - NBD), Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, Dane DeHaan, and Mia Wasikowska all were there for the premiere, with director Hillcoat and writer-musician Nick Cave also in tow. The movie is based off a book by Matt Bondurant entitled The Wettest County in the World, about the true-life story of his ancestors, the bootlegging Bondurant brothers (played by LaBeouf, Hardy, and DeHaan) during the prohibition era in 1930s Virginia. I liked the film a lot, didn't love it- but definitely worth a trip to the theater after its August 29th release in the US.

Thanks chica in the red jacket for ruining our pic

   After the film, Hayley, Adam, and I met up with the rest of our crew and got back to begging. We managed to score tickets for all of us to both The Sapphires premiere AND the Dracula premiere within a matter of minutes outside of the Grand Palais (even with a few extra to spare- oh how good it feels to see the tables turned). WHAT A FEAT!!!! We felt like Harvey Weinstein. (Weinstein company is distributing both these films- and it was a major accomplishment for them to score back to back premireres on the first Saturday of the festival! Harvey was at both and SO WERE WE!) We celebrated with nutella-banana paninis from a sandwich stand right next to the theater and raced back to the red carpet. This time, it was less crowded since it was later and not an American movie premiering, so we took our time, snapped some photos, and soaked it all in. We got a little nook for ourselves in the corner of the balcony and settled in for the film. It was fabulous! Such a nice lighthearted movie to raise our spirits after a lot of the heavier films we have seen lately. It stars Chris O'Dowd (from Bridesmaids!) and a bunch of breakout Australian actresses with great voices! The film is similar to Dreamgirls, and is about the life of 4 sisters who form a singing group called, obviously, the Sapphires, who travel to Vietnam to perform for the soldiers there in the 1960s. Thanks to the Weinstein Company, this film will definitley be making its way to the States!!
   Like we were in our own movie, we walked out of the Grand Lumiere for the second time only to turn right back around and reenter the red carpet for the third one. (Note: Red Carpet count to date= 6) It was honestly surreal and we all could not believe we accomplished what we set out to. I never really had the burning desire to see Dracula, and after the first 10 minutes it looked like a complete waste of my time, so Hayley, Rawson, and I left and went home. Definitely did not look like my kind of movie.

   On the walk back, we passed the now-empty red carpet and I was smiling so big thinking about the night. The red carpet started to feel like home- literally- and with all the huge American premieres coming up this week (Hello Brad Pitt, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, and SO MANY MORE) we're gonna have to get un-used to it fast, because those tickets will be nearly impossible to score- but the lesson learned is to never stop trying and never give up hope, because as with the rest of this trip, luck has been on our side- if we could attend three premieres, and walk three red carpets in CANNES in one night, there is NOTHING we can't do!