Cannes Guest Blogger Day 5
So far, my impression of Cannes is that it's one giant party. But we all know a lot of business gets done there and I think tomorrow is Robert's big screening. Let's all wish him luck! Here's his day 5 report:
Day 5
I guess by now it’s possible to see a routine emerging? We finished at 4:30am this morning. With the market screening now only a day away I’m going to cut back on the drinking this afternoon and try to get an early night.
Yesterday Calum Waddell, journalist, producer and party fixer, got us into a vodka promotion party. I think it was pitched to him as some kind of glamorous beauty pageant but I think it was actually a Russian vodka industry awards party.
First we couldn’t understand a word of the ceremony because the master of ceremonies spoke alternately in French and then in Russian and secondly there were so many awards I recon almost everyone there walked away with one – in fact some people had three or four under their arm. All the filmmakers like us who’d been duped where just left laughing so much because the whole thing was so bogus. There was no reason at all to hold this self-congratulating back-slapping event in Cannes.
The icing on the cake was the Miss Vodoka awards that seemed to me to go to the hosting Russian vodka millionaire’s daughter, wife and niece. By this time we’d had too much vodka and I joined the line of Russians to get my photograph taken with them. Lol! What a phoney event and only the filmmakers could see the comedy in it all. Still, I’m being a little unfair – we had a nice time, drank a lot of free vodka and it was an early evening do so it set us up for the night. The highlight for me was seeing the White Russian – a young guy dressed all in white except for his dark wrap-around sunglasses. How on earth he could see in the dim lighting I don’t know. He’d obviously dressed up to collect his six awards :)
We finished the evening at The Hospital party and two friends missed their bus back to Nice so had to crash with us. I tip-toed over them this morning as they all slept soundly on the floor. Top tip: book accommodation early and get a hotel or apartment in Cannes.
Festival Passes
I have a meeting with a distributor this afternoon which I set up yesterday and after that I’m hoping to get tickets to see the Clint Eastwood movie that’s premiering here. There are several different types of pass with varying degrees of privilege. Mine allows me to reserve tickets for grand events in the main festival cinema. Only the early 8:30am screenings have no dress code otherwise everyone has to wear evening gown or tuxedo (black tie). If I can get the tickets, I’ll be doing the 8:30am screening and turning up scruffy.
Availability of these top tickets are carefully managed and it’s necessary to go online about 24hrs before the screening when the tickets first become available to avoid disappointment. I’m supposed to be at a party this afternoon so I’m going to have to drag myself away for a few minutes……
