Cannes This Festival Get Any More Amazing? (Part Two)

On to Thursday:

I slept in and had to miss Jew Suss, Rise and Fall since we were out so late. I was disappointed in myself, but I knew it had to be done or else the whole rest of my day would have been shot. Natalie and I got a later start than we meant to when we missed the train twice in a row. It was sort of funny because Natalie and I have discovered we have a lot of things in common, like forgetting things and having a fascination of anything to do with the Holocaust. More on the Holocaust later.

Once we got to Cannes it was time to hightail it to the Gray D'Albion for our first film of the day. I went to see a Japanese film called Accidental Kidnapper. I am so so so so so glad I chose to see this movie. There was a bit of awkward slapstick humor in the beginning that could have and should have been avoided, but the rest of the movie was so quirky and touching that I soon forgot about those beginning moments. A ++, would watch again if there weren't so many movies here to be seen.

I met Blake at the American Pavilion and we traded talk about the movies we had seen/wanted to see. Before I could order a drink or anything I realized it was time to head back to the Gray in time to catch Locked In, which starred Eliza Dushku as one of the major characters. It dealt with locked-in syndrome and also our inability sometimes as people to make connections that tie us together emotionally instead of ones that leave us floating out to sea adrift in our own loneliness. You know, or something... I guess you could say it was deep. Eliza Dushku played a smoking hot seductress. Very. Sexy. One major failure of the film was the character crutch they employed. You know those movies that randomly insert a "magical black man" who enters the story specifically to eventually provide a solution to everyone's problem while being mystical and wise? Locked In had one. His name was Dr. Franklin Sampson. Yeah.

I finally got my Holocaust fix after Locked In was finished and I walked back to the Palais to see The Roundup. I read Sarah's Key over the summer and so I had already heard of the Velodrome d'Hiver and knew what was coming, but I can't imagine how hard it was for those in our group who hadn't heard that story and were not prepared for the heartbreak that occupied the next two hours of our night. Although it was terribly sad and caused tears to run down my cheeks for almost the entire duration of the movie, it was also terribly good. Probably the best movie I have seen so far. It was an E-motional Rollercoaster heartbreaker of a film, but so beautiful and wonderfully told I was sobbing by the end of it, along with a lot of other people in the theater. 

When we were finished drying our eyes, we took the train back to JLP and began the search for food. Natalie and I were tired of Master Burger so we walked back to the hotel and noticed the pizza place across the street was still open. When Natalie tried to order pizza or pasta to-go she was offered something with claws instead and had to resort to sign language to try and correct her order. While she was busy bridging the language barrier, I met my our new friend Victor, who wound up being a producer of his own production company. Turns out he lives in L.A. and had worked for Sony for seven years as the “green light” guy as well as Disney for a few years. We wound up eating with Victor for about two hours rather than going back to our room like we had planned. He told us all sorts of stories about his films and the celebrities he had worked with as well as a bunch of advice for making it in the business. So basically, Victor's awesome.

STAY TUNED FOR: Cannes This Festival Get Any More Amazing? (Part Three)

Cannes This Festival Get Any More Amazing? (Part One)

I skipped a day of blogging about the festival. Lemme make up for that right now.

So, yesterday. AMAZING. First day of the festival and everybody was rocking. We arrived in the morning in time to catch the beginning of Trash Humpers, but me and Natalie wound up leaving about thirty minutes in. After we left Trash Humpers, we ran into a few other people from our group and we all caught I Am Kalam. It was a sweet, sweet movie about two boys, a prince and a servant, who become secret friends after the prince notices the servant calming a camel in his palace courtyard. One of the little boys from Slumdog Millionaire was a main character and he was absolutely adorable; I smiled through the whole movie. Following I Am Kalam came Mother's Little Helpers, a film about a group of boys pimping out themselves to Cougars in order to pay for private school. It was a quirky Canadian film that was surprisingly entertaining.

In between the films we had time to hop on by the pavilion area and get a look at the yachts in the harbor. The pavilions are these fancy white tents divided as one each for countries represented at the Cannes Film Festival. We accidentally stumbled into the French Market tent, but soon after found our way to the American Pavilion and checked in to get our pavilion badges and our slips for two free drinks. Ooh la la! I haven't used mine yet; I'm saving it for later in the week when I will probably need it more.

After Mother's Little Helpers, we went to the bathroom to change into our formal wear so we could successfully beg for tickets to the Robin Hood premier. I walked in heels for hours. It felt like longer. I stalked up and down and tried a hundred different places and faces in order to score a ticket, but to no avail. About half our group got lucky and made it to the Opening Ceremonies, but the rest of us had to settle for dinner at Cafe Roma and holding signs again to try for tickets to the 11:30 showing.

Did I score tickets to the 11:30 showing? Yes. Yes I did. It was fantastic, but first I have to talk about something else that happened before we walked the red carpet. In the process of getting my ticket, I also got invitations to a film called 2B from the actual producer of the movie. His associate was the one who gave me my ticket for Robin Hood, but while we were still talking, Richard Kroehling walked up and introduced himself and gave me about 20 invitations for an added showing of his film on Friday at 4:00.

Anyway, the part you all scrolled to the bottom for... Red Carpet time. Unfortunately, to rub it in that we didn't get into the Opening Ceremonies, Cannes decided to literally rain on our parade. The whole time we were eating at Cafe Roma we could see the lightning in the distance. The rain came as soon as we scored our last ticket for Ben Sidoti. We waited inside the Palais until the line began to move and we wormed our way in the middle instead of having to move the back of the line. Eric and I both had Orchestra seats so we wound up on the bottom and a few rows back from the front. If we had had those seats during the Opening Ceremonies I would have been only a few hundred feet from Tim Burton...

We walked the carpet though, dang it. And we walked it hard. There are pictures floating around on someone's camera that I will be tagged in on Facebook sometime which I can then put up here. I did not see anyone famous. The inside of the Grand Lumiere Theater was amazing. I wish cameras had been allowed so I could show you. I may try to sneak some pics the next time I get into the Lumiere. Anyhoo, there was a Tim Burton illustration on each of the posts we passed inside. I almost fainted. Eric can attest to that. We checked our bags and headed through the actual theater doors to the biggest theater I have ever been in, except maybe the Fox. I dunno, it was hard to tell. It definitely had the biggest screen I've ever seen.

Robin Hood itself was sort of meh. Ridley Scott did a great job showing Robin in an emotional setting and it was cool to see a back story, but the set up of a lot of the characters was a bit confusing and there were definitely some very cheesy lines: "This is for you, Walter." The end credits were stunning, however.

We hitched a couple of cabs back to the hotel and at 3 AM got started preparing for the next full day of films.
STAY TUNED FOR: Cannes This Festival Get Any More Amazing Part 2

*Will Work For Billets*

Most of our day has consisted of frenzied festival preparation. We had sessions of both classes today, the movie review one with Nate Kohn and the marketing with Jenn Smith. The festival seems more unreal the more I prepare for it and it starts to-MOR-row!

Practice at begging begins tomorrow as well if I am to get into the Premier of Robin Hood with the Opening Ceremonies. My plan is to prance around with a sign reading, "Will Work Pour Les Billets Pour < < Robin Hood > >Sil-Vous-Plait, Avec Crepes. Ou est Paul? Bon Soir!" around the carousel so the parents will want to give me all their tickets just to stop dancing around their children and making them anxious. Just kidding, but not really. I want a ticket. The more I see Tim Burton during this festival, the happier I will be. If we wind up becoming bffs, I will not be disappointed.

So, today... We arrived in Cannes and had Jenn and Anna give us another mini-tour to get us acclimated to the layout of the festival area. We took a nice group picture (which I still am unable to upload :/ ) in front of the Palais and even explored the inside of it while we got our Market Badges. FINALLY! It is official. We are marketers... or something. We have fake real business cards that say we are producers of PeachyDawg production company and everything. The bags they gave us when we got our badges were only about 100 kilos (I'm really trying to be European here), so it's a good thing I did all that weight lifting before I left the States. We have a book listing all the production companies at the festival that weighs more than some of my textsbooks, no joke.

I spent about three hours earlier pouring over the festival info trying to decide which movies, besides Robin Hood, to go see tomorrow. I think I have narrowed it down to either Freakonomics or Trash Humpers. No, I'm not kidding, it's a horror film apparently. Freakonomics has several showings though while Trash Humpers only has one, so... you do the math. Or don't if it makes you queasy.

Sorry no pictures still. A Frenchman in the hotel even noticed we were having difficulties. Actually what he said was something like, "You Americans and your internet..." but I'm pretty sure his tone suggested sympathy to our suffering. Or perhaps that was just his accent... anyway, I must remember to say something nice to him tomorrow.

AHHH!!! FESTIVAL TOMORROW!

Long Days and Longer Nights

Time is irrelevant in France.

Today has seemed like the shortest day, but when I try to remember eating a croissant and sipping some jus de pomme (apple juice) this morning for breakfast, it seems like all that happened days ago. I'm not sure if it's jet lag or what, but the days have already started running together.

Shops here use business hours as guidelines. We only just made it to the tabac to buy Natalie her phone card today, and we've been attempting it since we got here. Places that have the lights on can just refuse to serve you if they're chilling out watching le television, and sometimes they just take unannounced siestas. It's pretty lax. Also, it makes going to the store about ten times more interesting.

After breakfast and some calm morning down-time, Jenn Smith finally arrived and a group of us followed her out to find some panini and gelato for lunch. We went back to sit in the park and observe the manic squirrels, which, by the way, are enormous. And black. And not afraid of people.

In Italy, we saw no squirrels. None. Not a single one. At the time, I wrote a lot about it in my journal because I had picked squirrels as the animal I was most interested about the migration of at the time. Also, it was really hard to imagine not seeing squirrels around in the trees. Anyway, I had forgotten all about this obsession until Jenn pointed out a squirrel in a tree, and now I'm fascinated. I thought they had orange teeth, but it turns out some lady was just holding somethings orange up at the trees and the squirrels were just plucking them out of her hand and scurrying back up into the safety of the branches. But I digress...

Jenn took us on a walking tour and pointed out her favorite creperie on the way. She tried to leave us for her rental apartment, but she got her key stuck in the door and so we waited with her and tried to help her pry the key out. We were completely unsuccessful, but luckily a British man, he had to have been a little frustrated because he had a ton of groceries, helped out and got the key free... only to turn it in the other direction and unlock the door. But it really had been stuck! Scout's honor.

We had a two-hour long orientation session where our brains got filled with all sorts of Cannes hints and tips at the Coleurs Soliel (our hotel) on the top floor. The view was amazing. It prompted many pictures. We're going to be having our classes up there, but I don't know if it's going to get any less stunning so focusing may become a problem. We had a delicious dinner hosted by the trip. There was a selection of sandwiches, boxed wine, strawberries coated in sugar, a variety of vegetables, quiche and pizza cuts with chocolate treats for dessert. Then it was time to hit the pier and watch the sun set.

We missed the sun set, but spent about three hours sitting on the rocks and listening to Eric educate us about his hometown and how we could be a part of his club. Stacey fell in the water trying to reclaim her purse, but all's well that ends well, so we marched back to the hotel and here I am with numb fingers typing this out to you all.

Bon Soir!

P.S. Still not able to upload pictures. :/  Sometimes the internet here is a little freaky. Right now it's a little freaky.

... Because We're American

Yesterday, I learned the hard way that you have to have coins in order to buy a train ticket. While attempting to find a change machine, I realized that it would take a whole heck of a lot longer to find than it would take to ask for change from one of the vendors there. After waiting in line for about five minutes, I finally got my opportunity to ask, which was foiled by the fact that I don't quite know the words for asking for change yet. I wound up saying "Change, sil-vos-plait?" and she answered with a quick glance-over and a shake of her head. So I bought a Fanta. Orange. For much more than a Fanta is worth, but whatever. I'm drinking it now as I type this.

Today, me and Natalie (my roommate) woke up and met some more people in our group while looking for an open place to get a bite to eat. Almost nothing by the hotel was open since it's Sunday, but we found out it was probably because they were all playing bocce ball in the park. More on the park later. We stopped at a place called Master Burger and with Anna's (program director) help ordered some panini and frites (fries). Some of the panini that came with frites came with them actually in the panini as part of the sandwich. It was exciting and Melissa and Cody came up with the idea of asking them to consider a franchise in Athens. There was another place right next to the Master Burger that had the exact same menu. The lady running it got increasingly irritated as all 15 of us bought from the Master Burger, but Anna told us that we should make them compete for our business since serving us would pretty ensure them a full day's worth of business.

We sat in the park to eat our Master Burger and Eric proceeded to make the path between us and the bocce ball tournament area a walkway as he provided commentary for everyone who walked by. Two old ladies got in the way of one of our pictures and apologized, in English, so we all got excited. I'm pretty sure they were the first American people we've encountered so far. We were all like, "OMG ZOMG! Let's speak English together!" but the ladies passed by and we were forced to turn our attention to the man letting pigeons eating food off his head. Also in the park were a mini-bumper car ring and, Six-Flag-esque game stands, and a kid's playground with a jungle gym that looked like the Eiffel Tower.

Next up was a walk on the beach where we weren't exactly sure if we were allowed to be or not. We slowly made our way back to the hotel. There was a neat place where all of a sudden the shops next of us disappeared and there were holes instead. We looked down into one that read "Trampoline" but it was filled with ropes so we tried another and saw a couple of kids driving around a mini-go cart arena. Our last stop was a hole-in-the-wall convenience-ish store that sold wine for 2.84. One of the shop owners was named Lucifer, for real you guys.We all bought a bottle while Sydney sweet talked the other shop owner with her fluent Frenchness.

A whole day moins heckling! Almost.
Gillian got eyed by some Spanish men who didn't know she spoke Spanish, and the whole group got called out after by some man sitting at a cafe nearby. It wasn't until we got within 100 meters of the hotel that we really got it. There were some men in a car talking and as we walked by, the man in the driver's seat yelled, "YOU SPEAK TOO MUCH!" We were startled, so we stopped to see who was yelling at us when he did it again, "TONE IT DOWN!" We laughed because we thought he was joking but then he just screamed at us, "AHHHH!" Melissa yelled back and we made it to the hotel without any more excitement.

Pour Ce Soir:
Drinking our cheap wine on the beach and listening to some Beyonce on someone's computer to practice for when we go do karaoke.

I Made It!

Bonjour! Bon Matin!

I had my first French crepe this morning as well as my first French train ride and my first French walk along the beach. I also chased my first French pigeon.

The plane rides were pretty awesome. One old man sitting next to me even gave me Juicy Fruit and showed me pictures of his son's wedding. I have to give props to Bryan for securing me the emergency exit row for the extra leg room on the flight from ATL to JFK. Since I last flew with Delta, they have installed personal touchscreen televisions on the backs of the seats for us to watch most of the Oscar nominated movies and also good television series like Dr. Who. They even had games and a much improved music selection, including the Best Hits of Yanni, of course it was under spa selections.

We landed this morning at the Nice airport and then made our way to the hotel by cab, which are fancier and cleaner in France. No creepy yellow buses or dingy taxis here! The downside was that it was a national French holiday today so the fare was hiked, or so they told us. We were sure that they were just trying to trick us for being naiive American tourists, but it turns out they were telling the truth.

Our group settled in, unpacked, and then found the train station so we could venture out to Cannes to scope our the territory and take advantage of some good photo-ops. I practiced my star-spotting and thought I saw Jennifer Morrison, Dr. Cameron from House, but she had red hair and wrong-colored eyes. Gotta stay alert. I will not miss the celebrities, in fact, I may see more of them than there actually are. Unless Jennifer Morrison really did decide to dye her hair and get contacts... which would mean I was right. I was probably right.

Besides seeing a famous actress, I saw a two-story carousel and Roman Polanski's hand print. There were a bunch of workers setting up stages and whatnot while getting ready for the festival (WHICH STARTS IN 4 DAYS! Ahh!), and so we watched while some men fixed up lights for the red carpet.

Most of us, finally feeling the effects of staying up for many consecutive hours, fell asleep on the short train ride back to JLP, but we're still going to fight to stay up until about 9 to try and avoid jet lag.

I'll try to add pictures to this later, but right now there are about ten of us all trying to connect to our intertubes and things seem to be running slowly.

REVIEW: Here is a Man...

We are so close to France. I can almost taste the croissants.
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Taxi Driver (1976): HERE IS A MAN...

Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) is a normal guy or, at least, he's trying to be. Not that he's really sure what it means to be a person like other people, but hey, E for Exterminating the Scum Effort, right?

From the get-go, Travis tries doing all the normal things people do. He gets a night job driving a cab and accepting seedy clientele, closely observes a girl volunteering for a campaign office, goes to the movies to see some XXX content, eats apple pie with a slice of cheese on top... but something just isn't clicking, and he can't explain why.

He thinks he sees something special in Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), Palantine enthusiast; she's lonely too, and he knows all about that. To soothe her pain, he invites her out, but when she stops taking his calls and he is forced to confront her at the office, he realizes that she is just like the rest of them.

Accompanied by a lonely sax calling out over the tumult of the city, Robert DeNiro draws us into Travis' life and reveals the rolling disappointments faced by a person struggling against the isolation that surrounds him. We see in Travis' character the desperation and disgust we often feel ourselves as we search for our place and purpose in the world, and though we could attempt to write him off as crazy and irrational, the straight-forwardness with which DeNiro portrays Travis leaves us with no other option but to confront the urges that we all face, with varying degree, to make our mark on humanity and change the world around us.

Travis' inability to connect with society fuels his need to eliminate the scum, the filth, the trash of urban culture and leads him to look for a scapegoat on whom to pin the problem. In his last and most dramatic rejection of society, he finally succeeds in catching the eyes and ears of the people who previously ignored him, but the veneration leaves him as lonely as he was before, if not more so.

Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, though some may complain of the slow pacing, succeeds in its encompassing the depth and focus of the isolation that many of us face at crucial moments in our life, showing us that only in these crucial moments do we know exactly what kind of person we have become and how much we are willing to take. With Travis Bickle, here is a man who would not take it anymore.

T-Minus 43 Days: A Bit on Passports

Hello readers!

I've started my first in a series (hopefully) of travel blogs since I'll be kicking it to France this May for the Cannes Film Festival through Grady's Study Abroad program at the University of Georgia. That was a lot of proper nouns, I know.

Since I have begun my serious preparation for departure on May 7th, I thought it would be appropriate to get warmed up for the trip by pre-blogging with travel tips and other general things of interest that I come across in the process.

things to know about... PASSPORTS

1. I know everybody says it but, if you are going to need a passport and you don't have one already, GO TO THE POST OFFICE NOW. Especially if you need it within a few months. Trust me. Don't assume that because the predicted time of your passport's delivery is 4-6 weeks, you can afford to wait until 6 weeks before your flight to go apply. It's not worth the stress of worrying whether or not you're going to get it in the mail on time. Same philosophy applies to renewals.

2. If you were under the age of 16 when your passport was issued to you, you are going to have to reapply for a passport (Form DS-11) instead of applying for a renewal (Form DS-82).

3. Cost of obtaining a brand new passport - $75, plus a $25 execution fee

    Cost of obtaining a renewed passport - $75

    Cost of getting your passport pictures made at the office - $15

4. Expediting your passport generally gets it back to you in about 2 weeks and costs $60 in most cases.

5. You can expedite an already-applied-for passport by calling the regional office and making an appointment or calling the National Passport Information Center (1-877-487-2778) for more information.

6. You need a passport number to reserve a ticket for international flights with some airlines (but not with Delta, I have found). If you are going to need to reserve your tickets anywhere in the immediate future, but you also need your passport renewed, it's difficult to change the passport number on your ticket reservations without having to pay a fee or re-reserve your tickets, which may also bump you to the bottom of the waiting list. So be careful and get your ducks in a row with the passport first if you aren't flying Delta or another airline that doesn't require a passport number for international flights.

Don't try this at home... or anywhere else:

Remember those bizarre beauty tips you used to read in magazines when you were still playing with Barbies and My Little Pony, like pressing your lips together to bring blood into them so they are nice and cherry red for your passport picture instead of pale, ghost lips like your mother frequently mentions you have? Well, it not only gets you awkward looks, but will also prompt the post office worker to ask you to stop so she can take your photo. Just bring chapstick. 

Fun Fact:

The Cannes Film Festival was forced to close in 1968 during the French Revolution when most major French directors withdrew their films from the competition and the jury resigned.