Cannes Diary, Day 5

So far, there have been no standing ovations and no loud booing. The only film that got mildly booed was the pretty awful La princesse de Montpensier. The Tavernier film was a difficult sit, despite the much-commented upon beauty of the cast. It is a limp romance novel at best with some nudity.

Speaking of nudity, my first random observation about Cannes is that they use sex to sell whenever possible, and it seems to be working. With so many films to see, and so little time to see them, the ones that have pretty naked people in them seem to be at the top of everyone’s must-see list, men and women included. Sex sells. So what else is new?

The other random observation is that it feels a bit like America is on trial here with two films that nail Wall Street, as well they should. Hell, if we aren’t going to start throwing people in jail, and we can’t string them up, cover them with honey and let the ants pick away their flesh one teeny painful at a time, then the filmmakers can have a crack at them. Free speech. One of our greatest assets in America.

So it’s now up to Oliver Stone and documentarian Charles Ferguson to make sure this shameful, revolutionary-worthy story does not go down. There needs to be accountability, shame and retribution.¬† It is an odd sensation sitting among international film goers watching the depiction of America and American film.

In so many ways, we aren’t bringing the same kind of excellence to the table as other countries, like Korea, China, France, England. On the other hand, our lavish productions (Robin Hood and Wall Street) are wet with money.¬† They stand out for that reason. But they also stand out as being second only to China with their themes of regime protest. Wall Street 2, Inside Job and Fair Game are all anti-government movies in one way or another. As news of the oil spill spreads, our international reputation may be reaching an all-time low, despite our Pres being Barack Obama.

But back to the fest. The wifi room closes at 11pm. Last night, I spent almost the whole night here typing away. But when it was time to close, and I was uploading my last photo, they ushered us out. It was a relief to see other late-night bloggers camping out in the hallway to finish their work, the wifi signal still blaring from inside the locked room.

I pulled a late night and didn’t do drinks with anyone – part of that was it just turned out that way, but another part was that, at some point in this process, it clocks that you don’t have a lot of available energy left after the movies and the writing and schmoozing. Your eyelids always want to close.

Earlier, I had gone to get a quick bite down at the Panini truck. I made the unfortunate choice of getting an American and it was two hot dogs stuck inside a baguette.  With so many great choices, I seem to be making the wrong ones continually. I think the tomato chevre is probably the way to go. One gets confused with the hot and cold choices, the salad (which means lettuce in a sandwich). You gotta love the fresh strawberries they offer in a cup and the bananas. The Panini trucks have it all. They even have beer.

I took the weird American hot dog thing — and ate it as I watched Naomi Watts, Woody Allen, Josh Brolin, Soon-Yi Previn walk down the red carpet stairs. One of the sweet things about being here is how crowds gather at various places to watch the stars. They oblige them by posing for photos.¬†¬† Woody and Josh Brolin seem to get on fairly well. Brolin is always chiding Woody and the old man seems to like that. Brolin melts the ice. Pretty Naomi Watts is very tiny. She’s so small that she is Woody’s height in her spiky heels. Lucy Punch looks like a giant next to them.

Today brought our first really warm beach day, and it was all I could do not to grab a suit and a towel and take the day off. I settled for sitting on the dock and having lunch there. By the time I got out of my 5pm screening of Inside Job, it had grown overcast and cold again.

I wouldn’t have gotten into Inside Job if it weren’t for Indiewire’s Anne Thompson, who kindly gave me one of her invites. Otherwise, my yellow badge would not have cut it.¬†¬† Like most of the screenings here, keeping my eyes open was the hardest part. It isn’t to do with the movie at all; it is just the body saying, shut it down, old girl. Shut it down.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll try to find one of these: