Sunday, May 16, 2010

Anna Adler Reports from Cannes: Saturday and Sunday

Here is the second installment of Anna Adler's adventures at the Cannes Film Festival, exclusive to Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Saturday morning, my friends and I woke up early to try to test our luck in getting into the Woody Allen movie that's playing here, You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger. Only one of us was successful. It was a fun experience though standing outside the Lumiere Theater with our paper signs saying "un invitation pour Woody Allen S.V.P." One of the signs that someone wrote was funny; it said "I want to meet a tall, dark stranger...please give me an invitation!" When I couldn't get in, I decided to walk along the Croisette and explore. A few of my friends and I ate lunch along there--it was a beautiful day.

We then saw a documentary in the "marketplace," where a number of non-competition, smaller films are being shown. The documentary was called Gasland, directed by Josh Fox. It was about the dangers of natural oil on the environment. It wasn't my favorite, but it was educational and I learned something new here and there. After resting for a little bit, we then saw another non-competition movie called Jerry Cotton, which was a German film whose concept was very similar to Austin Powers.

Our Penn program gave us premiere passes to Greg Araki's film, Kaboom, which was an overall great experience, but the film was absolutely bizarre. I have never had a reaction to a movie like this before--the plot had so many twists and turns that I truly was left speechless at the end of the film. There really was no solution in the end of the film's plot at all--it was very avant garde-ish. My reaction to this movie is, I believe, very similar to people's when they first viewed Andalusion Dog back in the day (in fact, there was a reference made to this movie within Araki's film). It was very cool to do the whole red carpet thing in the evening and see everyone dressed up in black tie. The film was being shown at 12:30 am, so once it was over I was exhausted from this busy day!

Today (Sunday) my friends from the program and I decided to take a day trip to Monte Carlo, Monaco to see the Grand Prix. The train from Cannes to Monaco was only 16 euros round trip, and was only 1 hour and 5 minutes each way (the same time it takes on the Acela train from Philadelphia to New York City)! The Grand Prix was definitely an exciting day to visit. We were able to catch a quick glimpse of the racecars as they zipped by (and we definitely were able to hear them the whole time)! Many of the streets were closed off during the race, so afterwards we explored and got to know the city. We arrived back in Cannes late this evening, and I am looking forward to seeing what surprises tomorrow may bring!

Enjoy more of Anna's adventures in Cannes, coming soon! 

No comments:

Post a Comment