Day Four - Saturday

MORNING
I started a new shift at the restaurant for the next three days. Its from seven in the morning (when we open) to 1pm. Its the best shift, because although it means getting up super early, it also means getting out of there early enough to actually see and explore the festival.

And its gorgeous here in the morning. The air is fresh and the water reflects the light pink of the slow sunrise. It has also started to warm up a tad bit-- I'm still crossing my fingers for another ten degrees though.

DAY
After work, I went straight over to the Debussy Theater (in the Palais) to try to get into the film Heartbeats, directed by Xavier Dolan. There weren't tickets for the event, so we got there an hour early. And the line was already extremely long. So long, in fact, that we ended up not getting in. And we'd waited an hour. Talk about a buzz-kill.

I then headed to the International Village, where all the pavilions from various countries are lined up along the beach. It was fun to look inside them and see the difference between their pavilions and the American Pavilion.

The dynamics of the pavilions is interesting to me. The American Pavilion is the only one that charges an entrance fee, but its also the only one that doesn't have the monetary backing of their governments. Ours is also almost solely a restaurant. We don't have giant posters promoting our films, our industry, or even our sight-seeing attractions. The weird thing is that, since we are home to Hollywood, its almost like we feel we don't have to put in the extra effort to attract people. To me, that comes across as rather arrogant. But I might also be more sensitive to that, because I am practically paranoid about being perceived as "one of those Americans."

After exploring the International Village, I attended a panel discussion at the American Pavilion by two of our American directors with films in Cannes. The directors, Cam Archer and David Robert Mitchell, are young directors and were really interesting to listen to. They were also very inspiring.

My favorite quote of the event was when we were talking about the value of going to graduate school for film. Cam said, "If you're not obsessed, it doesn't matter what school you go to."

After the panel discussion, I walked over the Cannes Market and did some more exploring. I'll describe the market in another blog.

But while at the market, I stumbled upon the Short Film Corner. I actually heard it before I saw it. There was a dull roar coming from the end of the hallway, and as I rounded the corner, I figured out why. I'd found the Short Film Corner Happy Hour (every day from 3-5pm)-- free beer, wine, and fun French candy for all. On a side note, I can't even begin to count the number of happy hours there are here and the number of people who show up to them. Filmmakers love their free alcohol.

EVENING
To be continued.... (I finally got into Heartbeats, and it was aaaamazing!)...