Cannes we do it? Yes, we Cannes!

The Festival Poster on the front of the Palais at which the Grand Lumiere Theatre is located - where all the major films in the festival were screened.


Modelling the Palme D'Or.

Took a trip to the greatest Film Festival ever, Cannes (pronounced "can", no "s"). We went to try to sell the film at the Marche Du Film, arriving with little more than a handful of promotional items and some leads we were to try to track down.

We stayed just outside of Cannes in Antibes Juans Les Pins and commuted by train everyday to Cannes. The view from our room was pretty spectacular, and we had a lovely hotelier, Madame Patricia, who made our stay very comfortable.



The first day was a little daunting, but we soon got into the swing of things, going from booth to booth and noticing just how zero a presence Malaysia was at the festival.

The Village Internationale, where booths from the film commissions of different countries are set up to promote their own industry.

Soon, we had made contact with a few buyers, sellers and a sales agent, and even tried to wedge our foot in the door at StudioCanal, but alas, they would only take messages...

There were so many films we could watch, we didn't know which to pick. As delegates we had the privilege of reserving "invitations" online to the films available. We were each allocated credit points which grew as we left them unused. We wanted to watch Tarantino's Death Proof but unfortunately didn't get our act together in time. Then there was Ocean's Thirteen at 11am and 7.30pm Thursday Cannes time, which according to the bookings site would be available for reservation at about 9am Wednesday Cannes time. 6am I happened to log on and got us some tickets!

While queueing to get in, I took a photo of the self-erected grandstand the press had made for themselves outside the front of the Palais.

There are rows of ladders 4 lines deep in there.

Below are various views from within the Grand Lumiere Theatre and without.


The view of the Red Carpet behind us on the way in to watch Ocean's 13.


The interior of the Grand Lumiere prior to screening.


The view of the Red Carpet from within the building as we left after the screening.

It would have been much more exciting to have gotten the 7.30pm tickets (because the cast were attending that one) but we didnt want to hedge our bets and end up losing out altogether (we needed muchacho credits to buy the 7.30pm tickets and I didn't know if we could get connected in time for tix).

So after we watched the supercool O-13 at 11am, we came out to find that people were already booking viewing spots along the red carpet!


As we left the building I took another photo of the poster and realised there was some sort of commotion on the red carpet at the entry. Upon closer inspection I realised it was a STAR.


A TV star, but one nonetheless. Adrian Grenier of Entourage posing with a fan.

Unfortunately this was as far as I got when it came to celebrity photos. Despite the fact that Martin Scorsese, Kylie Minogue, Sharon Stone, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Michael Moore, Matt Damon, George Clooney and ugh, so many other celebs were literally infesting Cannes with their presence, I did not get a single other celebrity shot than the above of Mr Grenier sporting pot belly. Because of the way he was being, I got the feeling they were actually shooting for the programme, using the red carpet and public as the location and extras. So you might see me at the edge of the frame, taking this photo, on tv one day. Maybe.

We thought we might come back an hour or so before the 7.30pm screening, but knew deep in our hearts there would be too many people already. We ended up watching the red carpet via live feed in the restaurant across the street.

Much later, after the evening screening ended, we were walking by and I got to stand behind about 6 rows of people and a street, from which vantage point I recorded a hazy image of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt getting into their limo to drive away. Perhaps you can view the evidence here and recognise the bright yellow dress.

Do you see? Do you see?

Then Hubby Boo turned my camera to the LED board to our left and shot a pic of the display.

Not really a photo of them, yeah, but evidence, nonetheless.

Further down the street, Dita Von Teese passed by in her limo, as well as Mickey Rourke. I would love to say I was celebrity-weary and didn't feel the need to take photos, but the fact is I was unprepared and the camera was off.

The number two most exciting thing about being in Cannes is that the people we showed our film to were excited and responded immediately with a great desire to see the whole film for their selection. One sales agent recommended we enter it into the Locarno Film Festival.

The number one most exciting thing about being in Cannes is that, no matter how proficient you are in film-making or film-appreciating, every single person is there for one reason - a passion and love for film.

Before each film screening they play a little visual, an animation showing red carpeted stairs ascending out of the light blue sea and up into the dark, starlit heavens above. The music playing is so very evocative, and I am trying my hardest to identify it. It immediately ellicits those feelings of wonder you first felt when you saw That Film That Changed You for the first time, and it feels like a paean to known and unknown gods and goddesses past, present and future, of film. I am certain the music is either Danny Elfman who wrote the Edward Scissorhands film score, or Ennio Morricone, who composed the Cinema Paradiso film score. Will update you when I finally find the answer!

Walking out of the Grand Lumiere Theatre, you kind of get a feeling that you are walking through halls of history, even if you aren't really.


The moon over Cannes. Sunset was at about 9pm every night. Magical, disorienting and exciting, much like the festival itself.

Lovey, C