Days Running Together/ Internet Not Running At All

These two blog entries are blurred together as a single blog, based on emails I sent to my family. This is not because I am lazy, but because I get up at 6:30am everyday to get to early red carpet screenings, and then don;t come home until something like midnight. Meaning, I am so exhausted and have no patience for blogging (also the reason for all the spelling errors, my apologies). Hence, the following two emails, for you:

May 18
A Bust

Day SIx was a b-u-s-t. I only got to see 2 movies, and both were only ho-hum. The first was "The Princess of Montcontpence--something", a period piece about this chick who is forced to marry a dude she doesn't love, and she actually loves his cousin. The whole time she is longing for the other guy, while all these other other guys keep falling in love with her, and her husband is a short douche bag with an even shorter fuse. And ps- none of them were very good actors, so that made this ultra-long movie even slower. This girl needs to just get over it, accept that she is a women in the 18th century with very few options, and just enjoy living in her phat pad with her maids, huge closet of cool clothes and awesome view of the French countryside.

My second movie was "The Round-up," and it was NOT about cowboys, as one man asked me post-viewing as the whole audience walked out with tears running down their cheeks. THe film is actually about the Holocaust, and a mass rounding up that the French did of Jews living there. Some 13,000 people were collected and put into internment camps; 4,000 of them were children who were subsequently ripped away from their mothers. Only one child survived, and is still alive today, according to the film's producer. This wasn't a bad film by any means, but it had that sanitized feeling of a made-for-TV movie. It just seemed too glossy. Moving, yes; but deeply stirring? Not really.

In the middle of the day, Elizabeth Guider, editor of XX, spoke to our group about her role in the festival, her job, and how we can become just like her. It was an interesting lecture and she did offer some good advice that I think will come in handy for all of us, no matter what field of the media we are entering.

Overall, aside from the lecture, the day just fell flat. Perhaps I had my expectations set too high, as the past 5 days have been amazing and busy; perhaps I just didn't organize my day as thoroughly as I have been; perhaps it was just That Day when everything sort of just falls through. Whatever the reason, I have hit my re-set button and am ready to knock 'em down tomorrow.

Oh, and for all the music fans out there, I realized that there is a documentary playing tomorrow night called "We Are The Weakerthans." Most of you are likely thinking, "The weaker- huh?" But The Weakerthans are this great Canadian rock band that no one here has ever really heard of, but I love. The documentary plays at 10:30pm, though, a problem because it is 98 minutes long, and the last train leaves for Juan Les Pins at 12:10am. I won't have time to see the whole thing and still make it back to the hostel. I'm debating what to do, but either way, I now know that the film exists and I can at least Netflix it if I can't make it on Tuesday.

As far the pictures go, I brought the wrong camera chord, so I can't upload anything unless someone here has a card reader. I can steal pictures form Facebook though, which I may do if the card reader search turns up empty.

May 19
Ok, OK, I know. Been a few days. Time,
apparently, does not exist in France, as everyday runs together and I
feel like I never sleep (maybe that is why French people are such
assholes). But yes: I'm here and fine! I know, it's been a few days.
Sorry. The Internet has been very wishy-washy (and that is a major
reason why my emails and blogs are spelled so badly, because once it
is typed, I hit send, knowing that the internet could stop at any
second), and last night I didn't get in until 1am (after being in
Cannes since 7am), so I was just pure out exhausted. But things are
good and going and you know, busy. The festival s winding down and
good movies are becoming fewer and fewer to come by. But the good ones
I do see are really really good (although I have to wait in line for
like years to see them). Today the good ones I saw were "Four Lions,"
a dark comedy about a group of Jihad terrorists who are really, really
bad at being martyrs, and "Poetry," a Korean film that was really,
really really slow, but kinda touching, about an elderly woman who is
working on creating a poem about her life. It dragged for a long time,
and never really hit a high speed, but in retrospect, I guess it was
pretty good. It was one of the Cannes Competition films meaning it was
supposedly great, but whatever. Maybe I'm just too dense to get it.

Yesterday, I saw a really great film, "Of Gods and Men," about Monks
in Algeria who struggle with leaving or staying at their Monastary
during a time of Cival War and terrorism, and end up getting kidnapped
and murdered. It was based on a true story, making it all the better.
Again, this one was slow (what's with artsy fartsy films having to be
so slow?) but also beautiful and poignant.

I also saw "Blue Valentine," about a couple that has been married for
a few years, has fallen out of love, and is struggling to put the
pieces back together. It's set in a 24 hour time frame, and they go
off on a "night alone" date night o a shitty hotel to see if they can
mend their relationship, which they can't, and it made me really
uncomfortable but I also really liked it. So, I guess as long as a
movies makes you feel and think, it's worth seeing.

The last film of the day, which started at 10pm and was the reason
didn't get home until forever late, was "Biutiful," with the Spanish
dude, Javier Barieum (spelling is wrong, I know), from "No Country For
Old Men." I think it was good, but I waited in line with a mass of
500+ people, pushing and shoving to get in, stepping on y toes and
elbowing me in the ribs, for more than 2 hours. It was so hot and
crowded in the lobby (the size of a shoe bow, no joke) that one chick
actually passed out. People were acting completely like vultures,
scouring the room for any nearly-empty space into which they could
squeeze, to break in line and get in first. Once in the theater,
people were being total a-holes, saving seats for friends who may or
may not have made it in (the theater only sat 300 people, about half
the crowd) and I ended up in the second row, far to the left, almost
unable to see the screen. The rush into the theater was literally like
being corralled into a cattle arena, pushed and pronged along the way.
I have never been in a situation where humans have acted so
inhumanily. I blame all the French snots who live here. (For real, I
have never been anywhere as crowded with assholes as I have been these
last couple of weeks here. France it really just a country of
pretenious, snotty douche bags, in my opinion. Not to say I am not
enjoying my time here, because I am.) So, after all that, I needed
this to be the best movie ever, which it was not.

But yes. I am still here. Still alive and mostly well. Just very, very
emotionally and physically worn out. I feel like I am just crowded all
the time. So many people, everywhere, all the. Such small rooms. Ect.
Plus I have not talked to Michael in a week, and I am having slight
withdrawal, and I miss you guys!

In celeb news, no one today, but I did sit a few seats down from
Michelle Williams yesterday at the screening of "Blue Valentine" (she
stars in it). So, that was major cool.

So, I don't think I have been this exhausted both mentally and physically in a very, very long time. I am having the experience of a lifetime, but I am just ready for bed.