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Film Maker Ali Keshavji watched 25 films in 8 Days and still had the strength to tell us about it! Read his report to MM.

Cannes 2011 Blog

Just an average week in Cannes:

This year I embarked on my second trip to Cannes in three years. My goals were simple: 

1) See Tree of Life

2) Don’t be late for any of my meetings with the Aussies – there could potentially be loss of work at stake

3) And… Make sure I see as many new films as possible so I can boast about it back in London!

I didn’t quite make them all but I am happy to report that 2 out of 3 ain’t bad… 

In the space of an 8-day trip I managed to see 25 films, have 4 successful meetings with big players in the Australian film distribution market and miss Tree of Life because the film was way too oversubscribed.

Tree of Life was a funny one, I can’t remember a crowd that big and rowdy since Inglorious Basterds premiered at the Croisette 2 years ago. I arrived at 8am on Monday 16^th May at the Grand Lumiere Theatre, a good 30 minutes before the due screen time of the film, to what I can only describe as a mass of people being refused entry by security, even though, like me we all had our tickets for the film in hand.

For all films in competition screenings in Cannes, the international press have priority of entry before us ‘filmies’ and on this day, at least 300-400+ press decided to get out of bed early and skip the queue. Security then pointed out to us, an additional screening of the film at the Soixantieme Theatre around the corner and up the stairs that was due to start 30 minutes later. Of course there was a rush forward towards the gates and with the crowd numbers, the constant arrivals of hopeful cinemagoers and the morning sun beating down, getting into the theatre was never really going to happen…

Instead I meandered through the back streets of Cannes, which are plush with designer shops and cafes, in order to put my head on the pillow for a couple of hours kip before heading off for two meetings later in the morning with some influential Australian filmies about some work next year. This is Cannes in a nutshell, smooching with important MDs over an overpriced coffee in the sun on an overly busy street side being passed by flash cars, mopeds and high-class bronzed young women hanging off the shoulders of craggily old well-dressed men wearing sunglasses. 

A friend of mine had a meeting with the Weinsteins at Miramax on the same day. This is a guy who is not easily impressed with corporate spreads but told me that the Weinsteins lunch and quality of service was so incredible, it would have put even the best 6 star hotels in Dubai to shame and that the boat that they had ordered to ferry people across took about 20 minutes to get to its destination, thereby adding to the glamour and expectation of the do.  He went on to say that it was the best Cannes ‘party’ he had been to in his 19 years of attending the festival.

I’ve never really been one for the parties as another means for networking although lunches are definitely recommended. I find in order to buy/sell/finance/develop films, a face-to-face get-together over a drink works best if you are to do any serious business and establish yourself with contacts. Don’t get me wrong, Cannes is a great party and networking town but it also harbours some of the most extremely pretentious pretenders ‘actors’, ‘producers’ and ‘directors’.  I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met at a bar or who I’ve spoken to when they’ve sat next to me in one of the cinemas that have tried to pass themselves off as something or someone they are not.

But beyond the glitzy, smoochy façade of this extraordinary annual event, there lies the films on show. As I only had a few days and was due to leave before the festival’s end, I decided to cram as many as I could in. I managed 25 films, including the opening movie: 

Midnight in Paris, We Need to Talk about Kevin, Sleeping Beauty, Habemus Papam, Polisse, Hearat Shulayim, Michael, The Artist, Le Gamin au Velo, L'Apollonide, Le Havre, Pater, Labrador, Wu Xia, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Duch Le Maitre des Forges de L'enfer, The Beaver, Trabalhar Cansa, Miss Bala, Les Neiges du Kilamandjaro, Et Maintenant on Va Ou?, Tatsumi, Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970), Arirang & Martha Marcy May Marlene.

I was a particular fan of We Need to Talk about Kevin, for me the stand out film of those I watched, even though the content and issue it addresses was quite harsh. I thought it was wonderfully shot and acted, and the sequences were cleverly conceived in order out to stir the audience’s thoughts on the subject matter without being overly gruesome – they felt real.

That said, as well as Kevin, there were some other gems in the programme including the silent film, The Artist, which was a bit like being back in the 1920s maybe that’s not necessarily fair but my, what a delight for those who have become used to the ‘talkies’. Two other diamonds for me were, Les Neiges du Kilamandjaro, which was very Loach-ian in storyline but again, quite riveting and equally well scripted about a union leader who loses his job on the docks and then has his retirement gift stolen. And for me, a cracker of a film was Martha Marcy May Marlene, which tells the story about a girl who is dealing with her emotions after spending some time in a cult within a farmland compound.

All in all, this Cannes experience has been my best to date. There really isn’t a downside to this festival except for the fact that the security is very weary of letting in people to their theatres who may be inadequately dressed.  Perhaps they need to remember that we’re only essentially going to the cinema and not dressing for the casino.....but still - Bring on Cannes 2012!