Tag Archives: begging for tix

May 12 2011
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Cannes Film Festival, Red Carpet, UGA Students

Festival Day #1 – A Recap…

Begging, begging everywhere — and not a ticket to snatch.
I arrived in Cannes in the late afternoon/early evening hours just about the time all of our students donned their fancy wear and sharpied some signs requesting “1 Invitation S.V.P.” for the premiere of Woody Allen’s “Midnight In Paris” set to begin in a couple hours. Scoring a ticket to this opening film is extra special because not only does one attend the screening of the movie, but you also get the added benefit of experiencing the Opening Ceremonies to officially kick off the Festival. The 2011 Jury, headed by De Niro, sits on stage in front of the crowd, says a few words, and gets things underway. This year I even saw that Jamie Cullum did a surprise performance onstage during the ceremony.

As usual, about half of our students got in to the opening ceremony and subsequent screening of the opening premiere that directly follows. 50% sounds like great odds, especially when we have 26 students dressed to the nines begging for tix – however, try explaining that to the half of the group who DON’T receive tickets. Their outlook on the process and its (temporarily) unfavorable results is pretty grim at this point, so it takes a lot to try and put a positive spin on it for them. I try my darndest, though.
Take, for example, Bobby – shown below. The sting of rejection was extra harsh when he didn’t get a ticket into the premiere screening because it was also his birthday. He even mentioned this fact – in French, I might add – on his sign. Unfortunately, none of the wealthy cougars bought it thus Bobby was left to sulk at the American Pavilion. Pauvre, Bobby.
But wait! There is a second screening at 10:30pm that re-shows the opening film. Sure, this screening is absent of all the pomp and circumstance of the earlier screening as it lacks the presence of Woody Allen, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Brody, Robert DeNiro, Uma Thurman, Jude Law (okay, you get the picture) – but the red carpet is still there, right?! So I convince the students to pick their heads up, turn their smiles upside down, grab a bite, hell – imbibe a little – then come back at 10pm and beg for the later screening like you mean it.
During this layover period when we all put out of our minds what is happening inside the Grand Lumiere Theatre while we are left outside, I head down the Croisette towards the harbor to the famous, Caffe Roma. This haunch frequently hosts my hungry taste buds during the Festival. Usually, I am accompanied by Sophie (the program director’s daughter) and this time is no different. Sophie landed in France mere hours ago. She just stood in the registration line to get her badge while the red carpet chaos occurred, so she was accredited and hungry for some familiar Cannes foods. We sit at a table along the exterior of the giant covered patio dining on pizza and french fries (Sophie’s choice).

A quartet delights us with jazzy old tunes throughout our meal – check out the guy on the oboe (?) – he was killing it!
After dinner, everyone returns to their respective posts trickled along the pavements around the Palais. And, darn it, if every single one of those kids who didn’t get into the early premiere (+ me) didn’t nab a ticket for the late showing. We were golden!
Happily we marched up to the red carpet, shiny tickets in hand, and worked that thing like it was our job. I HAD to get a photo of me and my brother, Alex, a transient student in this year’s program. After all, this is his first Cannes red carpet (and certainly not the last) – the memory had to be captured photographically. I mean, come on…two Beavers, one red carpet?! Definitely worth taking the time to pose.
Two hours after walking the red carpet and six hours after delving into their first go of ‘begging’, the second half of our students had experienced night one of Cannes in all its glory. It may not have been what they expected and they may even have hated the Woody Allen movie, but there’s no denying these kids were hopped up on adrenaline, finally having reveled in the sweet feeling of success. I snapped the photo below at the taxi stand just after the screening — those smiles don’t lie.
Day/Night One at the 64th Annual Cannes Film Festival = Complete. And Bobby’s birthday was finally a happy one.
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May 13 2010
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Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Celebrities, Red Carpet, UGA Students

Day 1 – Complete

I made it into Cannes hours after many of our unstoppable students had already gotten 3-4 film screenings under their belts. This is a whole new breed of participants, these students. Their excitement is palpable, but their humility remains intact throughout. They are wonderful.

Once I got off the train in sunny Cannes I stopped into 8 or 9 hotels, unfortunately, not making it past many of their lobbies. They were either too small to accommodate a group of our size OR they were already booked the entire 12 days of the Festival. I have a couple of strong leads with which I’ll need to follow up in the coming days. Both places have rooftop solariums that could seat 30 of us plus a speaker comfortably. Send good vibes my way in hopes that I can nail one of these places down – hopefully for the price of “gratuit” (though unlikely).

After my hotel search I popped in to my fave shoe store, André, to see what they had in stock for oh ten. I gave them lots and lots of Euros last year – which included the purchase of my FAVORITE tan, leather, peep-toe, wedges with the wooden heel — one of which is currently lost in G’boro, North Cakalaki from the weekend before I left. Long, sad story, but I guess that’s what a high school reunion of sorts can do to a person (or rather, a shoe). Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-al-co-hol. Oh well. And no such luck finding a replacement pair at Andre this year. I guess they are “so last season” already. Bummer.
*One fun note about my visit to André (Dan, pay attention here) – when I walked in the store I was met with the familiar sounds of Vampire Weekend’s latest song playing through the speakers. Ah, what a refreshing reminder of home.

I left the shoe mecca empty-handed (thank goodness for my bank account’s sake) and made my way through the criss-crossed streets up to the Croisette, the main drag of Cannes. I rendez-vous’d with Sophie and Lily at the American Pavilion to pick up my Festival-long pass to the Am Pav (another unprecedented coup for this year’s program participants). I was handed my Am Pav badge and two free drink tickets, so we wandered through the crowd of familiar accents and grabbed a table on the sunny patio.
Many of our students were there readying themselves to head out to the streets and beg for tickets.
Notice the difference between the girls’ signs (above) and the boys’ signs (below). Just an interesting gender study. Ha.
The boys went to change into their tuxes, and Lily and Sophie into their dresses, so I was left to sit on the patio by my lonesome sipping a (FREE) Stella and planning out which screenings/speakers I want to see.
After a bit more time lounging and scheduling out my next few days – I gathered my things and trekked back out into the winding streets in search of a daggum hotel/meeting space for our group. On my way to some familiar establishments I passed faces I knew on just about every corner. Students were holding up signs EVERYWHERE – and looking good doing it!
After I searched for more hotel meeting locations I attempted to make my way over to the doors in front of the Palais to meet up with Sophie and Lily, who had failed to land a ticket to the “Robin Des Bois” (aka- ‘Robin Hood’) premiere. However, I only made it so far before I was corralled in with the masses on the grasses due to the barricades EVERYWHERE. I felt like a bull being wrangled through the grid of rodeo barricades – I was trapped – and a cowboy was about to mount me. Wait, what? No. But I WAS trapped in the crowds…with a FANTASTIC view of the red carpet.
[insert Kate Bekinsale glamour shot here]
Can you say, ‘movie star’? People around me literally gasped when she started walking up the stairs with her dress draping dramatically behind her.
*Insider note: One of our more fashion-conscious students, Katie Kellogg, informed me later that she and Kate Bekinsale were wearing the SAME designer, Marchesa, during that first premiere night. That, to me, is impressive – considering most of my clothing can be found at your local Urban Outfitters or Target.
[insert picture of entire jury]
I call this “Blurry Jury.”
Next I saw the curvaceous Salma Hayek. Even from 200 yards away I felt like Roger Rabbit staring at Jessica Rabbit – I mean, bodies like hers do not exist elsewhere in the world. She looked amazing. Unfortunately, you’ll never know b/c I didn’t get a good enough picture to share it on here. Guess you’ll have to just catch it on “The Today Show.”
[insert picture of Russell Crowe giving a peace sign and Kate Blanchett looking so effortlessly beautiful it would make you sick]
…whenever the internet will upload one photo quicker than 3omin then I will post the aforementioned picutres – but for now you can just fantasize.
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May 19 2009
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Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Celebrities, Guest Speakers, Uncategorized

A busy beaver, am I

Realizing the last post I made on here was on Day 3 of the Festival is quite daunting given that it is now the morning of Day 7.  Trying to remember what has happened the past four days is killer.  So much happens and you think you’ll remember so easily then – voila – you don’t.

Here’s my best stab at what I’ve been up to (without going into a ‘Dear Diary’-esque rundown):
(the rest of) DAY 3
– Saw a late afternoon showing of the Un Certain Regard selection, the Japanese movie “Air Doll” …it was okay, certainly not great.  Glad I saw it, but don’t care if I ever see it again.

– Went to a great pizza place (“Le Pizza”) at the far end of Cannes with Sophie, Raven, and Chaz Ebert (and their longtime assistant, Car
ol, who showed up with camera in hand per Roger’s request for her to snap some pictures that night for his well-read postings at Cannes).
– Discovered the similarities that Chaz and I share when it comes to writing and basically taking on any task 
— perfectionism.  Don’t want to start a task if you can’t devote all the time to it that it needs and once we do start a task it’s hard to ever finish it for fear that it is not perfectly done (i.e. scrapbooking would be a nightmare for us).  We both did agree that we are good at planning events and following through with those because we can see the instant gratification from the people they serve immediately following their completion.  For example, I said I feel that sense of accomplishment when I execute various events for Fletcher Martin or for this Cannes group and she followed up with a very nice, reassuring, “Yes, I felt the same way when I planned t
he event surrounding Roger getting his star on the Hollywood walk of fame.”  So, as you can see, Chaz and I are operating on very similar scales here.  We’re basically one and the same.  🙂
Day 4

– Utilized the space I arranged for us at the Hotel Victoria for the first time when the Swedish producers, Carl and John, from “Let The Right One In” spoke to our group of students.  They were perfect and so was the Hotel Victoria staff.  At the end of the day the use of that space cost us 20euro in glass bottles of Evian for the speakers.  Not bad.
– Walked around Cannes all afternoon  shopping and whatnot.  Ha
d high hopes of begging for tickets for Ang Lee’s red carpet premiere of “Taking Woodstock”, but apparently nature had other plans for me.  My body’s condition deteriorated rapidly throughout the day as more and more signs were beginning to show that I was wearing myself out.
– Nixed plans for the premiere and grabbed a train home, lymphnodes fully swollen and chest and head feeling not so good.
– Went to bed and tried to sleep this off until the next (very busy) morning of meetings and more planning.
Day 5
– Woke up with the Swine Flu.  (Probably not, but it was definitely a close cousin.)  
– Slep
t in as long as I could before I had to get another train to Cannes for an 11:30 meeting in the Cannes Classics office of the Palais with one mister very Greek, Van Papadopoulo.  Still not well, but as you know, “The show must go on!”  Nate (who by this time had already flown back stateside to NYC for the Peabody Awards) had set this meeting up for me in his absence before he left.  I was to meet Mr. Papadopoulo and get details on the admission of our students into this year’s Cannes Master Class (being held the following Tuesday – i.e. today…in an hour – i.e. why the hell am I still typing this freaking blog).  Last year the Master Class was conducted by Tarantino, the year before it was Scorsese.  Usually the class is held in a 1,200+ seat theatre, but this year the theatres size was a paltry 350 seats.  (Yikes!)  Luckily though, Mr. Papadopoulo really appreciated the Athens, GA to Athens, Greece connection and decided to reserve a tenth of the theatres seats for our group of students (insert shock and happiness on my part).  So that meeting w
ent very well and we left it on the note of, “See you Tuesday at the Master Class…and if you ever make it to Athens, GA please bring us a fantastic Greek restaurant.”
– Went back outside to kill time before our next speaker presentation at my little gem, the Hotel Victoria.  Sat on a bench to change into some basic, black flats that I’d just purchased from the shoe store Andre, and ended up meeting a pleasant new friend on a sidewalk bench.  As I was changing my shoes I heard this poor girl getting hit on by two not-so-suave French guys and though, “Poor thing.”  As soon as the guys left she looked at me for a unifying girl-to-girl glance and was surprised when English came out of my mouth.  We struck up a conversation immediately and found great compatibility in one another.  Originally from Romania, she now lives in San Franc
isco working on the account side of advertising, most recently for Razor Fish.  She was killing time in Cannes while the friend she was visiting worked during the day and I was killing time before my next meeting.  We decided to grab lunch together and keep each other company.  Talked a lot about the industry and whatnot – she was very amazed and interested at what I was doing in Cannes, so I was glad to show her around the sites and hotspots along the Croisette.
– Left Felicia to run to the Hotel Victoria and set the place up for our second guest 

speaker, director Paul Cox.  Paul is a lovely Dutch man who claims Australia as home.  He is cynical, realistic, and strongly set in his beliefs.  I kind of love him.  I’m sure some of the students were taken aback by his often polarizing opinionated stances, but I think on the same token several students “got” him.  He had prepared a 6-page, single-spaced document to read to us basically laying out his views on things not only in the film industry, but in life.  Thankfully he’s emailing that piece to us so I’ll be able to post some of his words on here.  He is truly a poet and a lover of art and beauty.  Everything else pales in comparison.  I thought of my brother frequently during Paul’s talk with us.  Alex, an extremist in many senses of the word, sometimes takes his thoughts and opinions too far…but for being a 19-year-old, I am just damn proud that he actually puts thought into things about which other people his age are either careless or ignorant.  Alex – I will forward you Paul Cox’s email as soon as I get it because your thoughts on religion, politics, war, life, value systems, etc. are eerily the same.  I wish you could meet dear Paul, but for now his Word Document words will have to do.
– Came back to our home base in Juan-Les-Pins for the rest of the day in hopes of ridding myself of this phlegmy chest/cough condition.
– Made some depressing phone calls to Duffy – missing him and our dog, Charley.  (Apologies again for my morose nature.  Blame it on Paul Cox who seems to put everything in crystal clear perspective for you.)
– Read a bunch, went to bed, and slept soundly until my next day in France.
to be continued…
*More later.  About to run to the Master Class in Cannes (with the Dardenne Brothers) …. will finish this post and write about my experience with the D. Bros when I return.
-ab
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