Off The Duff

Here’s my best stab at what I’ve been up to (without going into a ‘Dear Diary’-esque rundown):

– 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.  🙂

– 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.

– 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