Fleur's Writing Life in Cannes aka Wa'eva! Part 1

Saturday May 19th, above the sea, about 10:00

"Where the hell is the fucking airport?" were B's words before we landed at Nice Airport. Don't you just love landing at an airport right by the sea? It always seems like you're not going to make it because you're not able to tell how high up you are and how fast your descending and how far away the airport is.
I'm guessing you got that we made it.

Some twenty, thirty minutes later we, B, M, V and me were standing outside of Nice airport with our luggage, arguing about taking a cab to Cannes or the bus. The plan was to just ask how much the cab was, but I knew deep inside that the choice was already made; it was cab instead of bus. And I think that's where it started: "Whatever", I thought to myself. "I am here on holiday, I'm not going to get worked up over this." and "whatever" (pronounce: wa'eva) however lame a word it may be to use like that on it's own, turned out to be the perfect catch phrase for the entire week!
First celebrity spot at the airport: Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers, Coffee and Cigarettes).

Some sixty minutes later we were at the pool! Holy Cote D'Azûr! I love this climate. Let the holiday begin! Our apartment was located in the hills above Cannes at this large, but very quiet, apartment park, with a gorgeous view of the mountains! Now you can tell me anything you like, but when you're Dutch and you have lived almost your entire life in a country that is as flat as the pancakes it bakes, being surrounded by mountains is the second most foreign feeling you can feel (I imagine being on the moon is the first most foreign feeling but I can't really tell).

Later that afternoon we went into Cannes to retrieve our badges with our accreditation confirmation. After having been sent to the wrong office first, we arrived at the right one (Cannes Cinephiles) five minutes before it closed, but got turned down anyway. A little hassling was going on to see if we could not get our badges anyway, but it was in vain. "Whatever!" I thought to myself. "We'll get our badges tomorrow. It's just our first day here."
And so we tried to get onto the Marché du Film with just our accreditation, because according to M it would be wise if we all visited our own country's stands and hassle for invitations to parties. I however was first of all very sceptic about mingling with the minorly important Dutch crowd that was there; I had already spotted Rene Mioch (some movie critic). I mean, being a celebrity in Holland is just about equal to winning the Weakest Link. Second: I did not really care for parties. I wanted to see films, eat good food, drink good wine and enjoy the sun.
But we got onto the Marché and we walked around for a bit. Little did we know that with our accreditation we were actually not even alowed on the market!

The next morning it took less than a minute to get our badges and we were off to explore what there was to do at Cannes Film Festival. Note: when I say we from now on I am usually only talking about V and me. Seeing as how we wanted to do the same things and B and M usually other things, we hung out together! So we went onto the Marché to go the the UK stand, though only because they had computers and we wanted to check our messages.
When we were done we though it was about time we tried to find out which theatres we could go to. So we went into an information point at the Marché. The lady was surprised we did not get a map of the festival area. "What kind of badges have you got?" We showed our badges. "But you're not even supposed to be here" "I know" I said. "But we are here noe, so could you perhaps please tell us where we can and can not go?" Finally she explained to us that we could get into some theatres with just our badges and others we needed invitations for.

And so we were off to Cinema du Monde as we could enter this theatre without invitations. After walking around a whole area of the festival we finally found the entrance, of course, at the back of the building. And when it was time, in we went to see a Bollywood movie called Guru. It was great, as all Bollywood movies and though you should never watch more then one every couple of months because they're all pretty much the same, this one was quite different. The tone of the movie was much more serious as it was not just a story about love, but a story about a man building his own career from scratch all the way to the top!
Film wise, it was a great start!

In the evening we went ahead and queued for the Debussy theatre in which the films that were nominated for Un Certain Regarde were showing. We weren't sure whether we could get in with just our badges because we had seen people with invitations, but we thought we'd try anyway. And hurrah! We got in. And so we sat down, again in über comfortable cinema chairs, to see and Italian movie called My Brother is an Only Child (Mio Fratello è Figglio Unico) which turned out to be just about the best movie we saw all week! A touching story set in the sixties about two brothers who have quite opposing political views. Disfuntional family drama with a hint of comedy just the way I like it, and BRILLIANT acting!
The perfect movie to end the first real day at the festival with!