|
Frank Cotolo
24 May, 2009 |
  |
I just got back from the Cannes film festival. I was in Cannes for a dozen
days, watching movie after movie, talking with celebrity after celebrity and
stalking at least five French women who winked at me during a cocktail party.
|
  |
The competition was fierce again this year and each screening had audiences
that booed, cheered, jeered and sometimes tossed stale croissants at each
other. All of this for the cherished Palme d'Or, the award that John Wayne
once called "sissy".
|
  |
When I arrived on an Air France jet that was co-piloted by Quentin Tarantino, I
expected to hear a lot of the buzz for a few films. Some of the highbrow French
movie critics met me at the airport; most of them were just interested in the
multitude of luggage I brought that was filled with packs of Lucky Strikes,
Pall Mall and Chesterfield cigarettes.
|
  |
At my hotel they assigned me a room next to one occupied by Mel Gibson and his
new girlfriend. Mel stopped me in the hall one night to ask me where he could
find the ice machine. I politely said, "Are you and Natasha having some
drinks?" Mel kicked me in the shins, said her name was not Natasha and that I
should be ashamed calling all Russian girls by that name. Then he ran back and
forth from the ice machine to his room, each time delivering one cube.
|
  |
At a screening for a film by Alain Resnais, I noticed that everyone except me
was wearing a shirt that read: Alain Resnais. Some of the writing on the shirts
was not italic.
|
  |
There was an Italian entry, a film called Vincere. It was about
Mussolini's secret marriage but some critics panned it because they had hoped
for a scene where Mussolini ate spaghetti out of a wheelbarrow.
|
  |
Another critical disappointment to some critics was Ken Loach's film that
starred soccer celebrity Eric Cantona.
|
  |