Cannes: overwhelming and pricey. That’s the best I can do to describe my first day at the festival. It’s 3:35pm and since arriving to the Palais at 10:30 this morning I’ve only just managed to step outside and get food to recharge (blowing 16 Euro on a bagel, sandwich and packet of chips – welcome to the Riviera). But the unlimited free water, Nestle juice and coffee and wi-fi make up for it. Plus the fact I’m in a packed room of journalists and photographers from across the world. That has to count for something.
Having no idea of where to go once getting off the train (a 42 minute comfortable commute from home base Nice), the badges I immediately see on every second person tell me to follow the crowd. A map might be handy for future, but I arrive with the first sight of palm trees… and then the Palais with the 2011 signature image of Faye Dunaway staring down at me. The first thing I noticed among the intense amount of people was the signs – press and film-makers trying to scalp invitations to films in competition. I’m baffled and confused as to who these people are and then wonder if any of them are actually successful. To try that for myself could be an interesting experiment!
Getting my badge was a surreal moment: I’m here. It’s real. Then getting the welcome bag hit hard. With my shoulder dragging to the ground under the weight of the various programmes, laptop and handbag combined, I made it to the press area, where the weight was doubled by the papers threatening to fall on me out of my personal box. Having been unsure of the level of access I’d obtained, I found out while going through the mountainous amount of information that there’s a press level with less access than mine. Win! Not tooting my own horn, I’m just saying…
It’s a real dog-eat-dog situation all around. I wandered, acquainted myself, wandered some more, finding line-ups for press conferences and the like, then finally made it to the press wi-fi room — which looks like a big telethon really. I was relieved to find a seat straight away and didn’t move until the food hunt. It’s extremely well organised, and now being in its sixth day the journalists look right at home. Whereas I still feel like a fish out of water. I’m glad, however, to see others going through all the same information I was today as well. I think I’ll feel properly settled once I get through a film. First up is a Cannes Classic screening of Le Sauvage (1975) with Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Costa-Gavras in attendance. Seems like a good start!
For more of Katina’s coverage of the Cannes film festival, click here.
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