A Canadian in Cannes

David Christensen, director of Six Figures. Courtesy Seville Pictures.

Calgary-based filmmaker David Christensen is attending this year’s Cannes Film Festival, trying to generate international interest in his feature debut, Six Figures. The world’s highest-profile film fest runs from May 17-28; throughout the event, Christensen will keep a journal for CBC Arts Online.

Cannes Diary: Entry III
May 24

Part of what makes Cannes fun (regardless of what you’re doing here) is trying to crash the various parties that go on every night. In fact, throw a rock and you’ll hit a party; if some country like Switzerland isn’t having a get-together to promote its film industry, then a studio is putting on a reception for their latest release at Cannes. Two nights ago, Paramount had an exclusive party for the X-Men film. A friend and I managed to get two tickets — which of course raises the question of just how exclusive this thing actually was. When we arrived, I was convinced we weren’t going to get in. It seemed that everyone being let through the velvet rope was wearing a tux; and there I was wearing a brown jacket. Reasoning that I could always say that I’m the writer of the film, we plowed forward through the crush of wannabe party crashers, presented our tickets… and were whisked inside.
 
Of course, we didn’t know anyone there. There were lots of very important people yelling into their cell phones over the music, and lots of other very important people saying very nice things to Halle and Hugh and Patrick and Sir Ian. But unless you know any of these people and have a reason to speak with them, these sorts of parties are actually pretty boring. Like a lot of things, it looks alluring from behind the velvet rope, but as soon as you’re in, you wonder what all the fuss is about. Far more interesting (and useful, to be honest) are the parties in the various pavilions, like the one for a new Czech studio. But those sorts of things make for pretty dull reading in a diary like this.

This morning, I went to the first screening of Sofia Coppola’s film, Marie Antoinette. It was an 8:30 a.m. screening and by 7:45, there were lineups all around the Palais to get in. Hovering around these entrances are people looking for tickets; they approach you and ask if you have an extra ticket, while others hold up signs saying, “Tickets to anything, please.” I doubt that many of these people were successful in getting into Marie Antoinette — it was one film that nearly everyone was looking forward to. When the film began, there was a palpable sense that now, perhaps, we were going to see something really good. Well, that wasn’t the case. As was reported almost immediately, the film was booed as the final credits rolled. Unfocused, poorly acted and way, way too long, Coppola’s film had people shaking their heads afterwards as they exited the theatre.

I wandered over to the market to have a couple more meetings on this, my last day in Cannes. When you enter the building, security searches your bags and waves a metal detector over you. I’m not sure how effective all of this is — on the first day, the detectors were buzzing madly, but by the seventh, they are noticeably quiet. Even the people looking in your bag do so in a desultory way. Like everyone else, the security people are getting tired of the festival.

By the seventh day, the market was starting to wind down. There were noticeably fewer people in the convention hall this morning, and those that are still here have a dazed look about them. I’m feeling the same way — after a week, the continual go-go-go of the festival has made me sluggish. I spent the rest of the day wandering around the various sales agent booths to follow up on their attendance at the market screenings for my movie, Six Figures. The response was friendly but everyone was non-committal. The party line was that they would have to take a few weeks to evaluate what they saw at the market and then make decisions about acquiring films. 

Hurry up and wait. Generally, nothing happens quickly in this business. The process of script-to-screen often takes three or more years; it’s positively depressing to run into people here who make a point of telling you their film has been 10 years in development. Sales are a multi-year undertaking and co-producing anything means investing time (sometimes months, sometimes years) in building relationships with other producers. Yet Cannes encourages snap judgments about the projects that are pitched and the films that are seen here. Having had a couple of days to think about them, I’m starting to appreciate some of the films I’ve seen that, on first blush, weren’t all that impressive. It’s time to leave, if only to readjust to a less competitive way of working. Though I doubt I’ll be changing my mind about Marie Antoinette: heads should definitely roll with that one.