Cannes Day 5

As Brother Pete pointed out the music video we both posted yesterday has been reposted in a different form. Unlike Brother Pete I have amended my previous post so go back to that one to watch it.

I finally saw Eden Lake last night - at the moment I mainly seem to be talking about films that other people got excited about months ago. Anyway, it was really good. If you ignore the subject matter, it's a very slick, well-produced and well-acted horror film that manages to be disgusting, terrifying, thought-provoking and an excellent ride all at the same time. I keep going on about liking my horror films to be about something and this definitely is, which is where perhaps the problems lie. On the one hand it's a film that says the root of the problems with today's youth is the parents, which is straightforward enough. But by the end it seems to be suggesting that all poor people are evil and the middle-classes are ace. Kind of like Gone Baby Gone which, as my dad pointed out, does seem to say that poor people shouldn't be allowed to have children. I'm all for exploring contemporary fears but I think sometimes those explorations can be a bit one-sided. Eden Lake is still an excellent film though so don't let me put you off watching it.

Anyway, here's the next part of the diary, and we're over halfway!

19/05/09 - 01:30AM

Bit of a weird one today. Got into town much later than usual due to hangover. The only thing I could really face doing was watching a film and luckily there was a screening of Catherine Breillat's new one Bluebeard. Managed to get an invite and only just made it into the screening as it was packed full of buyers. Interesting that the first packed screening we get into should be a French feminist art film, but I guess it was the first film of that type we'd seen and we were in Europe. It was actually quite encouraging - I mean, I know Breillat is a big name in French cinema, but after a couple of days in Cannes I was beginning to wonder whether art ever really did have anything to do with the film industry to begin with. Seeing this many people interested in a really non-commercial film was a real breath of fresh air. And it was a great film - great performances, beautifully shot and a really interesting take on the story. If anyone ever buys it for the UK I would seriously recommend it - although be warned, there is a real life duck decapitation so it's not for the faint-hearted.

We then tried to blag an invite to a horror film that looked interesting but they were booked up, so went to see Anvil instead - cheating really as it's been out in the UK for ages and we got to see it for free. It was an entertaining way to pass an afternoon.

Later in the day I sat in on another meeting about one of my projects that was more positive than previous meetings. The feeling I couldn't quite shake though was that the meetings often felt like work nights out - there was a 'let's not talk about work, we're here to get drunk and have a laugh' vibe. And then people promise to read things when they get back to whatever country they've flown in from. This is part of the reason I don't do networking very well - I don't really get it.

Went for dinner, met a couple of UK film people and chatted to them for a bit, then back to the apartment for a relatively early night.