I had been warned by my co-producer Melissa that the Cannes Film Festival was mad, but the reality is …it's mad.
I'm now four days in and I'm just beginning to enjoy it. I've got over the jet lag.
Jet lag? ..It's only one hour difference, I hear you say. Yes but Cannes happens at night so we've shifted to nocternal animals. Bed at 4 or 5 am and breakfast at 1pm. (Assuming we haven't any morning meetings.) Lunch at 6pm
Also Cannes runs on alcohol, so all in all it's very unhealthy. Burning sun and baking hot during the day, then chiling wind at night. …and too much alcohol. Steven Follows advice to me was to always drink lots of water …BUT the toilets are miles away. ..and if you've got into a party you shouldn't have …not that we would do such a thing ..then you have the problem that if you leave then you may not get back in. but of course that doesn't apply to us. We would never do that as We get inviations to everything!. …Oh ..Did I mention that everthing in Cannes is about exaggeration.
…and crowds, heaving crowds, standstill gridlocked traffic. Celebrity madness. Security checks, scores of identical black limousines. party after party. ..and in almost everyone I'm bumping into the Brits. In the US pavilion, Argentinian, Greece, Russian, Canadian there are Brits. It has been lovely to meet up with so many friends from the UK. David Wilkinson, Stephen Follows, Danny Stack, Tim Clague, Ben Richards and many others
So I'm In the Greek pavilion for the Russian party. Melissa has disappeared off somewhere, I strike up a conversation with a friendly looking woman. "Do you speak English?" Yes she did ..rather well …as she came from Dawlish in Devon.
But it has been surprisingly succesfull. A chance meeting in a wildly over the top charity fashion show in the Charlton Hotel. In aid of Famine Relief or World Peace or something like that. ..go figure? led to a long late night meeting onto another hour long meeting the following day with in depth discussions on International co-production on my next ..as yet unwritten script.. with five completed feature scripts is the unwritten on that is attracting interstt. Really does show that in screenwriting, concept is everthing
So they are expecting the finished script in six weeks. during which I am going to the Edinburgh Film Festival and Toronto. ..so no pressure.
