One Night At The Movies Long Ago
The 60th anniversary poster.
Kid in the Front Row is hosting a blogging collaboration where we all write about a memory we have of a particular cinema visit. I have to tell you, I go to the cinema a lot. In different countries, to different cinemas with different people. So I am having trouble remembering a lot of it. I thought about writing about the time when I was interning at a cinema magazine and got to see a lot of movies before they came out, together with “other” members of the press. Or about going to the cinema while away on holiday (which I always do), or maybe about the amazing Everyman Cinema Club in Hampstead, London but I guess the memory that sticks out the most is of three of my friends and me going to the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 (I know, technically, 2007 isn’t “long ago” but to me it feels like this was in another life time).
Quentin watching an independent documentary.
We had submitted a couple of films to their Short Film Corner for which we got extremely bad accreditations to the festival. But the worst accreditations to the Cannes Film Festival are still like a pot of gold to young impressionable film students (for those of you who don’t know: I studied Film Production at an Arts School in England). There we were, in the place to be if you love film and film people. Cannes is just amazing and I highly recommend going to the festival if you can. It is the kind of festival where you find yourself sitting a row away from Quentin Tarantino and where Martin Scorsese walks past you while you are waiting for a friend.
Gael Garcia Bernal making his way through the crowd.
Cannes is a very traditional Festival and there is a dress code for evening premieres. This meant that whenever we wanted to see an evening premiere we had to drive back to our rented apartment (which was slightly outside the city, due to incredibly high rental prices during the festival), get changed and drive back to the cinema. You can also only attend these evening premieres if you get an invitation. Our accreditations did not include invitations which meant we had to queue just off the red carpet and wait until everyone else was inside to see if there were some seats left. Because all of this takes such an effort, we only did it a couple of times.
Finally going up the stairs.
It is a very strange feeling standing in a sort of cage next to the red carpet while Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and George Clooney walk past you, followed by a herd of extremely well dressed photographers (they are not excluded from the dress code). It certainly shows you where you are in the greater scheme of things… Although there were also a lot of spectators and fans standing on the other side of the street behind barricades and hanging off trees to take pictures of the stars. Another way to get into the premieres without an actual invitation is standing outside the film market with a sign “Need tickets for such and such a film”. An option which a lot of people chose.
Inside the main cinema.
After all the invited guests are inside, the “gates” open and all the people who were queuing hurry inside to get the last remaining seats. It’s great fun! The main cinema in Cannes is really big and since everyone is dressed up it does feel like a very special occasion. My dad (who goes to Cannes every year) said that last year they played Disney’s UP in 3D as the opening film and everyone had to wear these ridiculous looking 3D glasses which must have been quite a sight. They just don’t go with all the beautiful evening gowns (alright, this was probably the girliest sentence I have ever written on this blog)!
I know I was supposed to write about a cinema visit that went right/wrong or funny/tragic but I wanted to share a memory of a cinema visit (or 10 days worth of cinema visits) that impressed and fascinated me. I could probably go on talking about the festival for another 10 paragraphs but I am gonna stop here. Hope you enjoyed it and hope you get to go to the festival at some point 
.
Tags: Cannes Film Festival
