CANNES: "Day 4."

So, being the genius that I am, I did not set the alarm clock when I decided to take a quick nap yesterday afternoon and, as a result, slept for nearly three hours.  Needless to say, I was up quite late – again – and woke up rather early this morning – again – and I’ve been tired and cranky all day.  I’m so tempted to lie down and close my eyes for a few minutes, but I wanted to record the day’s events first, so as not to forget them.  It’s been a very busy day.  

I woke up around 6:30 am, sent some e-mails, ate some homemade broccoli quiche (real men don’t eat quiche supposedly, but this stuff had been taunting me since the night before and needed to be destroyed), sent some more e-mails, read a little bit, and went back to bed for an hour or so.  Charlie woke me up around 9:30 am and we caught a cab to the train station, hoping to get a jump on the day.  Unfortunately, when we arrived at the station, we discovered that the train to San Rafael didn’t leave until 12:13 pm.  The train schedule in this part of the world never ceases to surprise.  We had been told that the trains to San Rafael departed hourly.  This didn’t occur on our first day because of the strike and it didn’t occur today either because…well…we still aren’t quite sure.  Thankfully, our first meeting of the day wasn’t until 2 pm, so we had time to sit down, have a drink, strategize, and wait.  

The train to Cannes was jam-packed with people and, after witnessing a fellow commuter almost get pickpocketed, we had to be even more cautious than usual.  Believe it or not, I was feeling so belligerent due to lack of sleep that, in a weird way, I was kind of hoping someone would try to pick my pocket.  Anyway, we arrived at the festival around 1:20 pm, returned to the Carlton, checked in with Cineville, and, then, took a series of meetings with some majors and mini-majors, including Paramount/Dreamworks, Paramount Vantage, Universal, Fox, etc.  Afterwards, Charlie and I retired to a sidewalk café for entrecote, French fries, French bread, and tall glasses of beer.  A German woman, sitting at the table next to us and blatantly eavesdropping on our conversation, polished off a massive order of steak tartare all by herself and did so with such relish that I thought about ordering the same for myself.  Charlie talked me out of it, though I sort of wish I hadn’t let him because I’ve never had it before.  Still I’d never had entrecote before either, so perhaps later this week I’ll set some time aside for steak tartare.  

We returned to the train station a little after four and caught our ride home to Monte Carlo.  This time, I took a few pictures of the passing scenery.  I'm sorry the quality isn't better, but I was tired and it's not always easy to get good shots through the window of a moving train...

You guys are going to think I've totally lost it, but I like this photo of "nothing" quite a lot, actually...

The next one is out of focus, but, again, I like it for some reason...

After we returned to Monte Carlo, we followed Avenue Princess Grace back to the apartment, which is a nice, long walk.  By the time we finally reached the apartment, we were pretty shagged.  Charlie’s dad and step-mom flew in from the States earlier in the day and we had a lovely dinner with them, which consisted of tomato and avocado salad, fresh fish, a side of asparagus, some kind of red wine, 18-year-old Scotch whiskey, dark chocolate…It was fantastic.  I didn’t want it to end.  After dinner, Charlie and I strategized for tomorrow, sent off some scrīpts to interested parties, and discussed some new financing possibilities that only came to light this evening.  

Anyway, it’s after midnight now.  For some reason, as tired as I was earlier, I’m not anymore.  I started watching Vincent Gallo’s “The Brown Bunny” last night before bed.  When it debuted at the festival a couple of years ago, it was so hated that some critics actually said it was the worst film to ever play at the festival.  I don’t know about you, but, when I hear responses like that, I want to see the film even more.  I got twenty minutes into the film last night before I finally crashed and, to be perfectly honest, I love its imperfections.  (Perhaps this is why I also like the photos I've posted in this very blog.)  Though I’m hesitant to recommend the film until I’ve finished watching it myself, I thought some of you might be interested in the trailer.  Here it is…

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yu8lGrDjtE

I'm going to try to finish the film tonight.  We'll see if I make it...

-Dax