Cinephile...

I have a Cinephile badge for the Festival. This allows me certain access, but is pretty much the lowest of the low. I am a step above the bourgeoise, but still have to, as we say, “make the festival work for me.” Toward the end of the festival, I’ll get a special 3-day pass to the film market where I’ll have the opportunity to attend the New Directors press conference hosted by Roger Ebert (whom I saw out and about twice today!). This is something I’d be excited about anyway, but we just found out Richard Linklater will be there, so I can’t wait!

But back to the evening premieres. In order to go to any of the red carpet premieres, we have to basically beg for tickets. Here’s how it works: We get all dressed up as if we were already going to the premiere (the Festival has a strict dress code, so you must look your best!). We head out to the Palais where all the premieres happen and post ourselves somewhere out front. We hold up signs asking for anyone with extra tickets to share them with us. If someone does indeed give us a ticket, we may go in and watch the movie with everyone else. If they don’t, we’re out of luck. The key is finding the right place to stand and smiling in desperation at everyone that walks by.

A word about the extra tickets: Each year large companies are alotted a certain number of tickets for each premiere. If they do not use all of those tickets, their alottment will be cut for the next year. So, rather than taking that chance, they give away the extra tickets to the poor (but nicely dressed) beggars on the street.

Last night was my first attempt at this whole process. I was, of course, hopeful to get into any premiere, but last night was particularly special. The Da Vinci Code (DVC) opened the Festival and had its world premiere here last night. As I’m sure you know, it opens worldwide on Friday. I did not have high hopes about getting in, but figured it couldn’t hurt to try. I looked my best and posted myself in front of the theatre at around 4:30 pm.

This is where it really gets interesting! There were about 15 people from our group doing the same thing. We were all smiling and holding our signs and basically competing for tickets. I don’t mean to be crude, but I think I have a better idea now of what it must be like for a prostitute working her corner. If another girl starting getting too close to me, I would move away or jokingly ask her to move out of my territory. We were all laughing about it, but we were also really competitive.

We became something of a tourist attraction. Emily and I were interviewed by at least five different international papers (What are you doing? You have a badge, why can’t you get in? Do you think this will really work?) and countless tourists walking by took our picture. It was hilarious!

Emily and I were trying to get in together so we finally moved away from the group to the other side of the Palais. We were standing on the side where everyone staying in the major hotels down the street had to walk past us to get into the theatre. I noticed that people would look at us when they were about 10-15 feet out, but as they got closer, they would refuse to make eye contact. They either looked straight ahead or would give us the “I’m sorry, I can’t help you, please don’t bother me” smile and look down. Emily said she now felt like she knew what homeless people go through. (So now we feel like prostitutes and bums…this night keeps getting better and better!)

Finally, at about 6:00 pm, we were ready to give up. We weren’t having any luck (hardly anyone from our group was), so we thought we would station ourselves along the barricade to try and get some good red carpet photos.

Right then, though, an older lady came around from the side, opened her purse, and handed me two tickets. I looked at her like an idiot because I couldn’t believe it was actually happening! I said “Really?” And she said, “Yes, have a good night” and walked away. I looked at Emily. She looked back. I handed her her ticket and we started freaking out! The system had worked!! Not only had it worked, it had worked for us!! However much I had tried to convince myself that it didn’t matter if I got in or not, that I wasn’t going to be disappointed if I didn’t get a ticket, I knew in that moment that it had actually mattered a great deal! We were thrilled!

Tickets in hand, we waited a few more minutes with our signs to try and help out some other students. Finally, we had to go in because our section closed at 6:30 pm. We made our way around behind the press and started down the red carpet (!!!). As we were walking, we saw some of the tourists who had taken our picture and they cheered for us. We didn’t get to walk the length of the red carpet, but walked on a portion of it and up the grand steps to the main entrance. Of course, the press wasn’t interested in us, but it didn’t matter. There was carpet under my feet and it was red!

We took some great pictures (which I will try my best to upload…I’m having some difficulty with that!) and made our way into the theatre. We were sitting in the absolute nosebleed section in a theatre that would hold maybe 1,000 people, but we didn’t care. We were in! We saw two other girls from our group who made it in and we all sat together.

On the screen in front, we could watch as the bigger stars walked the red carpet and entered the theatre. In addition to the stars of the DVC and the Festival judges, Andie Macdowell, Tim Burton, and Michelle Yeoh were there. It was like I was watching E! at home, but those people were actually coming into the place where I was!

Before the movie started, we got to see the official opening ceremony of the Festival. The judges (including Monica Bellucci, Samuel L. Jackson, Helena Bonham Carter, and Zhang Ziyi, along with others I didn’t know) were introduced and then Sidney Poitier (!!!) came out to “respectfully declare as open the 59th Cannes Film Festival.” It was amazing!

After a short intermission, the movie started. But that is another post in itself. For now, I’ll end by saying last night was easily one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. I’ve used a lot of words in this post, but they don’t even hardly do it justice. It was an actual dream come true.

Peace. Out.