A
NOVICE’S GUIDES TO CANNES
Our intrepid reporter, Marsha Prescod, found
herself at the world’s
premier film festival, pondering on the things she
would have liked to be told about when she was new
to the Cannes experience.
Cannes is mad, crazy, hectic, and if you love film
whether writing about it, acting in them or just
watching them, you should try to go at least once.
Think about it- 300 or so films screened over a
fortnight, films that wont be shown in the UK for
6 months or a year. Seminars, masterclasses, panel
discussions about film and the filmmaking process.
Stars attending press conferences, - I saw the
cast of the incredible Sin City -or sitting at
the same premier screening as you, together with
distinguished directors. Whats not to love? But
the first time you go, unless you go with a Cannes
veteran, its confusing. Bewildering. This year,
I thought of the type of information I would have
liked to have the first time I went. So here it
is.
IN THE BEGINNING
If you’re going to Cannes, if you want to survive,
it helps to have some idea of how things are arranged.
Given that the main drag- The Croisette- looks like
a combination of Oxford Street and Knightsbridge
on the first day of the sales, on steroids, most
of the time that the festival is on, you need some
idea of where to go and what to do.. and why.
Getting Ready
Prepare for it. Its days of walking miles either
along the main street or within the huge Palais.
You need to be fit. Get comfortable trainers, and
clothes that can keep you cool in the South of France.
Get a mobile that you can use abroad without it costing
you and arm and a leg. Get printed up 100+ business
cards which have your office number printed international
style (i.e 44 at the beginning) and have an email
address on them. Even if you’re a poor, bruk,
out of work actor or writer, print the damn cards.
Have a card that you can use in the cashpoints there.
Take 3 notebooks, some vitamin pills, and a bumbag
to keep your money in-trust me you will be given
a mass of printed material each day. You wont want
to carry a handbag/rucksack as well. If you are accredited
on registration you get a big shoulder bag. Its all
you need.
Getting there
Check out budget airlines. Easyjet has flights to
Nice, about five a day. You can go from a number
of airports- I tend to use Luton if I’m travelling
from London. Flights are from as little as £16.99
one way. Yes, really. Even booking only 2-3 weeks
before the festival started, my flight out was only £40.00.It
depends on the time of day you chose to go. You book
on-line. You can change flights depending on availability.
Obviously the early morning and late evening ones
get filled up last so stay cheap. Late morning early
afternoon ones get booked quickly so the one that
are left the price goes up and it can be £100
plus one way, specially if its near the time. The
flights about 1 ½ hours. Once you get to the
rather swanky Nice airport, you hop on the number
210 bus which leaves every half hour for Cannes (its
about 40 mins).
If you don’t want to fly, get the Eurostar
to Paris, Gare du Nord, then change for a train that
will take you all the way down south to Cannes train
station. From Paris, it is about a 6 hour journey.
The train is comfortable and the food on it is delicious.
On arrival
The Croisette. Its all happening there, baby. Picture
this. A long, long wide street. Five star hotels
lined up one after the other on one side. A beach
on the other side, with huge marquee sized white
tents pitched all along it. At the top of the Croisette,
the Palais de Festival and then right at the end,
the bus terminus where the buses from the region
and from Nice airport, all end.
The first thing you do is sort out your accreditation-
even before you sort out booking into your hotel.
Trust me, it’s the best way. It helps that
everything to do with the festival centres on or
around the Crosiette. The Palais de Festival is there,
the tourist office, conveniently grouped together.
You get a badge with your photo on it that gives
you access to various part of the Palais de Festival
(that place where you see people going up that red
carpet) and the Film Market, and the cinemas around
Cannes where screenings are held. You get a stonking
great stylish shoulder bag with the festival logo
on it, crammed with useful stuff like a practical
guide to the whole thing, a booklet listing all the
films in competition, a booklet listing participants
(useful as some 5000 producers, 4000 journalists,
4000 distributors and 1000 writer/directors are in
attendance amongst the 30,000 film professionals
given accreditation) and a guide to the International
Village. Register first, people.
Where to go
The Palais: The big Kahuna. The Palais de Festival.
You will be in an out of there on a daily basis.
It’s
the place where tickets are collected for those film
screenings which require you to have a ticket. It’s
the place where the Press Centre with its banks of
internet access computers and other goodies is located.
It has cinemas there for screenings. Interviews with
the stars either happen there, or are viewable on
screens all over the Palais. Next door is another
building with the Debussy cinema in it for screenings.
The Film Market and the exhibitors of film related
technical/technological products is in the basement
of the Palais. The Television screens showing the
afternoon press conferences with the directors and
stars are there.
The Pavilions i.e. the International Village: These
huge white tents set out next to the Palais, along
part of the beach part of the Croisette, are a combination
of things. They are like the big marquees you see
at weddings, or society dos. Some are set up by individual
companies such as Variety and Kodak They sponsor
and put on great panels/seminars there.. Some are
put there by the Film Commissions or Film Councils
of various countries, and are there to promote the
films of that country and the use of that country
as a location for filming. Filmmakers and journos
hang out or pass through their country’s pavilion.
But the one everyone passes through regardless of
nationality is the American Pavilion. Set up for
Americans- filmmakers, producers, film students,
journos etc- to congregate and providing computer
facilities for them, you’ll find yourself passing
through there regularly. They provide refreshments,
business office, some of the must attend seminars
that Cannes have are held there. At the very least,
it’s a place everyone knows so if you have
to meet someone you can tell them to meet you there.
A very welcoming hang out and the back leads straight
onto the beach so they’ve thoughtfully provided
beach tables and chairs. Food and drinks a bit pricey
but hey this year we got to attend a seminar with
MORGAN FREEMAN!
The Hotels: On the opposite side of the road running
along the Croisette are the grand five star hotels-
The Noga Hilton, the Majestic, the Grand, the Martinez
etc . Even if you’re not staying in them,
you may find yourself in and out of them. The sales
companies are set up in suites there, so a budding
filmmaker will be able to arrange a meeting to
show them a finished script plus budget. Or if
you’ve made a film, you’d be visiting
distributors there. Or you will at some stage,
go into the bar there to have a drink and try to
exchange cards with any stray execs or filmmakers
you meet.
Use the booklet listing the participants at Cannes
to find out who’s there, phone in advance,
and set up a meeting. If there’s a film bod
in the UK you’ve been trying to meet, you’ve
got a better chance of them agreeing to meet you
at Cannes than in London. People are approachable
at Cannes, the sheer effort put in to get there means
he big shot who wouldn’t give you the time
of day normally is willing to exchange cards, have
a quick drink at one of the hotel bars.
The Screenings
There are so, so many of those. There’s the
Films in Competition, films screening Out of Competition,
Director’s Fortnight, Un Certain Regard, films
screened in the Film Market, and specialist screenings
that are not officially part of but take place in
and are linked to Cannes at the same time such as
brilliant Agora African films screenings. This year
Agora celebrated 50 years of African Cinema and the
legendary father of African film Ousman Sembene was
present to collect a lifetime achievement award.
Apart from being held in the Palais itself, films
are screened at the multitude of small cinemas all
around Cannes, crammed within a half mile radius.
All walkable from the Croisette.
What to wear
Daytime? What you like. No, seriously. You can do
smart casual, you can do grunge, whatever. Mostly
I’ve seen t-shirts, jeans or baggy shorts
and trainers or sandals even flip flops.
In. The. Day.
But in the evening, if you are going to a screening
in the Palais de Festival, the red carpet place?
Buddy, you’d better be in evening dress. No,
I mean it. EVENING DRESS. Dressy suit or tuxedo,
with black tie for men. Evening- not clubbing- gear
for women. Complete with evening shoes. At night,
the security guards at the Palais become the style
police. I kid you not. If you turn up casual they
will not let you in and no amount of bellowing Do
You Know Who I Am?! Will work. I saw them look at
a Japanese woman’s shoes this year, shake their
head, and go Non! And that was it, she was out of
the queue. I am a lifelong wearer of trousers. My
teenage son has sworn to me that he has never seen
my legs. I invented scruffy. Nevertheless, Cannes
2005 saw me got up like the fairy at the top of the
Christmas trees. Floaty chiffon gown, matching teeny
bag, silver shoes, jewellery. All that was missing
was a tiara. There are two immutable rules at Cannes.
The rules are-have your pass on you at all times
and evening wear at the Palais.
The Dailies
There is so much going on that you need a newspaper.
Daily newpapers/ mini magazines are helpfully published
such as Variety and Hollywood Reporter. They are
left out in the lobbies of a number of hotels during
the festival, in the pavilions at the International
Village and in the Palais. They are free, huge (often
A3 size) multi-pages and invaluable. Grab one. They
tell you of the place and time of screenings of films
in and out of competition, seminars, panels, and
news for the day, gossip. Future film projects. People
like to announce future projects at Cannes. They
have a synopsis of many of the films being screened-not
just the ones in competition. That is how you make
up your mind to queue to see a film you’ve
never heard of, which stars people you don’t
know. And the daily magazines give you an idea of
the films that are creating a buzz. That’s
how I ended up going to see my first Lars von Trier
film, Manderlay. Shit, you could go to Cannes and
as long as you collected 2-3 magazines every day,
never have to see a film, but spend your time getting
drunk and thrown off the yachts moored in the bay
and still be able to write articles about the films
and personalities.
How you get to see the films at Cannes
Ticketing system: Where you get tickets to see the
films depends on what type of accreditation you
get. They have different accreditations for different
occupations: Actors, press, producers, directors,
technical, buyers etc production company, filmmaker,
journalist, etc Basically, you queue up to the
booth that doles out tickets to your particular
type of passholder . To join through the Market
you have to be in a company in the business end
of filmmaking. Market screenings are all over-
in some of the hotel screening rooms, at local
cinemas around Cannes,
Eating
If you stay out of the big hotels its not that expensive.
There’s a McDonalds, which being French, did
salads with interesting dressings long before the
ones here. They do great cold lagers there. There
are innumerable little bars cafes and restaurants,
on side roads off the Croisette, and on the road
where the main train station is. The station is a
ten minute walk in one direction from the Croisette.
They are cheap and affordable. There are some good
oriental fast food restaurants where the food is
tasty and nutritious. My fave is a Thai restaurant
opposite the station. You can stuff your face for
about 8 Euros. There are umpteen booths and mobile
vans selling panninis with chicken, salad, various
kinds of sausages etc.
Where to stay
There are lots of 2 and 3 star places just outside
Cannes, near enough for you to jump on the train
and come in each day. When you arrive at Nice airport,
there’s a desk with tons of local guides
for the region. Check them out. The internet is
useful for finding places. I found a great little
2 star hotel that was more like a 3 star, this
year. Hotel Terranga. The year before having had
a really nasty experience at a place that tried
to rip me off, I found a nice 3 star Best Western
Hotel just off the Rue D’Antibes- the swankiest
road in Cannes- where the rates were reasonable
and the breakfast -inclusive- was an all-you-can-eat
buffet that set you up for the day. Email us as
Flim! And we’ll let you know the details
of the two places. You can also get together with
several other people and rent a studio apartment,
or a one bedroom one, at places like the Cannes
Beach Residence.
Safety
One has to keep an eye out at night when on the streets
that are away from the Croisette. As with any large
influx of people from all over the world, it can
be a bit tempting for the criminal fraternity. This
year, the police were out in force because of security
concerns, so it was actually very safe.And besides,
Star Wars-Revenge of the Sith was being premiered
at Cannes this year, so the streets were full of
Jedi knights…
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