As a paley white Brit the first feeling that immediately hits you when you step off the plane at Nice Airport after a surprisingly pleasing summer in England is "wow, now that's hot". A quick saunter through the arrivals gate, passed the French passport checkers who never fail to surprise at being even more miserable and condescending than they were the year before - a not so quick bus transfer from the airport to the Croisette itself (if anyone at Cannes is listening, you guys really need to put on more press buses as you invite more and more people to the festival) and then on the coast it really hits you "wow, now that's
really fucking hot". Amongst the sea of first day sweat as I and my three amigo's - OWF's webmaster and behind the scenes Wizard of Oz Peter Willis (freelancing for Sky Movies), OWF's incomparable Simon Gallagher (writing for Film School Rejects) and my mate Dan Powell (We've Got This Covered) acclimatise to the new atmosphere, I have managed to pick up my press credentials pack for the next 10 days worth of activities and was pleasantly surprised to see I have been accredited with a "Press Blue" - i.e. a higher status pass than last year's "Press Yellow" which should mean fewer chances of skin cancer from queuing in the thunderous and overbearing sunshine. Apparently I can pretty much just walk into some screenings now which is a Godsend to my legs. The contents of the new Cannes shoulder bag include a Festival Guide, a list of screenings, a bookmark, a copy of Le Monde with
Brad Pitt on the front cover and a lot of other useless things I'm never in a million years going to use. But thanks anyway for the free swag. The bag is certainly sturdier and of better quality than last year's but why oh why didn't they make the strap longer? Cannes Film Festival is not a festival just for women guys. After picking up our press thingies, it was to a quiet game or two of scrabble in the Croistette apartment, a logistical figuring out of how all four of us will manage to sleep in basically a room the size of a living room and then a planning of the first day's films.
We worked out the best way to spend the first Wednesday of the festival was with; 11am Screening of
Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, the first press screening of the film before it's opening night ceremony later in the day. 4pm - Screening of
Attack the Block in the March Du Film section IF Studio Canal can provide us with invitations as the movie is mostly for buyers as the film still needs a distribution deal in some parts of Europe. I've sent a few requests to SC but nobody has been able to give me a definitive answer either way yet. I know the movie opens in the U.K. on Wednesday anyway and we already have
Ed's review, but it would be cool for us to see it anyway. 6pm - Screening of
I Melt With You - another movie in the March Du Film section. 9.30pm - Screening of the in competition film
Sleeping Beauty which has huge buzz and is personally a movie I'm looking forward to greatly. Roll on tomorrow and apologies to my writers and also the OWF readers if I'm a little slow getting news stories and stuff up as I try and get into some kind of Cannes routine. --- Bring the festival experience home this year on Blu-ray Disc - keep up to date with all the latest Blu-ray news at the
Blu-ray Disc Reporter.