Cannes Here I Come...

Just under two weeks before I jet off to the Cote D€™Azur. Suppose now would be a good time to start my Cannes coverage, starting with a bit of a brief introduction€ I€™ll be staying here€Maeva Club Résidence Valescure, Saint-Raphael A studio for four people. For just me. I feel like Kevin McCallister. A slight pity that it€™s so far outside of Cannes itself (45mins by car), but it was an inevitability, and the simple fact of the matter is I€™m going to be attending the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, covering the premier European film event on the calendar. I€™d have walked from here. The particular highlights are innumerate: I personally like the approach they€™ve taken this year in screening so many dark-looking movies, after all this year isn€™t exactly panning out to be a barrel of laughs what with the economy still struggling along, the impending swine flu pandemic and the increasing realisation that our governments aren€™t actually out to look after 90% of the population. It goes without saying that my excitement at the prospect of seeing Inglorious Basterds, Drag Me to Hell, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus and even Up is palpable, and hopefully you€™ll be interested in my take on them enough to read my upcoming preview articles, starting with Sam Raimi€™s Drag Me to Hell in advance of the festival. But as Matt correctly pointed out in his Dark Cannes article, it is Ang Lee€™s Taking Woodstock that appeals to me more than anything else screening this year- I would have said Inglorious Basterds were it not for my feelings towards Kill Bill Volume 2, which were only marginally rectified by Death Proof. I continually refer to my passion for the music industry (my CD collection is quickly catching up with my masses of DVDs), and that extends to the festival world as well- I plan to attend Download Festival every year until I grow up or die, whichever comes first. So to have the opportunity to see the history of Woodstock festival treated by someone with as much dignity as Lee is a rare gift indeed. Lee is without a doubt the director working today with the greatest imaginable range- who else could marry Brokeback Mountain with Sense & Sensibility and Hulk without ? My one reservation was the casting of Demetri Martin, in the lead, as I was unsure how his stage charisma would translate into but the trailer but paid to my qualms once and for all, and I feel nothing but unbridled excitement for the Cannes screening. So what about my coverage? Well, there are certain things in the pipeline (all very much in the more than capable hands of Matt and Peter) that will be announced as they are confirmed, but aside from that I€™m very willing to listen to suggestions. I want OWF readers€™ suggestions- particularly in terms of potential questions for any interview time we have set up, and I also want suggestions for which films (outside of the big players) that I should definitely go and take in (festival organisers permitting of course).