Day... wait. What day is this?

Aaaaalll right! Giggity giggity giggity! I'm too excited for Indiana Jones to do a real recap of yesterday. Like I said, I had to stay up until 3:30 in the morning to get them so I was a bit tired the next day. In fact, that day, which I believe is day four in my adventures, could be summed up in one word: frustration.

I got up to see an older Japanese film that was playing in one of the sidebar festivals. I stood in line for a while to see it and was impressed that the line was so long. I finally got settled into my seat only to discover that it was the same gloomy/creepy Turkish film that I saw the day before! Because they close the doors on all of these screenings, that pretty much ruined that time slot for movie watching.

I wandered around the market looking for folks, unable to find them. I will post a picture of the insanity that is the film market as soon as I find my USB cable. Updated- USB found. Imagine about 30 hallways like the two below. And this year is supposed to be a "quiet" one here:

I went home and got dressed up for the evening. Then the sky opened up and dumped rain on everyone, forcing me to spend an unreasonable amount of money on an umbrella.

I wandered some more, waiting for some friends to get out of a screening. We grabbed dinner and tried to get into some parties, where we were repeatedly denied access.

But I don't particularly care about all of that. Like I said, I get to see Indy. After tonight, though, I will be a bit more aggressive about the marketing of LOOP (which includes muscling my way into parties where I think the buyers might be hanging out).

Oh, and I also happened upon Woody Allen and his entourage being herded into their private cars after his screening. He was the only one I actually recognized, but Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Patricia Clarkson were apparently there. Again, photos are forthcoming (though I don't think they include any recognizable stars).

Day Three- Cannes Tryptophan

Or an extremely gloomy, slow and visually boring film from Turkey. Get it? Turkey? Tryptophan? Yeah, lame joke. I knocked it down a notch today. The festival is 12 days so it's important to pace yourself. I saw "Three Monkeys" from Turkey. I didn't care for it. It had most of the visual elements that make me physically uncomfortable: vomit, rape, and a deformed little naked alien-looking kid who just stood there and whispered and look creepy.

Then, I saw "Tokyo." Well, I saw the first two of the three films that make up "Tokyo." The first was directed by Michel Gondry. Loved it. The second by Leos Carax. Loved that one too, though it was completely different. I missed the third part by Korean director Joon Ho Bong, but I wanted to make sure I gave myself enough time to fight for my Indiana Jones tickets. More on that in a bit...

I took care of the technical ends of LOOP today- making sure the Beta screener was in the right hands and that people who should see the film have been invited to do so.

Unfortunately, I ended the day's adventures dealing with a French creep who was waiting at the bus stop, trying to explain to me why I have to go get coffee with him.

No pictures today. But then, do you really want a picture of boredom and creeps? It's too bad my day was bookended in this way. I really did enjoy "Tokyo."

A new adventure dawns...

I’m tired. It was impossible to actually sleep last night. I was fussing over my baggage weight. I got a large bag with swiveling wheels so that I could carry the publicity material for LOOP as well as my costume changes for the festival (and the makeup and hair care products/devices that entails). Then I realized that combined with my own luggage, everything weighed about 75lbs. There is a 50 pound-per-bag limit for checked luggage before you are charged an extra $50-$100. You can have TWO such 50lb bags, however. I ended up packing a 25lb bag within a 50lb bag for easy transport and split them up at the luggage counter. Problem solved. I don’t know why that makes them happy, but it does. That and putting your shower gel bottles in a ziplock bag...

I took the bus at sunrise to get to the airport where, after pulling my matryoshka luggage trick, I stood in the security line for an hour and argued with them over why it was NOT okay for the Betacam screening copy of LOOP to go through the x-ray machine. “It should be okay,“ said he. “Should be.” Well that makes me feel better. It’s only like the most important piece of this trip… They finally agreed to a hand inspection explaining that for security reasons everything MUST get x-rayed but that they were doing me a favor. Meanwhile, my pencil sharpener (read: razor blade) managed to miraculously get through these "magical" x-rays… Not that I intend to use it for evil. Unless I draw an evil character, and even then, I’m sure I will be putting him to good use.

Now I have to wait at LAX for six hours before I actually leave for Cannes, which is then a ten-and-a-half hour flight... Why I am going from Colorado to California to France (well, London, then France) is a long story. Suffice it to say, I’ve only completed the first few hours of my journey and I’m already tired.

We hit some heavy turbulence leaving Denver. That’s pretty normal going into the mountains (that rugged terrain makes all sorts of exciting air currents and is one of the reasons you hear of planes going down in the mountains). I don’t like flying. Actually, that’s not true. I love flying. I don’t like the idea of crashing. It doesn’t seem like it would be pleasant. Probably shouldn’t have brought the entire first season of Lost on my iPhone, but… I suppose if I had to crash, it might as well be with Jack and Sawyer and Kate and the gang of cool characters on that show. Especially Sawyer… ahem.

Wormholes and time warps and magical islands notwithstanding, my only major obstacle getting to France should be fatigue.