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3.25pm Wednesday 11th May 2011

I am finally on the plane to Cannes. I say finally as I looked at my ticket whilst on the bus and discovered my flight was leaving an hour earlier than I’d thought. This heralded a breathtaking series of perfect connections allowing me to get straight to Stansted’s terminals without either a delay or a valid train ticket. Let’s hope that’s not all my luck used up.

As usual I met someone I know on the plane. This time it’s Tom Waller, who I last saw in Phuket. We just reminisced about those times.

5.15pm
After the plane journey I bumped into Ray Brady outside the airport, a fellow UK indie film-maker who I haven’t met for many years. He tells me he has just made an art house film. I see the look in his eyes of someone who knows what that means in the UK. We shared a taxi into Cannes, which for me, meant straight to the Palais.

I have just managed to blag the Cannes Marche guide from someone. It’s the essential tool for doing business in Cannes but it’s not given to everyone. It took 20 minutes to get a copy and appeared at the same time as I bumped into The Ginger Beacon, our French Unit Manager. Immediately we started talking about this years Cannes poker game. As it has been cancelled a couple of previous years, we are both keen that it actually happens this year. I immediately look for the screening time and day of Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia” so that there is no clash.

6.12pm
After checking into my apartment (30 seconds from the Palais!), I located the stand for our Sales Agent. It was quite easy to do this as it is the first stand you see as you walk into the seaward entrance to the Palais. This prominence should help with the awareness of the film.

11pm
I have just had dinner with Kevin Williams, our Sales Agent. Apart from talking about the state of the industry (quite depressing of course), he tells me that basically so far, we haven’t had more than a sniff from any distributor. Despite that, he is quite upbeat that deals will be forthcoming, just not at a huge level.

2.10pm
Ready for bed now. On the Grand Terrace I met an old friend, Jeff Gross, earlier. This year, due to whirlwind few months on a new project, he is staying at The Carlton. It’s only when he shows me his room card, did I 100% believe him. But this is the nature of the ups and downs in this industry. I tell him to enjoy it as “it might never happen again.”
He looks at me with a mixture of “this is just the beginning” and “you don’t need to tell ME that!”

11.55pm Thursday 12th May
Our screening is just about to begin. The Ginger Beacon has just turned up outside Palais C, a small buyers screening room. I said “I guess you knew where I’d be at this time?”

I am here to watch people go in. So far about 6 have gone in including a keen guy in an orange shirt and Ray Brady. I’ve been to many screenings in the Marché where no-one turns up apart from the director’s friends so I should be thankful that at least 6 will be there at the start. More will pop in and out during the screening I imagine, fitting it into their screening schedule. But, I am actually disappointed. It is less than I’d hoped for.

1.26pm
I am now having lunch with The Ginger Beacon. We are eating crepes in his favourite Creperie. I have desisted from the pain of actually watching the screening room door to see how many arrive or leave as I did at the start of the EFM screening.

1.52pm
I’m back outside the screening room. Amazingly, I see two small female Japanese buyers walk into our screening with 15 mins to go, see the trip scene, then walk out again.

At the end I see the guy with the Orange shirt come out followed by Ray (who seems a bit speechless) and a few others. Finally Ray turns to me and says “I need to think about my life.”

5.46pm
So ends the first day of proper meetings. This year I have many hats.
Apart from promoting DEP around Cannes, I am working for Bluebell Films
(my boutique distribution company), trying to get deals for two films I Exec
Produced; “Meso Café” and “Monk3ys” (Both the directors of which are due to
arrive here shortly) and announce my new film “The Power”.

12pm Friday 13th May
Last night Cannes was still a bit tame, it hasn’t yet kicked into life. I took an early
night so I could get up to see an 8.30am film – the Nanni Morretti. It was pleasant
and enjoyable but not amazing.

7.27pm
That was a full day. I managed to sign a deal for Bluebell which may well be the
biggest one we have done yet. In any event, that will take the pressure off for the rest of Cannes.

11.10am Saturday 14th May
Last night was a big one. Cannes really kicked into life. After a couple of evening parties I went up the red carpet to see “Polisse” At the end it got an 8 minute standing ovation. The director was in tears, her mascara streaming down her face, and deservedly so. The film was very powerful and at many times surprising.

After that it was one thing after another until at 4.25am I was in a bar with Michael Cowan and some others including a former boxing and kick-boxing champion of the world who couldn’t stop doing Robert De Niro impressions… Before that I Had bumped into Rosie Fellner on The Grand Terrace. I hadn’t seen her since the cast and crew screening last year. She looked well and upbeat as always.

But amazingly, I still got up to do an 8.30am screening. I saw something absolutely beautiful – a film called “The Artist”. It’s a ridiculously romantic and classical black and white silent film about the end of the silent era. I absolutely loved it. If Terence Malick or Lars Von Trier can’t win, I hope this film wins the Palme D’Or. I loved it!
 
1.36pm
I just popped in to see Kevin. He told me that the guy in the orange shirt had been a buyer from ZDF. He also told me that there is interest from Switzerland, Germany and Australia for our film. He further reported that many people have taken screeners to watch after the festival and that he is talking to the Sundance Channel about it. He reported that someone in the screening had said to him “Strong performances, good ending, contemplative. Now I need to think about my life…”

I just chanced across another good deal for Bluebell. At this rate I will have done more than enough before everyone arrives.

Today I feel a bit different. I feel like I’ve drawn a bit of a line under DEP. The Power has been announced and Kevin is doing his job. The baton has truly been past. The only nagging doubt about this in my mind is the UK release which is still unresolved

1.46am
I went from a lunch meeting to another meeting to another meeting to the Thai party to the Producers Network party to the Irish party to the Fuji party. At the latter Steve Di Marco arrived followed by Drew Cullingham, director of “Monk3ys”. Fireworks crashed out above us on the Martinez terrace. Cannes is really buzzing now.
 

6.23pm Sunday 15th May
That’s a full day done now, working on “Monk3ys”. We have shown the trailer and it has been received very well. The three of us are sitting at the South Africa party. Next door is the UK Women in Film party. I can see inside sitting smugly is Richard Fish, one of the nemeses of DEP’s post production debacle. No matter how hard I stare at him, he doesn’t look back at me.

1.23am
Time for an early night. I only got 4 hours sleep last night so I need to catch up. At the end of the night,
Daniel Nussbaumer (DEP’s Art Director) and Katie Higgs (DEP’s Focus puller) turned up in Cannes.
They are here for a week’s jolly. At the end of the night we ended up outside the Petit Majestic. Kate
started a refrain of “Eaagggaaahhh!!” rather than cheers, a reminder of something I had started in the
Blue Posts some months before. Then, to Steve’s embarrassment, she started doing it to total
strangers. Of course, they weren’t strangers for long…

11.46am Monday 16th May
I just did another 8.30am screening. As long as I can get enough sleep, doing these screenings will
allow me to see films as well as do business. Of course this in a way is another “hat” I am wearing;
the hat of a cinephile. This “hat” though, is my primal “hat”. The hat I first wore before becoming a
film-maker.

Anyway, the film was Malick’s “Tree of Life” which was astounding in its scope, from microcosm to
macrocosm as well as telling the simple story of a father and son relationship. At the end I didn’t feel
as much as I have done with his other films but it still is an amazing piece of work.

I learnt that the director of “Meso Cafe” has been to Cannes fleetingly and was too distracted by taking pictures to
make contact. I find this astounding. I’d planned to do a similar job with him as I am doing with Drew. Looks like that
will have to be at the next market.

1.23am
After another long but good day, I had dinner at L’Avion with everyone in Cannes from DEP. It was quite a raucous
meal but very enjoyable. Out of purely joyful malevolence, The Ginger Beacon started an elaborate rouse on John
Last which included John calling the restaurant. Now I am back in my apartment for another early night.

PART TWO CLICK HERE...