Cannes--the salad days

Day 5 Monday, May 17, 2010

Cannes: Market.

With forty or fifty big white tents lining the beach and another 100 or so mega-yachts flagging in the old harbor, plus another few hundred shingles hanging from nearly every window facing (or even not facing) the Croisette, one is easily reminded that Cannes is as much business as much as it is art.

Today was the day my two French filmmakers (Jesse and Louie Salto, “Finding” PSSF 2008) pounded the pavement, going door-to-door as it were, from one pavilion to the next. Each country, and in some cases a collection of countries film commissions, have a pavilion tent marked by their flag where they hand out location and tax incentive information to those interested.

The really good pavilions have something extra as well. The Irish, as noted before, have free coffee and Jameson whiskey (after noon). Abu Dhabi has the most tantalizingly tasty dates along with their Arabic coffee and chocolate. Turkey gave out lucky glass ‘evil eyes’ which were very welcome. Jordan was my favorite, with their version of Arabic coffee and a pistachio baklava that defies description.

The American Pavilion is the only one which charges an entrance fee—which they will tell you is because we have no national cinema to foot the bill and because they have such high overhead, but in reality it’s an obnoxious blight on the profile of American filmmaking. And they give out nothing, not even a warm welcome or “how-do-you-do”. Instead, you just hear overworked students screaming at market attendees who don’t speak English well—as if volume overcomes ignorance—“NO, YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PASS AND IT COSTS $100. THAT’S THE ONLY WAY WE’LL LET YOU IN”.

We don’t exactly compete on an equal level with those countries for which hospitality is a national trait. I can only imagine what the Republic of Georgia must think of us.

The Salto Bro’s are developing the script for their feature film debut—a character driven espionage thriller that races across Europe and the Middle East. All countries want filmmakers, and nearly all countries (outside of the USA) have tax incentives or co-production treaties to make filming there easier. Not one of the pavilions we visited today cared that the film was low(er) budget, or that the script was still being developed, or that the Salto Bro’s are just beginning their feature film career. It was a welcome reminder that not everyone in the world believes that “valuable” film comes only from the privileged few found in Hollywood or Sundance.

It’s nice to get a world view on occasion.

If the salad is meant to clear the palette before dessert, then today was a success. While my colleagues hold their collective heads over the British Airlines strike and looming ash cloud, I look forward to something sugary tomorrow and perhaps a little after-dinner espresso to wash it all down on Wednesday.

There’s nothing I can do to change the ash clouds’ trajectory on Thursday morning, so the band might as well play on….