I see London, I see France: Cannes Film Festival

The film festival began on Wednesday, but things have been crazy here for the past week. The influx of people into Cannes.... it's nuts. It's normally pretty calm here; I've likened Cannes to the Florida of France - full of retired people and people on vacation. However, the past week it's hard to even walk down the street. Super annoying when you're late for work (more on that later). Supposedly the population triples during the film festival (which lasts from the 11th to the 22nd), normally around 60,000. I honestly don't understand how so many people come here... Cannes certainly isn't the cheapest place in France, and France certainly isn't the cheapest place in Europe. But they do - and now I have to deal with them.

By the way, if you're interested in what's showing this year at the festival, check it out here!

I have an internship with La Semaine de la Critique, which is it's own festival separate from that of the Cannes Fest. It shows new talent - usually a director's first or second film. Because of this, we also usually get the directors to do Q&A sessions right after screenings. And, tickets are free for everyone! It's a pretty sweet deal. I'm working outside or inside every other day. Inside means preparing the theater, making sure people don't sit in the reserved seats that aren't supposed to (actually the most stressful part of my job, probably. Everyone thinks they deserve a reserved seat. Just be happy you got in, people!), making coffee for people, restocking things, etc. Outside is giving out tickets and information, in French for the most part. Sometimes I hand out catalogs. And sometimes I get to see famous people.

For instance, we ran a secret preview of Puss in Boots, so Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek came to our little theater. It was pretty awesome. I got to sit in on it. Today I sat in on 17 Filles (17 girls) which was based on the story of the pregnancy pact that happened in the US in 2008. The story was reset in France, and several of the actresses came to watch today. They were pretty adorable.

The other awesome thing about having an internship here is party invites. I'm going to one tonight, there's one Monday night in a fancy villa, and then one next Thursday on the beach. Needless to say, I'm quite excited.

Random tidbit: Lady Gaga decided to show up and do a performance on the beach. Of one song. Then she left Cannes...
Whatever you can do to get publicity, I guess.