CANNES: "Day 3."

My body still has no idea what time it is.  I fell asleep after 3 am last night and woke up around 7 am.  I’m not sure if I felt rested, per se.  However, my mind was racing and I figured it would be better to get up and get some work done rather than continue to lie in bed and think. 

When I raised the mistral shutters, I discovered that an overcast day awaited me.  A light rain was falling and rolling banks of fog enshrouded the mountaintops.  Some would have called it “dreary.”  I, on the other hand, love such overcast days and thrive on them.  In fact, one of my biggest complaints about L.A. is that it’s sunny all the time.  Give me some rain or, perhaps, a thunderstorm any day.  I can’t get enough of either.  Perhaps this is why I enjoy Hong Kong and New Orleans so much. 

Anyway, I got up, ate a chocolate croissant, drank some strong coffee, checked my e-mail, confirmed some upcoming meetings in Cannes, and had a bit of a read.  When Jason, Charlie, and I decided to form Shanghai Street Films, we each had one personal project – or “baby” – that we wanted to do.  Mine is “Jasmine.”  Jason’s is an untitled project I can’t discuss quite yet.  And Charlie’s is a project that, for the purposes of misdirection, we’ve tentatively titled “Purple Tentacles.” 

Before we left for Europe, Charlie gave me a copy of a book, which will serve as research for “Tentacles,” and I finally sat down and cracked it open… And I have to say, it’s excellent.  I finished the introduction by 8 am and was dying to wake up Charlie, so that we could discuss the project in further detail.  When he finally did get up, we spent a few hours discussing the story.  Essentially, the plan is that we’ll write the scrīpt together and I’ll direct the project as a potential follow-up to “Jasmine.”  The story will be set in England and, after taking our “Jasmine”-related meetings in London next week, we’ll spend a couple of days doing research and scouting locations in the English countryside.  It’s all very exciting. 

By midday, it was clear that we both had too many administrative duties to attend to and wouldn’t be attending the festival today.  I also had to Skype Jason in Hong Kong and bring him up to speed on a few things. 

In the afternoon, Charlie and I decided to take a hike down the coast.  It rained the whole way, but no so much that I minded it.  It was actually quite refreshing and it was great to get the blood flowing.  I didn’t think to bring my camera and, therefore, didn’t take any pictures.  It’s safe to say, however, that I’ll be making this hike again before I leave.  I’ll take some pictures then. 

We returned to the apartment about an hour later, did a bit more work, had some dinner, strategized in regard to Sunday’s meetings, and, then, screened “Cinema Paradiso” on the big screen.  It was my first time seeing the film, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or in 1989 and won the Grand Prize of the Jury.  Honestly, I wanted to love it, but I didn’t.  I liked its sense of nostalgia and sentimentality very much.  Yet, I didn’t find the characters or the story particularly compelling.  Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood and should give it another chance at a future date.  I have to do that sometimes.  It’s not uncommon for me to enjoy films exponentially more with repeated viewings.  We’ll see if this will be the case with “Cinema Paradiso,” too. 

Anyway, tomorrow will be a big day.  We plan to catch an early train to Cannes, so long as the train workers haven’t gone on strike again.  Meetings will ensue.  It never ceases to surprise me how many people I know at the festival this year.  I only wish there was more time to hang out.  For the time being, “Jasmine” must come first…

-Dax