Grenoble, Cannes and Paris
First stop on my french tour...Grenoble My cousin took me to where she worked...European Synchotron where they spin electrons around a machine and then study them to find cures for Aids, swine flu, etc. 
After a few days of family R & R its off to Cannes to screen my movie The Dreams of Leonardo da Vinci. Its a 9 hour train ride but passing through Avignon I saw castles up on hills and Roman aqueducts. Stopping in Marseille for an hour and a half seemed like a scene from stopover hell. Chaotic crowds scurried around and the garbage cans in the train terminal where overflowing. I guess no one in town wanted to be the ones to clean it up. Walking out onto the balcony I stopped suddenly. The end of the balcony turned into the top of a giant staircase with lions on both sides that went down to the main street of the city. In the background of the city was a mountain with a cathedral perched on top. 
I passed Cannes on the way to Nice and saw yachts in the harbor. 
Since the average hotel in Cannes is over $3000 a week during the 
film festival I had a to settle for a room in Nice at the Clown hotel. Yes there where giant clown heads on the every landing of the staircase that lead to my room. Checking in I passed all the heads again as I headed back to Cannes. 
On the train I met Pauline who had a movie Enter the Preacher in the Short Film Corner and walked down the main drag. Palm trees stretched over the streets, paparazzi hung around the red carpet like locusts, and there was entrance to the temple of film the Palais of the Cannes Film Festival. 
Grabbing my badge I headed straight for 
the Short Film Corner where I was going to show my movie.
There I met Debbie from Boston who translated my movie into French subtitles and talked me into sending my movie to the festival. It was 5:00 PM and that meant happy hour. That meant that the Short Film Corner was the favorite area of the festival from 5-6 since it was the only department that had free wine and beer in the building.
There we meet Bita an actress appearing in the upcoming movie the Stoning of Soraya M about Iran.
It's a powerful movie that you will be hearing a lot about in the next few weeks. The 3 of us spent the next 4 days going to movies, parties, seminars, 
and the international pavilions. We saw an Israeli movie about a troubled family that worked in a car repair shop, Mother a Korean movie about an overprotective mother and The Kings Letter a Dutch film about the Middle Ages. We saw Precious about a struggling woman in Harlem. The cast including Maria Carey walks up the Red Carpet and take their bows onstage to a theater packed with several thousand people. The room goes dark and the film is projected onto the largest movie screen I've ever seen. Unfortunately I had to leave early to catch the last train to the Clown hotel.
Being part of an entourage of film people has its advantages since we have more information and networking opportunities. We got invited to the Egyptian Pavilion where they served their native food and we me the director of Heliopolis a feature movie premiering at Cannes. 
We went to
a party at the Thailand pavilion. Mpower the new film company launching the Stoning of Soraya M had a screening of the trailer and the company background at the exclusive Carlton Hotel followed by a reception on the balcony with scotch, shrimp, and salmon. We met film company people and an Italian couple who design Mazzaratis. We saw Francis Ford Coppola talking about writing the screenplay for Patton and his film career. We went to a talk by UK director Stephen Frears who produced Dangerous Liasions with Michelle Pfeiffer, the Queen and other movies talked about casting and editing.
Going to Cannes movies and parties is fun. Sometimes we would stop by the Turkish pavilion sit under the palm trees and look out at the beaches of the French Riviera and reflect about how that at that momen in time there was n
o other place in the world that we would rather be.
We went to a French comedy on Sat. night but I had to head out once again to get back to Nice so I could check out of the Clown hotel the next day and take the train to Gare de Lyon in Paris.
I met my friend Maria there and we saw a Spanish concert and an avante garde band at a bar. We went to a gypsy band in a club basement. Maria got up to dance with the band. In all the years I've known Maria I've never seen her enjoy herself so much.
Jacques one of the artists from the New Surrealists show I was in back in 2003 took me to see Kandinsky and Calder shows at the Pompidou Center. Debbie arrived from Cannes and we went to the Louvre and the DiChirico show at the Modern Art Museum. Walking by Place d’ Clichy I stumbled upon a movie being filmed on the Paris streets. The scene has a guy following a woman with leather pants down the street.
They didn't even close off the sidewalks as they do in shoots in Boston. Whoever was strolling down the street at the time was in the movie. Debbie had a reading of her play that she wrote in French LE PARESSEUX ou Le Mari est Assis performed at a private house party near the Arc de Triumphe. 
The next day I had breakfast with Maria and headed to the airport. Now when I walk by the river I don't see the Eiffel Tower....which means I'm no longer in Paris. Now...if I could only stop dreaming about those damn clowns.
To watch the Cannes movie click Here.
Posted by mcusiman
at 10:26 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, 14 June 2010 2:37 PM EDT
