The 63rd Cannes Film Festival begins today, and once again I am not there to enjoy it. I could rationalize it easily enough — there’s plenty to do here at home, it’s not looking like a particularly great year for the Competition, and of course there’s always the possibility that once I got over there, I’d be trapped on the Continent by volcano ash, running up exorbitant hotel bills and missing the series finale of “Lost”.
Those are all valid points. And yet, I’d give almost anything to be there anyway. I had a wonderful time when I went to Cannes two years ago — sure, it was an exhausting whirlwind of constant activity, but it was a massive film festival in the south of France; you couldn’t ask for better venues to see films, or a more beautiful place to wander around between screenings.
(Yes, I know people complain, but it’s really not such a chore to spend hours standing in line with a Mediterranean breeze at one’s back.)
Ah, well. Cannes 2010 is starting, and I’m not there. But I do get to see “Robin Hood” tonight, just like all of my colleagues, and if I was so equipped, I could follow the festival with the Cannes iPhone app. That’s something, right?
If there was a Cannes app I think that would just be more mocking, you know? Like, you’re not here but look what’s happening right this second while YOU’RE NOT HERE. Robin Hood (hopefully) will be a better distraction.