For a film journalist, Festival de Cannes is nothing short of a ‘Kumbh mela for cinema’ — colourful, bustling and a must-visit occasion. It can also get chaotic and overwhelming, particularly when you are on your first pilgrimage.
I woke up to it late this year and had almost given up on travelling after seeing the 10-day package rates of some of the hotels adding up to the cost of an MIG flat in Delhi. Even hostels as far as Nice and Antibes can set you back by a month’s rent of a 3-BHK flat in south Bombay, what with prices shooting up by 500% in the film season.
Cannes, however, makes you believe in your own luck and in the power of social media. I managed to sneak into a shared apartment on the strength of a Facebook post.
If there’s another thing Cannes teaches you, it’s sharing. Unless you are on an invite or have booked a place years in advance, you have to be open to the idea of living in a chummery.
Personal experience says that sharing with filmmakers is better than with fellow hacks because you won’t be getting ready and rushing out at the same time.
Overcoming FOMO
Cannes also makes you overcome FOMO — the fear of missing out. Red carpet events and parties, press conferences and simultaneous screenings in various sections — official and parallel — make it impossible for one person to be present everywhere, even if she may want to. And then there is the daily filing of copy. So, you learn to exercise choice and let go of one film for another, however heartbreaking that might be.
Things went smoothly for me primarily because I had a pink card, a respectable entry pass in the media pecking order. White and pink cards with a yellow dot are at the top of the press cards hierarchy. Pink is right in the middle, followed by the blues and the yellows. So I did get a seat at every screening even if at times it was the second row from the screen or at an odd angle in the balcony.
Cannes is all about style. Even the ushers in their sharp suits, especially the ones at starry press conferences, look suitable enough to walk into any film role with their easy charm and impeccable ways.
On the other hand, glamorous film personalities talk serious issues and politics. Will Smith talks colour, Jessica Chastain talks gender, Pedro Almodovar talks LGBTQ and political correctness, Harvey Weinstein brings in the issue of native Americans, Roman Polanski discusses the politics of images and our own Nandita Das dwells on the post-truth world.
Cannes is where cinema can be at its most blinding, starry and rarefied but still not divorced from reality.
