Cannes you believe it?

I just couldn't avoid a title like that, I'm afraid. Anyway, Saturday was our trip to the Cannes film festival, and as promised, we got to see two different film screenings. The first was an Australian film, Three Blind Mice, about three soldiers about to be sent to Iraq. It was excellent, and if/when it comes out on DVD, I'd definitely recommend it. It's comedic, tragic, thought-provoking, and light-hearted all in one. The acting and writing was really fantastic.

After lunch we saw Ordinary People, which follows a young boy in the Serbian army. He has to take part in the killing of Croats during the war. But the film just wasn't very good: the lead actor showed little emotion, every shot lasted several minutes without any action, and it was just drawn-out and dull.

Afterwards we went to the center of Cannes where the bustle of the festival takes place. The port was filled with huge, expensive yachts, and people were crowding everywhere to stare at the red carpet. We eventually managed to push forward to only a few feet from the red carpet and its assorted camera crews, but I didn't see anybody famous. Some other students in our program saw Quentin Tarantino and Tara Reid, however.

Finally we had some time to walk around Cannes a little more and go to the beach. Cannes is a beautiful town and, judging by the yachts and Ferraris we saw, attracts lots of money during the film festival. Cannes is about two hours by bus from Aix, though, so we left at 8 a.m. and didn't return until almost 11 at night. But still, for the chance to see films at the Cannes festival, it was definitely worth it.