Wrapping up the festival

-Saturday May 21

My Saturday began with one of the most disturbing movies I have ever seen. Beauty, a South African film by Oliver Hermanus, was uneventful and slow up until a horribly violent scene. I wish I had those two hours back in my life. Luckily for me, though, I was in for a much better film next. Drive, the film by Nicholas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling, was being screened. It wasn't completely what I was expecting, but it was certainly entertaining and fun to watch. It was a breath of fresh air after all of the horribly depressing, disturbing films I had seen at the festival. Drive had its unexpected violent moments, but it was awesome and different. So glad I got to hear the director (and Ryan!) just a few days prior. 

After the rest of the day in Cannes, there was a surprise movie on the beach. They set a big screen up in the sand with lots of chairs, and they gave out warm blankets.

  

Here's Lily, Sophie and me bundled up waiting for the movie to start. Lot's of boats were lit up out on the water--very pretty.


There was an interview with Jane Fonda screened before the movie, Corman's World, was screened. It was a documentary on director Roger Corman. It was very interesting and had people like Jack Nicholson talk about working with him in the past.

After the movie these twin boys were entertaining people walking by. Here is one posing for me--afterwards he smiled, gave me a little salute and ran off with his brother. 

Even though some people were up for going out after the movie, I was exhausted. I headed back to JLP and kind of regret it--Chelsea got to meet Kirsten Dunst in the Majestic bar, and told her that she thought her dress was pretty. Kirsten replied with "thank you, you're so cute." 

-Sunday May 22

Sunday was a bittersweet day. While it was the last day of the festival, which was an amazing experience, I was ready for a little bit of R&R. My day started off with finally seeing The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick. Walking into the theater I was very excited, but also nervous because of the horror stories of the opening screenings: apparently, people walked out, booed and yelled at the premiere. This made me really upset--this film was the one I was most excited about seeing before coming to the festival. I took my seat in the back of the theater and waited for it to begin. Let's just put it this way: when I left the theater, I had tears streaming down my face. Not from sadness, but from amazement at how beautiful the film was (See trailer below) and what a personal impact it had on me. It is the best film I saw at the festival.

After watching The Tree of Life alone, which I'm glad I did, it was time to get in line for the new Pedro Almodovar film called The Skin I Live In. It was nothing like I had expected from the teaser trailer, but I really had no idea what to expect. It was such a cool, unusual movie to wrap up my time at the festival. Take a look:

After the film, a lot of people in the group decided to stay in Cannes to try to get into the closing ceremonies. Yet another possible regret, I decided to head back to JLP. I was seriously running on low battery and just needed to head back and sleep, and I figured I would learn of the winners of the festival anyway. Sure enough, as I was eating dinner I learned that The Tree of Life won the Palme d'Or, the top prize at Cannes. Kirsten Dunst won best actress, which I was happy about but a little surprised after seeing Tilda Swinton's performance in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Nicholas Winding Refn won best direction for Drive. All in all, I was happy with the winners and it was so great to have seen the films!

Class started the next morning, so I was in bed early to get ready for my 8:30am wake up. At the moment, I'm about to go get some soft serve ice cream. Stay tuned for updates from the last week of classes and my travel weekend! 

Here's a teaser, and my new French haircut!