One thing that non-Cannesgoers might not realize about this crazy festival is that underlying the stew of emotions served up by the programming, the one constant is guilt: every moment not spent either watching a film or writing about a film comes freighted with a low-level background hum of remorse, with a side order of vertiginous FOMO. But this year I’ve tried to come to terms with my inability to bilocate, and to explore just a few of the other experiences the festival has to offer. So far, it’s been a strange, sweaty tale of airport hangars, spectacular views and always, always missing the canapes, but here are a few of the non-feature-film-related events and venues that I’ve checked out over the past few days.
1. Focus Features Sizzle Reel
In previous years, the Weinstein Company‘s sizzle reel presentation has been quite the hot ticket: often featuring close-quarter encounters with as many celebrities as they can squeeze into the room and still leave space for journalists and the expansive presence of Harvey Weinstein. This year, however it was the Focus Features reel that I was most interested in, not least because of the rumor that some footage from Paul Thomas Anderson‘s untitled next film, starring Daniel Day-Lewis might screen. It didn’t (and he still hasn’t settled on a title, we were told), but even arriving late and hot and only catching the back end, there were some appetizing tasters. Though I should also point out that everything looked kind of rubbish because all the screens, inexplicably, had motion smoothing turned on.
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“Atomic Blonde” looks like fun, with an extended scene of Charlize Theron kicking ass, jumping out of a window, then kicking some more ass going down very well in the room. We know her Imperator Furiosa credentials, of course, but David Leitch‘s film is a far glossier affair: not only does Theron have both her arms this time, she also has hair, and her titular blonde locks remain immaculately sexy-tousled throughout all the ass-kickery. Stephen Frears‘ “Victoria & Abdul,” about Queen Victoria’s relationship with an Indian servant, starring Judi Dench as the indomitable monarch (again), seems so completely described by that logline that I might as well end the sentence there. It’s “Mrs. Brown” goes to the ‘Exotic Marigold,’ or as I mentally dubbed it, “Mrs. Brown’s Brown Boy.”
More interesting was Garth Davis‘s “Mary Magdalene” in which Rooney Mara plays the original hooker with a heart of gold and Joaquin Phoenix plays the son of some deity or other. Greig Fraser‘s cinematography will be stunning when we get to see it motion unsmoothed, and Mara and Phoenix make a cute couple, which is a bit weird to say considering one of them is playing Jesus. At one point Mary M asks The Christ “What does it feel like to be the son of God?” and he replies with Tokio Hotel-levels of emo pain and wonder “No one’s ever asked me what it feels like,” so expect that Intimate Portrait of Jesus Christ As You’ve Never Seen Him Before, From The Woman Who Knew Him Better Than Anyone Except Maybe His Mother movie you’ve always wanted. Last up was Joe Wright‘s “Darkest Hour” in which I can vouch for Gary Oldman being as totally unrecognizable underneath his very impressive Winston Churchill makeup as he was in that one advance still. It has a pacy, dramatic, thrillerish vibe and looks every inch the prestigey, awards-friendly fall release.
READ MORE: The 20 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2017 Cannes Film Festival
Far off, a waiter with a tray of sushi arrived at exactly the moment I had to leave for a movie.
Photo credit: Emmanuel Lubezki
2. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s VR experience “Carne y Arena”
The immigrant crisis looms large in the Official Selection, with Kornél Mundruczó‘s “Jupiter’s Moon” and Michael Haneke‘s upcoming “Happy End” two Competition entries to deal with it directly. But the most intriguing outside project on the subject is Iñárritu’s VR short, which was shrouded in secrecy before we arrived and for which one had to sign up and squirrel away 90 mysterious minutes. The Mission: Impossible vibe continues on your appointed day, when in groups of two or three you are ferried by festival car to a hangar in the small local Cannes airport, about 20 minutes away. Once there, you sign a dense waiver, disclaiming responsibility if you accidentally die, and read Iñárritu’s mission statement for the project.
It is a six minute, individual VR experience, that starts with you walking past a wall made of an actual section of the US/Mexican border fence, removing your shoes and socks and entering a big, dark room with a floor covered in sand. You’re given a backpack to wear and the helmet is put on and soon you are in a scrubby patch of desert at dawn, part of a group of bedraggled illegal immigrants. The resolution is not particularly high (this was my first VR tryout and I believe that’s kind of standard at the moment) but the low light of dawn (Emmanuel Lubezki is credited as DP) hides a lot, and the sand underfoot really contributes to the sense of immersion. One of the women is hurt, and you find yourself wanting to help. The thirsty, exhausted rag-tag group call out to each other in Spanish. There really is a palpable sense of desperation. And then the helicopter comes, and a search beam picks you out and suddenly there are border patrol cars and officers with guns and barking dogs.
The goal is to have you experience the panic and fear these people felt (they are “played” in the piece by the real migrants, reliving their border crossing experiences for the VR cameras). And in that it’s fairly successful, with only the occasional tug on your backpack when you walk too near a wall reminding you that you’re not there, but in a big black cube in the South of France. But from a filmic perspective, probably the most interesting moment is the surreal insert. A table appears in the desert but on it there’s a man, about a foot high wading through the table top like it’s water, maybe the Rio Grande. In front of him a boat appears, teeming with people spilling in an endless loop over the sides. Suddenly you get a glimmer of the potential for VR to insert you not just into someone else’s reality, but into someone else’s dream.
You are told before you go in to get as close as you can to the characters, but apparently, even though I found myself literally standing inside one person when the scene changed (and yes, I jumped back and apologized like an idiot) I didn’t get quite close enough. There is a further element that I didn’t experience, by which if you put your face right up to, and inside one of the characters, you see their heartbeat — the icon of the whole “Carne y Arena” project.
Outside, you get your shoes back and exit via a darkened hallway, with screens inset into the walls. Each one tells the story of one of the people we’ve just been with in a more traditional, though no less affecting way. And then you walk out into the big hangar space where, with inescapable irony, bottles of San Pellegrino and fresh fruit juice are there for the taking. It is more art piece and technological marvel than filmic storytelling per se, but using VR as a social awareness and empathy-generating tool, rather than just a gaming platform is a noble ambition, though it’s hard not to notice that the bulkiness and sheer scale of this exhibit will stop it reaching as many people as one would like.
They replenished the snack tray just as I was getting into the car to go back.
3. The Journalist’s Terrace
Located on the top floor of the Palais, this year a new space was opened and that is where I write this little dispatch. It’s the best innovation added to this year’s Cannes by a long shot. The wifi is strong, the coffees are free and the view (see above) is incredible. It’s the kind of place that I think people think of when I tell them I’m going to Cannes for the film festival. It’s just a shame the trail mix bowls are empty.