CANNES -- Tough to get up this morning. Too much partying last night. A
skip to the Mike Leigh party, a hop to the Italian bash, then on to the
pour hosted by the Directors' Fortnight, with John Sayles in attendence, as
his "Lone Star" (smashing) opened the sidebar.
The Italian beach party that followed the screening of Mimmo Calopresti's
"La Seconda Volta" ("The Second Time") was, well, very
Italian. Casual but
elegant (fluid black silk, as opposed to Joan-Collins-heavy taffetas, if
you see what I mean). Standing next to producer Nella Banfi,
Sienna-red-haired and amazingly gracious, actor-producer Nino Manfredi went
on about the short-film Festival he himself is organizing: "Time for a
whole new breed of directors with *something* to say, and here's one of
them," he said, patting Calopresti on his shoulder. Venetian-blond actress
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, far more beautiful than the former terrorist she
portrays in "La Seconda Volta" slithered past a bunch of television
cameras, in search for her sister, supermodel Carla Bruni. They managed NOT
to be photographed together. "It's *her* night," the model whispered.
"Isn't my sister great?"
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Two films in competition, one out of, three in the Certain Regard sidebar,
two at the Directors' Fortnight... things are getting serious. Arnaud
Desplechin's "Comment Je Me Suis Dispute... (Ma Vie Sexuelle)"
is three
hours long, but great, with a whole slew of young actors that have their
ears to the ground for post-generation-X dialogue. Women, in particular,
wonder how come Desplechin knows so much about them. Has he been
eavesdropping on their "entre femmes" conversations?
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A Guinea-Bissao film at 10 PM, and Spike Lee's "Girl 6" at
midnight? Forget
it. THE party tonight is taking place at Paul Allen's Villa Maryland in
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Paul Allen is the man who co-founded Microsoft with
Bill Gates, the man who invented Windows (you can curse at him), the man
who gave 500 million dollars to Spielberg-Katzenberg-Geffen's Dreamworks
SKG. Allen has invited 100 people from L.A., has flown them in for the
week-end, and is putting them up either at the villa or in various hotels
in the area. The invite was a treasure chest with the invitation on a
scroll inside. It is to be a Pirate-cum-reggae party. Ahoy there!
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