Jane Clark - Cannes Journal
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Day 3
Another gorgeous day. Even this early into the market the days meld together. Still have only seen two films. Shameful, but I am not alone. Unless you are a buyer it is really about meetings and parties where you meet people. I am exhausted by by the amount of hours I’ve spent talking.
It has been interesting so far, from the American perspective. Last year the US presence was almost overwhelming. All the heavy hitter indie studios had films to hawk and parties to promote those films. This year it almost felt like they weren’t here until last night’s cocktail party for Relativity Media. Held at a beach restaurant, it was lovely and elegant and loaded with heavy hitters. Relativity Media is a newish production company primarily concerned with funding projects and they have access to a gargantuan amount of money to do it. No surprise then that the party was a who’s who of the indie producing scene. Harvey Weinstein was an early show, and was replaced later with Cassian Elwes and Rina Ronson from the Independent division of William Morris, the international development guy from Focus Features, the head of Lionsgate, Producer Dean Devlin (of Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin, mega 90’s blockbuster fame.) and the list goes on. It’s a frustrating truth about being an indie filmmaker - you compete against guys like these for the money, and investors are looking for that big deal and that sure thing, which these guys (and I say guys because for the most part they all are) represent and you don’t.
There weren’t any real stars there. The only person I recognized was Jason Stratham from “Transporters” and “Transporters II.” It’s amazing that guy hasn’t become a huge star, because he has real star presence in person, and he’s is a good actor. Makes ya wonder. There were definitely actors there, though, looking to meet someone who will put them in their movie. I’m sure their agents put in calls, got them on the list and said go and look fabulous. You could recognize them by their striving for fabulousness and their youth. But at that party the real “stars” were the producers.
There was a MAJOR star at the next party though, or maybe I should say celebrity. We attended a soiree thrown by Avi Lerner, owner of NuImage, on a gorgeous and large yacht and for some reason Jessica Simpson was the celeb du jour there. I gather they are either in talks with her to star or she is already starring in one of their projects. She was attending a premiere and
It was an amazing experience to be in such close proximity to that level of publicity insanity. It is so odd to me, as I don’t quite understand how it is warranted in her case. But there it was and I can honestly tell you, I don’t know how she lives a normal life. Everywhere, here anyway, she is mobbed, and unlike the organized rope line at the yacht, out in public there are only security guards between her and the photographers and fans, pushing and shoving to get near to her.
Other than that the party was low key and pleasant. Had a lovely chat with Kathy Winterstern, wife of Henry Winterstern, the co-chair of the newly merged NuImage/First Look Company. Then we walked home, stopping for a final drink and bit of cheese before retiring to our hotel, popping a sleeping pill and falling soundly to sleep, thank god.
Jane Clark
Writer/Director/Producer
FilmMcQueen, LLC
323/654-0115 W
323/633-8193 C
filmmcqueen@yahoo.com
www.filmmcqueen.com
