Forgive the incoming transitory quietness of the coming days. I’ll be taking a red eye flight to Cannes on Monday evening and, as it happens every time I go, jet-lag is almost a certainty.
I plan on watching all 21 competition titles, and around a dozen or so selections from the sidebars. The ticketing system this year is an absolute mess, but I presume it’ll get smoothed out in the coming days? It better, the complaints have been numerous and many of my colleagues are absolutely frustrated by the online system this year.
UPDATE: Fremaux seems to blaming the ticketing debacle on bots.
What I am absolutely not looking forward to this year is there being more press for this 75th edition. Last year was absolute heaven. Screenings were half empty at the DeBussy, ditto the press room. So much so, that by the last days of the fest I counted not more than a dozen or so attendees for the final screenings of competition titles.
No matter, it’ll be great to see old friends, and, most importantly, renewed excitement over cinema again. It feels like the last Oscar season completely deflated moviedom for many cinephiles. New films by Cronenberg, Reichardt, Dardenne, Mungiu, Gray, Kore-eda, Park, Denis and Ostlund should hopefully renew our faith in le septieme art.