Father Geek here for just a second... I've been working running the electric wiring and insulation in Geek World Headquarter's NEW, Film Screening Room all day, and must go grab something to eat... I'll be back online later... Now to what you really want to hear about... CANNES...

EURO AICN - CANNES DAY 2

Hello folks... Edgard here with our second report from Cannes... tonight we got reports from Solamen first shared his feelings on the Festival (yesterday and today)... with some words on a Spanish film and a Japanese one. Then Champagne 2000 is back with also some images from Cannes (I mean he shares images, you still have to imagine it in your head) and a first look at Michel Gondry's HUMAN NATURE... so here it is...

SOLAMEN's FIRST DAY IN CANNES

Here is Solamen, live from Cannes. It's not my first film Festival in here (actually, it's the third !) and I can tell you I've never seen such a mess. When I arrived this morning, the red carpet was not even fixed on the steps, there was no schedule available anywhere (only way to get it : through the official site on the web !). Anyway, everything began on time tonight and the opening was quite fine with tap-dancers and Coppola saying the usual words in French ( "Je suis très content d'être à Cannes"... think how funny is a French guy speaking English with the French accent and then you can picture how funny it is for us, French people, to hear American speaking French with the American accent !). The members of the jury surprisingly are French in majority with film director Mathieu Kassowitz and actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (the talented daughter of the singer Serge Gainsbourg). It should reserve surprises for the Palmarès. Of course, Variety and Moving Pictures and The Hollywood Reporter are here. And Moving Picture says that nothing can let anyone guess that Quentin Tarantino will be here or that any film is being prepared. But they have found the way to criticize French conception of cinema since their first issue : congratulations to that glorious journalists that consider cinema as an industry and look only at the numbers, without even trying to understand that cinema is not money but art.

The event of the day : everyone trying to get an invitation for The Lord of the Rings Party that will take place on Friday evening in a secret location.... By the way, if anyone reading this has an invitation for me, please tell me ! Tomorrow the official competition will begin with happy things : a movie about the horrible sufferings of the Afghan women and a movie about a man coming back to his home town after his brother's death. It will be fun !

SOLAMEN's SECOND DAY IN CANNES

Weather : getting much better ! A little bit foggy but by noon the sky was clear. And weather is definitely an important matter when you have to walk along the Croisette all day long or when you have to choose to go into a dark theatre for two hours instead of going to the beach (watching the half naked ladies is in option if you are a man).

Parties : it was a fine kick off yesterday. I was not personnally present at the Moulin-Rouge party, but a friend of mine was and he came back at six in the morning. They gave away plenty of stuff from the movie and Nicole Kidman was gorgeous (said he). The party to be is still the Lord of the Rings Party, planned tomorrow and when I went to the New Line office to get a ticket they stared at me and just said no, like if I had asked them to give me the film copy ! Anyway, I'm still trying tomorrow morning to find a way to get that damn ticket !

Films : what a beginning ! It can only go better ! First, there was a spanish movie, "Pau and his brother", about a man who lost his brother. It was well acted, not too bad filmed (compared with the following film) but there was not really any point in the story. So... in french we would say "Bof..." Then there was a Japanese film, "Distance". The same director last year had shown us a three hour-long film , with no dialogue, no music and in black and white. This year, he has discovered the color and the dialogue and he has shorten his way of filming (only two hours long this year !) But it was shot with the camera on the shoulder and I got sea-sick within ten minutes, although these passages are cut with still and wide plans. Still no music and almost no dialogue. Story : five persons, three years after their relatives have killed people because they were members of a sect, gather together. Ok, do I need to say that it was not really fun and not even very active ? Or maybe, I just don't understand this kind of cinema. But in that case I'm not the only one !

Tomorrow : Coppola is back ! Apocalypse Now Redux will be screened twice. It is Apocalypse Now with 53 minutes more and a new vision of the film. After that there will be an Iranian movie about the horrible fate of the Afghan women. Have fun ! This is the Cannes Film Festival !

Question worth being asked : yesterday, film director member of the jury and former Monthy Python Terry Gilliam had a great T-shirt with written on it : "Can be bribed". I have to say that he was wearing the same shirt at this afternoon screening. The question is : will he wear it tomorrow too ? It's a fine shirt but I think they have a laundry service at the Carlton ! (Mr Gilliam, if you read this, please don't be furious because I am a huge fan of yours ans it's true and I really hope you will do this film with Johnny Depp about Don Quixotte)

Champagne 2000 reports from Cannes !!

In Cannes this year....

I like...

Jean-Claude Van Damme bald... On the Carlton and another building, you can see HUGE posters og THE MONK with JCVD posing as a Tibetan monk. Probably the funniest poster on the croisette.

I don't like...

Having to wait two more days to see 20 min. of LOTR. Tonight there's a screening for the film's crew. In a little street of Cannes, you could see far from the paparazzi's Elijah Wood, Ian Mckellen and Liv Tyler leaving quietly a movie theatre. In front of this theatre some journalists holding the much desired pass "LOTR" were queuing to get their 20 minutes of happiness.

I like...

The teaser poster of GHOST RIDER on the Carlton (please someone put it online !!)

I don't like...

That Toxic Avenger 4 and Avalon are not in the competition.

I am sorry but the Festival just started and the most interesting films haven't been shown yet. Meanwhile I had the chance to see HUMAN NATURE, the first film from Michel Gondry. I was of course expecting this a lot. For those who don't know this director, you just have to name a few video clips to get the idea of the man's talent : « Like a rolling stone » Rolling Stones, «Human Behaviour » « Bachelorette » Bjork, « Let forever be » Chemical Brothers ... Each of these clips is full of crazy ideas, his universe it totally unique. So HUMAN NATURE was of course something to see, especially that the great Charlie Kaufman ( Being John Malkovitch ) wrote the script. The story ? To make it simple (but is it possible with Charlie Kaufman ? ) let's say it's about a scientist with a very small sex ( Tim Robbins ), a very hairy woman ( Patricia Arquette ) and a man who believes he's a monkey ( Rhys Ifans... from Notting Hill fame). Maybe my expectations were too high but I was disappointed by the film. Not that it's bad but the result is not equal to the amount of talents invested in the project. If Michel Gondry was dazzling us with all his ideas in his clips, here he's just recycling the same effects (especially the ones used with Bjork ). Charlie Kaufman's script is also disappointing in the way that the sequence of crazy ideas that was working so well in BEING J. MALKOVICH (ah the monkey's trauma !!) here it has a problem to make a seducing whole. Of course it's crazy and wild... but then ? There's a reflection on human nature (is man good by nature ? can you change him in depth ?) but the whole lacks some magic. Beware again... I am not saying the film is a total failure or sucks... but I was just disappointed (and this is my own opinion, I bet this film will get many fans when it will be released). And to finish on a positive note, you have to agree that few directors can make a first film as original as this.

Last minute info : if you are in Cannes and haven't seen one of the biggest film of the year, go tomorrow (Friday) at 10.00 pm at the Star cinema for the screening of VERSUS !!

You can reach me at the following address : champagne2000incannes@hotmail.com

A bientôt

Champagne 2000

(Note from Edgard... no negative comment on the English - or at least don't blame him but me, I translated that !)