The 71st annual Cannes Film Festival is starting to wind down but this years festival seen lots of new changes, some good and some controversial.
There is now a rule in place where no selfies and no photos are allowed on the red carpet, only accredited photographers are allowed to take photos. This rule was no doubt put in place to prevent ‘red carpet traffic.’ One can only imagine the backup on the red carpet if people were allowed to take photos and would be stopping and starting to take that perfect photo after 20+ shots.
Also new this year is that the festival organisers have set up a dedicated phone number hotline to report abuse and acts of aggression. The pamphlet says the festival team will ‘be by your side to listen, assist and support.’ This has no doubt been put in place because of the ‘Me Too’ movement in light of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein – whose presence – along with films from The Weinstein Company – is surely not missed.
Besides all the controversy surrounding a few films this year, there are others that are just so wacky and silly you have to laugh. One of these films is ‘Diamantino’ (Portugal). It’s the story of a very very rich and famous footballer who misses a field goal in the World Cup and is outcast and relegated to being a joking meme (he’s pretty dumb himself) so he decides to make a difference and adopt a refugee. Unbeknownst to him his adopted young man is actually a lesbian agent who wants to find out, along with her fellow lover agent, if Diamantino has laundered money into offshore accounts. It gets wackier and wackier and wackier as Diamantino has visions of puppies on the field and starts to grow breasts to appease his evil and money hungry sisters to go to a new age doctor to make him feel better. Even wackier is that lead actor Carloto Cotta (excellent) is a dead ringer for Cristiano Renaldo.
I attended the red carpet premiere of ‘In My Room,’ a German film where one man suddenly wakes up and sees that everyone in town has disappeared though he, nor us, are sure what’s happened. And that’s the frustrating part of this film – we aren’t told what has happened – though at least dogs are around but they’re all severely injured and dead.
One more day to go for me for the festival. It all culminates with the Closing Ceremony where prizes are handed out and then one big massive party. Too bad I’ll miss it as I’ll be flying back to London that day.