Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Part 2 of the trip goes like this - part 1 is on the previous post.
We left Rome early Tuesday morning and made our way to the airport. Funny thing about that trip was the realization of how much I had walked around the city in such a short time. As the cab winded through the streets I was able to follow along pretty easily. One last thing about Rome, if Amsterdam is the city of bicycles, then Rome is the city of the scooter. It was an army of mopeds ready to attack at every stoplight and cross-walk. Speaking of cross-walks, if you want to cross the street, no matter how busy the
traffic, you just cross and you do so anywhere you want. I was walking near the Wedding Cake at 5:30pm or so and couldn't navigate the heavy traffic well enough to cross. It was so absurd that after a few minutes an old lady was asking me if I needed help crossing the street.
OK, for real, that about sums up Rome. Now at the airport waiting for Nice I realized something. I realized that this trip was just beginning and I still had many, many more days of travel. Now, let's say for example I was with Karoliina and we were on our vacation and had just spent 3 glorious days in Rome and were off to the beach for another 5 days; well, that would be about the best possible thing I could think of. Except, Karoliina was in Estonia and I wasn't with her.
Well we arrive in Nice and took the cab to Antibes, the city where we were staying, unloaded our stuff and went to the festival site in Cannes, about a 20 minute cab ride, or a 5 minute subway ride with a 10 minute walk in Antibes. We went to the registration booth and got our badges and then went back to Antibes. We had another guy join us on the trip, Jukka, and I was very happy that he was there because he is a nice guy, likes to have fun and has some local friends living in Nice. Quick geography: Nice, Antibes and Cannes are all very close to one another.
So that night, Tuesday, Jukka's friend Satu picked us up and took us to the old town in Nice, where we went to an Irish pub. I hadn't realized it until we arrived, but this was the first time in a very long time that I was in a pub where most of the people were speaking English. Plenty of Americans, Brits, you name it. It was a real fun time, but I did get my first dish of anti-Americanism and guess who it came from, other Americans. I suppose if you want to be well received in France as an American you must spend significant amounts of time bashing America - specifically Bush. So when I was introduced as being an American living in Finland, the latter part was completely ignored as soon as the first part was mentioned. It took a long time to get these people to warm up to me and by that time, I no longer cared about them at all. The person who also observed this behavior was a Brit named Tony who was in Nice to become a hypno-therapist and he and I had a few good laughs and maybe one too many beers (this will become a trend throughout the trip).
So the next morning back in Antibes we wake up early to get to the festival in order to take care of some things. Today is Wednesday and tonight are the opening ceremonies so the place is getting rather busy. As we sit down for breakfast and I try to wake up I realize that the person I am sitting with is talking way too loud and this will also become a trend during the trip. We spend the day walking around Cannes and it is lovely and the weather has cleared up and the sun is out and we are on the look out for some celeb's. Quick note: I saw two celebs the whole time, Dennis Quaid and Dan "The Dragon" Wilson - a karate B movie star and I saw "the Dragon" everywhere.
The next morning I went to go see a film or two and was thoroughly unimpressed with my selections. I just wonder how these films were chosen for this festival. I decided to go and see some of the more off-beat films rather than the mainstream ones because I will be able to see those films sometime in the future. Well, I guess I got my just desserts for this decision.
The routine for the rest of the days went like this: Drinks and lunch at the American pavilion which was on the beach. Drinks and snack somewhere on the Blvd. de Croisette, trying to see celebs other than "the Dragon" and then drinks and something to eat somewhere else. The Japanese tent had a sake tasting everyday from 4-6 and guess where I magically showed up everyday at 4? Domo Origato Tomihari. I would stroll through the market place and strike up a conversation or two, but since I was neither buying nor selling a film, I was pretty much ignored. If you have nothing to offer people realize it quickly and then leave you.
The routine for the nights followed suit as well. Satu would pick us up and take us to an old town somewhere (2nd night was Biot) where we would meet a very diverse and international crowd and have a lot of laughs and a lot of drinks. In Biot I had a great conversation with David - a Scotsman and Fred - a Frenchie. Where we discussed cooking, cleaning, hobbies, Iraq, France, America and Britain. It was nice to speak with open-minded people who were slow to stereotype and quick to listen. This conversation lasted well past my bedtime, but it was well worth it.
The next night (Friday) we met Satu and some of her friends for dinner in Cannes. Dinner took 3 hours and was awful, but because it took so long we met a friend of Satu's, Mahmad who knew all the "in" places and took us there. Now I had been out in the sun all day, I was wearing something very plain and I knew that I smelled. So where do we go? The hottest place in Cannes, where one beer is 16euros and everyone is dressed to impress, except me. But Mahmad, who Jukka will later refer to as Romano and I think it is appropriate, tells us that for a few dollars each we can reserve a bottle of vodka and a table in the VIP section and so we go for it.
There's a strange transformation that takes place when crossing the rope into the VIP section. All of a sudden my ho-hum beach wear becomes hip, something I meant to do. I change from completely unfashionable to very laid back and fashionable with one step. I realized something else, all these fabulous people were having an awfully boring time. No one was really doing anything except for sitting down and looking around. Well our little group was so excited to be there that we were going crazy and before you know it we have a large crowd of people around us. I think Romano was liking the attention so he goes out a splurges on a 350 euro bottle of Don Peringnon and we drank it so fast that I'm not sure he even got a glass. We stayed at Papagayo until very late and finally made our way back to Antibes.
The next, and last day I could hardly believe that I felt as well as I did, but I didn't want to push it and so I took it easy. We had the Scandinavian party to attend that night and a very early flight back to Finland so I wanted to pack and get everything ready for the morning. That party was a blast and I finally met the people that I was hoping to meet, the Finnish Film Foundation International people and we struck a quick friendship. When we return from our trip to the States we will get to see them all again at the Midnight Sun Film Festival. Once again we will have enough time to unpack, do laundry and then pack again, all within 4 days before we leave for Lapland.
OH, one more thing that happened at the Scandinavian party. I met some New York art-film makers and had an impromptu screening of one of their films, no sound because it was too loud, but this piece made me miss New York and all its craziness. I can't explain it, but when I told the people that I am putting together a Visual Culture festival they wanted to show me what they had, so they call the filmmaker and 20 minutes later I am in the lobby of the hotel sitting on the floor watching a laptop presentation.
Opens: woman painting her face yellow - cut to: 9/11 footage - cut to: woman yelling on the phone (I hear nothing) - cut to: escalator - cut to: woman painting face - cut to: cab ride in New York - cut to: old man talking to woman in yellow face. I think you can fill in the rest. I was thinking to myself something out of one Cindy Adams' gossip columns in the New York Post...Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
We left Rome early Tuesday morning and made our way to the airport. Funny thing about that trip was the realization of how much I had walked around the city in such a short time. As the cab winded through the streets I was able to follow along pretty easily. One last thing about Rome, if Amsterdam is the city of bicycles, then Rome is the city of the scooter. It was an army of mopeds ready to attack at every stoplight and cross-walk. Speaking of cross-walks, if you want to cross the street, no matter how busy the
traffic, you just cross and you do so anywhere you want. I was walking near the Wedding Cake at 5:30pm or so and couldn't navigate the heavy traffic well enough to cross. It was so absurd that after a few minutes an old lady was asking me if I needed help crossing the street.
OK, for real, that about sums up Rome. Now at the airport waiting for Nice I realized something. I realized that this trip was just beginning and I still had many, many more days of travel. Now, let's say for example I was with Karoliina and we were on our vacation and had just spent 3 glorious days in Rome and were off to the beach for another 5 days; well, that would be about the best possible thing I could think of. Except, Karoliina was in Estonia and I wasn't with her.
Well we arrive in Nice and took the cab to Antibes, the city where we were staying, unloaded our stuff and went to the festival site in Cannes, about a 20 minute cab ride, or a 5 minute subway ride with a 10 minute walk in Antibes. We went to the registration booth and got our badges and then went back to Antibes. We had another guy join us on the trip, Jukka, and I was very happy that he was there because he is a nice guy, likes to have fun and has some local friends living in Nice. Quick geography: Nice, Antibes and Cannes are all very close to one another.
So that night, Tuesday, Jukka's friend Satu picked us up and took us to the old town in Nice, where we went to an Irish pub. I hadn't realized it until we arrived, but this was the first time in a very long time that I was in a pub where most of the people were speaking English. Plenty of Americans, Brits, you name it. It was a real fun time, but I did get my first dish of anti-Americanism and guess who it came from, other Americans. I suppose if you want to be well received in France as an American you must spend significant amounts of time bashing America - specifically Bush. So when I was introduced as being an American living in Finland, the latter part was completely ignored as soon as the first part was mentioned. It took a long time to get these people to warm up to me and by that time, I no longer cared about them at all. The person who also observed this behavior was a Brit named Tony who was in Nice to become a hypno-therapist and he and I had a few good laughs and maybe one too many beers (this will become a trend throughout the trip).
So the next morning back in Antibes we wake up early to get to the festival in order to take care of some things. Today is Wednesday and tonight are the opening ceremonies so the place is getting rather busy. As we sit down for breakfast and I try to wake up I realize that the person I am sitting with is talking way too loud and this will also become a trend during the trip. We spend the day walking around Cannes and it is lovely and the weather has cleared up and the sun is out and we are on the look out for some celeb's. Quick note: I saw two celebs the whole time, Dennis Quaid and Dan "The Dragon" Wilson - a karate B movie star and I saw "the Dragon" everywhere.
The next morning I went to go see a film or two and was thoroughly unimpressed with my selections. I just wonder how these films were chosen for this festival. I decided to go and see some of the more off-beat films rather than the mainstream ones because I will be able to see those films sometime in the future. Well, I guess I got my just desserts for this decision.
The routine for the rest of the days went like this: Drinks and lunch at the American pavilion which was on the beach. Drinks and snack somewhere on the Blvd. de Croisette, trying to see celebs other than "the Dragon" and then drinks and something to eat somewhere else. The Japanese tent had a sake tasting everyday from 4-6 and guess where I magically showed up everyday at 4? Domo Origato Tomihari. I would stroll through the market place and strike up a conversation or two, but since I was neither buying nor selling a film, I was pretty much ignored. If you have nothing to offer people realize it quickly and then leave you.
The routine for the nights followed suit as well. Satu would pick us up and take us to an old town somewhere (2nd night was Biot) where we would meet a very diverse and international crowd and have a lot of laughs and a lot of drinks. In Biot I had a great conversation with David - a Scotsman and Fred - a Frenchie. Where we discussed cooking, cleaning, hobbies, Iraq, France, America and Britain. It was nice to speak with open-minded people who were slow to stereotype and quick to listen. This conversation lasted well past my bedtime, but it was well worth it.
The next night (Friday) we met Satu and some of her friends for dinner in Cannes. Dinner took 3 hours and was awful, but because it took so long we met a friend of Satu's, Mahmad who knew all the "in" places and took us there. Now I had been out in the sun all day, I was wearing something very plain and I knew that I smelled. So where do we go? The hottest place in Cannes, where one beer is 16euros and everyone is dressed to impress, except me. But Mahmad, who Jukka will later refer to as Romano and I think it is appropriate, tells us that for a few dollars each we can reserve a bottle of vodka and a table in the VIP section and so we go for it.
There's a strange transformation that takes place when crossing the rope into the VIP section. All of a sudden my ho-hum beach wear becomes hip, something I meant to do. I change from completely unfashionable to very laid back and fashionable with one step. I realized something else, all these fabulous people were having an awfully boring time. No one was really doing anything except for sitting down and looking around. Well our little group was so excited to be there that we were going crazy and before you know it we have a large crowd of people around us. I think Romano was liking the attention so he goes out a splurges on a 350 euro bottle of Don Peringnon and we drank it so fast that I'm not sure he even got a glass. We stayed at Papagayo until very late and finally made our way back to Antibes.
The next, and last day I could hardly believe that I felt as well as I did, but I didn't want to push it and so I took it easy. We had the Scandinavian party to attend that night and a very early flight back to Finland so I wanted to pack and get everything ready for the morning. That party was a blast and I finally met the people that I was hoping to meet, the Finnish Film Foundation International people and we struck a quick friendship. When we return from our trip to the States we will get to see them all again at the Midnight Sun Film Festival. Once again we will have enough time to unpack, do laundry and then pack again, all within 4 days before we leave for Lapland.
OH, one more thing that happened at the Scandinavian party. I met some New York art-film makers and had an impromptu screening of one of their films, no sound because it was too loud, but this piece made me miss New York and all its craziness. I can't explain it, but when I told the people that I am putting together a Visual Culture festival they wanted to show me what they had, so they call the filmmaker and 20 minutes later I am in the lobby of the hotel sitting on the floor watching a laptop presentation.
Opens: woman painting her face yellow - cut to: 9/11 footage - cut to: woman yelling on the phone (I hear nothing) - cut to: escalator - cut to: woman painting face - cut to: cab ride in New York - cut to: old man talking to woman in yellow face. I think you can fill in the rest. I was thinking to myself something out of one Cindy Adams' gossip columns in the New York Post...Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
// posted by Howard @ 1:39 PM 
