Vicky Christina Barcelona Press Conference

Even more insane than the Jury Press Conference, this press conference was the busiest that I've attended at Cannes. Journalists were sitting on the floor, someone's tripod myseriously snapped because it was jammed to close to the others (and was probably taking up space that someone else wanted), and the security guard tried to get me to leave because the conference was for white and pink passes only. I just moved, and he didn't seem to notice. The security here is completely lax. I'm beginning to understand how people illegaly upload films to the internet the second they've premiered; you could definitely smuggle a camera into a screening without any trouble. They only glance into people's bags and sort of wave those metal-detector batons over you like they're performing a blessing, and they let you go even if they do go off. Anyhow,

I got some pretty good pictures of the chaos that I will post once I have them developed. I think Henri (MC extraordinaire) looks quite cherubic in the second one.





I wanted to ask Mr. Allen about whether he ever felt constrained by the expectations people had for his films, but didn't have a chance. Instead, people asked him about his feelings on Central Asia and what it was like to shoot in Barcelona. I really don't understand how some journalists work for the papers they work for, because some of their questions are just so stupid. A few of them visibly pissed off Penelope Cruz, particularly the one about whether she enjoyed the lesbian kiss, which she declined to answer. It's so cool to be in the same room as the film critics that I love to follow, though! I always want to ask them about their reviews, but the room empties out so quickly after conferences that I never manage to.

Grr

Seeing Woody Allen was interesting. You could tell that his persona isn't something he puts on; he was a genuinely fidgety, slightly neurotic senior who is hard of hearing, and loves making people laugh. Even when he was joking around, you could tell that he really cared about this film, and tried hard to make it different from his other work.

Vicky Christina Barcelona follows two young women as they travel to Barcelona for the summer, where their lives "disintegrate" with "a few laughs along the way", as Allen described it. It stars Brit Rebecca Hall as Vicky, Scarlett Johansson as Christina, and Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as the ex-couple that they disrupt. Rebecca Hall, who is not as well known in the States, said she was surprised that she got the part without having to demonstrate her American accent. The fact that she was cast before they knew if she was capable of playing an American worries me. I will have to find out how that worked when I try and see the film again tomorrow (that's try again, not see again - last night, due to my yellow pass, I was turned away from the theatre). At least I got to the conference, though! Some of those dumb questions yeilded hilarious answers:

Woody Allen on threesomes (thank you, Maclean's): “It’s hard enough to get one person.”

Allen on Russia: “I was there for about two hours… before calling and asking when the next flight was out of there… I’m a very fearful traveler, and it would take me a lot to get back to Russia.”

Allen on the flm's darkness: “I wanted the tragic part to sneak up on you… At the end of the movie I wanted there to be a feeling of rueful sadness… No one ends up happy." Rebecca’s character ends up “regretting that she never took a more courageous and adventurous route… Scarlett [who plays Christina] has no idea what she wants, and she never will… and Maria Elena [Penelope Cruz] is too full of feeling.”

On his next project: “I have two more weeks of shooting in NY; it’s a comedy for laughs… it’s a picture about a group of highly neurotic characters [laughter from the press] that interact in ways that I hope you think is funny.”

I still can't believe that I saw him in person! The first few minutes of Manhattan is one of my favourite sequences in cinema.