no matter what they say

So yesterday was the epitome of a day at Cannes. I woke up bright and early to catch the 8:30 press screening of Where The Truth Lies, a movie with Alison Lohman and Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth. I went with James, my partner in crime. [side note: James and I went to middle school together, and then caught up via AIM when we both discovered we were doing the film thing in college, where I told him about Cannes, and now we're both here together and are shift partners at the restaurant. It's awesome.] It was our first trip up the red carpet to the Lumiere, which is always beautiful and amazing, regardless of whether or not it's an important screening.

Then later that morning, I was sitting in the American Pavilion talking about how I wanted to see Last Days, Gus Van Sant's competition film, when the guy beside me says, "Oh I have a ticket, you can have it" and hands me a ticket to the 10PM screening that night. I gratefully accepted, but it wasn't until later that I realized he had just given me a ticket to the gala screening of the event, which means that it's the one that the judges and movie stars and paparazzi and everyone who's anyone gives an arm and a leg to attend.

So I worked my shift with a little bounce in my step (courtesy of my new sneakers, which I purchased over my break to aid my aching feet) and then rushed home later that night to put on my formal gown and make myself pretty. It turned out that my roommate and friend Paul also had gotten tickets, so we took a cab down together and walked the red carpet.

The experience as a whole could best be described as anticlimactic -- there were thousands of people lined up to watch us, hundreds of photographers snapping our photos, the lights and music and shimmer of the red carpet all glamorous and magnificent and whatnot, but you know, the whole thing lasted about 30 seconds. And then we were just kids in a movie theatre, a balcony away from Gus Van Sant and Michael Pitt, watching the most boring movie I'd ever seen in my life. (say what you will, Van Sant is a genius and the movie was a masterpiece, but you have to admit it's boring as hell) Let me tell you, the entire struggle was trying to stay awake.

In any case, I've been there and done that. Checked it off my list. I even have a picture to prove it. Voila.