Festival time @ Cannes

Like every ear, Mathilde managed to acquire a few tickets for the “la quinzaine des realisateurs” – one of three “main” festivals taking place during the Cannes film festival. Since we’d been rather busy the last couple of weeks, we hadn’t actually had time to go and see any films until the very last day of the festival. We also had a couple of spare tickets, so Henna and Aki joined us for the cinema action.

We headed into Cannes a bit before the screening, to take in a bit of “bling bling” action in Cannes. I didn’t have very high hopes for seeing any celebrities though – hadn’t seen one so far…

And this time seemed no different – we didn’t see anybody surrounded by paparazzi on our way to the cinema screening. We didn’t really know what film we were supposed to see actually, other than that it was supposed to be the winner of the “la quinzaine”. Turns out the film was a Swedish flick called “Play”. The flick tells the story of a bunch of nice, straight Swedish teenagers who get terrorized by some big, nasty immigrant teenagers who nick their mobile phones and generally make their life hell. Not sure what the message of the film was, to be honest (on the one hand, it’s got a pretty authentic feel, but on the other hand it sort of does reinforce some cultural stereotypes…), but I suppose it could be characterized as “interesting” at least. But not one of the best films I’ve seen at Cannes (and that’s even though the films at the “quinzaine” are a little bit hit-and-miss).

After the movie, the plan was to head down to our favorite Cannes restaurant, Le Bistrot Gourmand” for dinner. On the way there, we actually an authentic celebrity on the Croisette - one of the Bogdanoff twins (hmm, either Igor or Grichka). The Bogdanoff brothers were famous TV-stars in France during the 80’s, but unfortunately engaged in a bit too much plastic surgery during the 90’s. The end result can be seen today… Scary stuff!

The Bistrot Gourmand was actually a little bit disappointing. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s still a cozy restaurant with a pretty original menu. But somehow, the quality of their food doesn’t reach the level of their aspirations. And at 29 Euros for a 3-course menu, it’s not that good value for money either. But anyway, I don’t want to sound too negative – at the end of the day we ate well and had a very nice time, that’s the main thing. I just have a recollection of the food having been better on our previous visits.

We finished our stay in Cannes with a bit more celebrity watching (didn’t see anybody famous though), before catching out train back home. Good night out, altogether!