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drinks Monday 3 November 08
Tom in Cannes
Cannes Film Festival May 2005. Tom Wontner is an actor 'in competition'. But will it get him into parties. And what about big sister Charlotte?
Ben Crowe’s short film The Man Who Met Himself is selected 10 days before the start of Cannes 2005. I’ve voiced the character Michael in it (writes Tom Wontner). We are suddenly ‘in competition’. The film gets lots of press, partly because of the relative inexperience of the crew; and partly the very low budget - the price of Ben’s beloved and now-lamented mandolin (but that’s another story).
I started acting full-time after Andrew Higgs’s Alchemy course in 2003. Now or never, a moment of clarity - ‘I’ve always wanted to act, so now I’m bloody-well going to.’ Since then, I’ve done lots of short and independent films. Quite a few have been Shooting-People-type deferred-payment jobs, alongside corporate, voice and presenting work. It’s definitely not been a lucrative change of career.
But it’s been very rewarding. Particularly – on a rainy London Saturday – finding out that one of those short films is the only British film in competition at Cannes. When we arrive, there are only two British actors in competition at the whole Festival. One is Daniel Crowe (Ben’s brother, and the lead in our film). The other is me.
The French are hyper-bureaucratic, for all their love of liberty. It’s always been hard to get into parties and screenings when I’ve been to Cannes before. This time, being in competition evidently means all the right boxes have finally been ticked. There is a courteous Oui Monsieur - instead of the usual unexplained and staccato Non!
A solitary z amongst a flurry of other letters on my accreditation badge works the magic. (Accreditation is absolutely essential to do anything in Cannes – even to get into a hotel) Z apparently means Comédien en competition. Now I am a comédien (French for actor, it turns out), I get into official screenings and parties. Fame!
Daniel and I manage to get tickets for the black-tie première of the hottest event - Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith. Empire Stormtroopers watch the great and gorgeous ascend the steps of the famous Cannes red carpet. I feel immediate and huge guilt about my older sister.
Charlotte loves Star Wars. She’s been a fan since 9. She painted a vast mural of Han Solo on her bedroom wall at 11. Now her career is film, and she goes regularly to Cannes. Does she get a ticket to the Star Wars première? No she doesn’t. Ha!
Terrible thing, sibling rivalry. I sit in the second row of the Lumiere. My name is written on the back of the chair. Billy Zane is four seats along, Natalie Imbruglia a bit to the left. Good old George (Lucas) is five seats behind. With Natalie Portman and the crowd. Guilt vanishes.
It seems strange to be here simply because I was asked to do a freebie on a Saturday morning 18 months ago. I guess the point is that I did do it. And that it turned out that Ben Crowe had an unusual cinemagraphic eye, which the Cannes judges liked a lot. I used to get comments like - why bother doing short films? At last, an answer.
For an actor, there is no immediate payback to Cannes. People don’t cast for films here (except US horror specialists Troma – and I definitely don’t have the breasts). It’s more about making friends and acquaintances informally; developing trust and recognition with people. And there are so many interesting people to meet.
You meet them at parties, pavilions, seminars, talks – or in the street. And all at once, in a kilometre of sunny coastline, with time to kill. Everyone’s in a good mood and feeling jolly - because of the free champagne, courtesy of a film company they probably didn’t know before 10am this morning. Conversations and meetings flow in a pleasantly random way. You don’t know who you’ll end up having drinks, lunch or dinner with, or where.
I stay in Cannes 8 nights, and never get to bed before 4am – it’s the same with everyone. There are parties from 7pm, and the number of invites you get depends only on the number of people you meet with spare tickets. If none, you can turn up at the beach pavilions and act like it’s the last party in the world you want to go to. Sometimes it works on the bouncer. If not, you move on.
The Petite Majestic Bar behind the Grand Hotel is legend – there’s always a big crowd on the street outside from midnight. A fairly drunken - but friendly - lot of Brits gather to debrief the day. It’s easy to talk to pretty-much anyone. It doesn’t happen like that during the London Film Festival – or anywhere else. It’s unique to Cannes.
There are the groups, crowds, cliques. There are posh and cheap hotels, and VW campers in dodgy car-parks. I stay in a university on a 2-week course with half-board (cheaper than any of the hotels). There is serial truancy, but the tutors like the comédien en competition aspect, and aren’t bothered.
There isn’t the London fixation with diaries and being booked up 4 weeks ahead. It’s exhilarating, intoxicating. You can let chance lead you, and drift contentedly. It’s like being in Glastonbury (but without the mud). This year being in competition is a bonus – a very nice bonus – but the best thing is being here.
END
(c) Tom Wontner 2005
May 05 / Cannes / publication date 19 July 05
www.wontner.com
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2005
reviews@fringereport.com
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