Cannes Day Five - 12 May 2018

Today, a lot of us spent the majority of the early afternoon waiting in an immensely packed small space on the fifth floor of the Palais. There are few people I would be willing to wait for three hours in a room with no air conditioning, but Christopher Nolan is definitely one of them. When 4 PM finally hit, we were so ready to be inside. The minute the doors opened it was pure chaos. In Roger Ebert’s, Two Weeks in the Midday Sun: A Cannes Notebook, he describes the fact that the French do not understand the concept of a line. Instead, it becomes a time of pushing and shoving to get to the theatre. Nonetheless, I made it in! In the interview, the questions were asked in French and were not translated. So, it was interesting to hear his answers while also trying to figure out what the question was. Christopher Nolan spoke a lot about the technical side of making movies such as film restoration, analog versus digital, and the way in which you are always losing something when you digitize a film. He said the the analog medium is the best way to really portray what our own eyes see. I was happy to hear that he studied English in college because I recently added a double major with English and EMST. Truly, to have the opportunity to absorb the wisdom and experience of a person like Christopher Nolan is something that is so special. Once again, it was a moment where I needed to simply take in the magnitude of the moment.

After that, we had dinner at Steak & Shake -- in France -- and headed to the theatre to watch the film, Thunder Road, that is in the Acid category of the Cannes Film Festival. The same man wrote the film, directed the film, and starred in the film. I can confidently say that Thunder Road is one my favorite movies that I have ever seen. I laughed, I cried, and I truly felt empathy throughout the entire movie. It is inspiring, creative, and unique. When the movie ended, there was a Q&A with all of the actors. Being in that room with those people was very special. Today was very special.