CANNES HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!

OK, so last night we went to our local film festival which was great. Dad and I had VIP invites, because we'd entered the screenwriting contest and they were going to announce the winners.

There were 3 short films on (although one of them did seem very long indeed). When I looked at the list my eye was instantly drawn to the third - "a doctor's nightmarish first night shift at a mental hospital", partly because it seemed far more my sort of thing and then, 30 seconds later, because I remembered that hospitals, particularly mental hospitals, really freak me out. Anyway, somehow I plucked up the courage to sit through all three - though that might have been something to do with being right in the middle of a row.

Why Dragons Are Extinct was a short, sweet CGI animation with a cracking punchline. The very vocal audience laughed, and then went awwww. We were a bit close to the screen, unfortunately, so the quality seemed off.

To be honest with you, I was biased against Hannah from the start. It was described as "the heart warming tale of the growing bond between grandmother and granddaughter", but I was willing to give it a go. Unfortunately not. Syrupy strings, sunny skies, dolls and paper flowers. Oh dear dear dear...it reminded me of Werther's original adverts, though dad said it made him wonder when they'd start promiting stairlifts. Now I don't mind predictable endings as long as the journey is intriguing - but no, the topic is handled totally without subtlty or inventiveness. They even used slo-mo, despicable! More than anything else it made me think about my friend Hannah (all my friends are on holiday right now, I'm lonely and I miss them etc) who would have absolutely DESPISED it...

...but loved Room 69, just as I did. That's the madhouse one (French title: Patiente 69, keep an eye out it's good! I tried to find an online version for you, but no luck...). The music instantly set the tone as quirky, not creepy and it was filled with quietly amusing moments - it was a bit Brazil in a way. Yet somehow it did manage to keep you on edge. I thought it was great, I want to see it again!!!!!!!!!!


And now for the awards ceremony. We had to write a short pitch for a film set in Guernsey, either including script extracts or storyboardness. My dad's an author, a very good and alas unheard of one so we adapted one of his short stories. Believe me, it would have been great - a wonderful, claustrophobic piece about occupied islanders who take a German officer prisoner. I worked on the storyboard - I had a few cracking ideas for mini dream sequences etc. Anyway, four prizes were awarded and we got Highly Commended.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I now have a certificate on my wall, with a little director's chair with my name on it in front of the sea. It's triple excellent. As I said, Cannes here we come. The only galling thing was that the winning two get turned into real films. And one of the winners was our drama teacher from school. But oh well.

And after that there was Indian food on the park lawn, and then we watched The Main Film.

I don't know where to start on reviewing or rating Monsoon Wedding. Culture clash! It was just so vibrant, so fast paced, and somehow managed to make a pretty skimpy plot into a great deal. The soundtrack was really loud compared to the speech (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). My one criticism would be the dialogue - our cast flicked between Indian and English, but they spoke so fast it was impossible to get through the accents. Though I got used to it pretty quick. Best bits were the lovelyness between Dubey and Alice...