My German teacher wore glowing bras

Little did I know at the time until I came across that video below!!

All of my German teachers throughout my education have been strict and scary, in one way or another, but none were as fierce and feared as Ms Jacob in college.

She looked like a stewardess, was always so smart and perfectly coiffed and put the fear of god in all of us. She had really high standards for herself and for us, and used to get in such fits of rage, she would just run of out breath and turns red while we all ran for cover. She was not a bad person, she was just plain scary. I used to call her Ilse, she-wolf of the SS.

Imagine my surprise when I found out she had reconverted as the lead singer for indie band Powder. I am not kidding the singer is a dead ringer for my teacher, it's just spooky. Not only is that video fantastic, but I can't watch it without thinking of my German teacher wearing a glowing bra, and gyrotating in her kick ass blue latex outfit and matching wig. Would have made German grammar so much more interesting if she had!

Gay Jesus

I'm going to hell for this...

But this is hilarious...



Very appropriate to put this on, while I am watching Keith Allen battling it up with the scariest religious extremists ever in Topeka in the US. They are called God hate fags or something and it's not looking good for our salvation (pretty much all of us are going to hell for some reason except for them) Even Lilly Allen and Hugh Grant are guilty apparently (possibly because Hugh Grant looks like a butch lesbian on their homemade banner)

Why are they obssesed by the gays? Why all the hate, this is beyond belief. They go to the funerals of Irak casualties in their hometowns to harass their grieving families, simply because the US army allows the gays in its ranks so they are all doomed. They seem to know an awful lot of buggery in graphic details though?! All done in the name of research I suspect.

The Boogey monster, in stop motion!!

My boy friend Terry has been at it again, he's made a new stop motion short film, using figurines he made himself, going as far as sewing the clothes himself and building this small bed/monster himself too!

He's getting better and better, it's not quite Nightmare before Christmas or the Aardman studios yet, it still needs a little more polishing, and we need to find a way of keeping the camera perfectly steady (ie buy a tripod) but he's on his way there.

I think he's very talented considering that he is working on a zero budget, but that's for you to decide I guess:

So I turned 32 last week...

So I turned 32...

It really frightens me how time seems to go quicker and quicker as you grow older, years seemed to last forever when I was 20.

Not that I think I haven't done much because looking back, all the things I did, finding the courage to come to London and stick to it when things were getting tough, all my travelling, all the people I have met, all the experiences...

But one thing I am really struggling with at the moment is the lack of time, when I think about how long I spend at work and then in the transports. I might not have much responsabilities in terms of families and stuff but I still feel I lack free time, compared to my cherished years at university (especially in London when I had 9 hours of class!).

There is still so much I want to do, so many books to read, films to see, I want to learn new languages (Japanese and Spanish would be so cool), I still want to carry on travelling (I'd love to do a proper big trip somewhere and take a break).

Maybe I'm just spoilt and should consider myself lucky to have a job with a decent salary, but I can't understand how so many people just satisfy themselves of a life spent working, drinking at the pub and not much else apart from reality tv (nothing wrong with it, I am no snob, but there is more to life than this) or maybe I should just completely rethink my life.

I love the way France is the only country left in the world putting some much focus on culture, one of my fellow expats was moaning how unemployed people in France get to go to the cinema for cheaper, so what? There is more to life than money and working, you just need to look at how 10 years of prosperity in Britain have led to so much greed, competition, inequalities, and have damaged society.

A few of my friends took the plunge and did some Round the world trips for 6 months, and then what? Back to your old routine?

As I remembered my birthdays in the past, 2 of them really stick out, my 21st birthday while still at uni in France, which was a themed party (The love boat), I had asked everybody to dress up like 70's tv series characters and they all played along...

And then my 30th birthday in 2005, which I had to postpone to 9th July since I was away before that, and which unfortunately fell 2 days after the London bombings, which meant half of the tube network was still not working. Yet everybody manage to make it somehow, people from various backgrounds mixed up so well and the was one of the best nights ever...

Lunacy

I saw a totally bonkers Czech film at the NFT last night called Lunacy. I've always been attracted to Eastern Europe culture for some reason (and I am not just talking Belami). I like the gothic aspect of their culture, the romanticism, the melancholy, the communist esthetics...

This latest provocation from surrealist master Jan Svankmajer is loosely based on two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and inspired by the works of the Marquis de Sade. It's set in 19th century France (or 21th century Czech republic, I wasn't sure) and it's about a troubled young man who, upon his return from his mum's funeral meets le Marquis (de Sade? possibly) who claims to be able to cure him from his fear of madness by taking him to a lunatic asylum he helps running with some rather unusual methods.




It kind of dragged a little, there were some inventive scenes but it went downhill after the intriguing opening. I am not sure why but it is a given that any Eastern European film must include a scene with some fat hairy old men screaming and possibly bonking some nubile young woman and this did not disappoint on that respect, as much as I hate watching fat hairy old men scream.

Every single live action scene was followed by a short stop motion clip where severed tongues and eyes crawled all over the set, the kind of grotesque trademark of Svankmajer which has put me off watching his more adventures previous offerings in the past but it actually worked quite well in here.

There is a metaphor somewhere about totalitarism against absolute freedom which reminded me what my philosophy teacher at college was telling me about democracy and how we are all too stupid and irresponsible to deserve it but it was still fairly enjoyable even without giving this theory too much thought, I was hoping for a bit more gothic horror but at least I came out thinking the Czech language is very pretty.

Shame my boy friend could not be with me, because of his work, the style of his own stop motion project is so similar to that film.

The trailer does not do it any justice but you get the idea

Mugleroid

The above is a picture of Thierry Mugler 10 years ago. He is a French fashion designer that was renowned for his racy and OTT creations in the 90's, which were famously used on a George Michael's video and sported by the most famous supermodels of the time, including the iconic dress/motorbike dashboard metal combo.

I had not heard of Thierry Mugler for years until I stumbled upon this picture and gasped...



Yes, it is him, and he looks like a retired 80's Falcon gay porn-star still clinging to his former steroid glory or a bionically engineered German wrestler gone wrong. By the way, he's called Manfred now.

I'd love to be at the dinner party with him, New York transexual Amanda Lepore & socialite and catwoman impersonator Jocelyn Wildenstein, a few people who clearly think the natural look is not for them.

Lisa Simpson and the London Olympics

Yes I am jumping on the bandwagon, but it's hideous!

It looks like some 80's kiddie stickers, don't get me wrong I love the 80's ironic revival thing going on at the moment, in fact I just love the 80's period! And it's not a bad idea to do something a little different.

But this logo just doesn't cut it (actually it might, it's got some sharp edges), it takes some time to work out what it is actually suppose to stand for, the london caption with no capital looks like some hasty addition like somebody remembered at the last minute that it had to mention London.

The website is even worse, the whole design makes it look like some bad 80's kiddie programme on acid.

In fact, it's even dangerous, about 16 people suffered epilectic fits while watching the short video that comes along with the lego, which looks like something straight out an 80's Japanese bad animation.

Sign the petion to get it scrapped, 49000 people have signed it so far, in 2 days!

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/sign.php?petid=12539

The worse thing is somebody said the logo looks like Lisa Simpson committing a lewd act on somebody and now I can't think of anything else when I look at it. Given that I live right next to the future site of the Games, I am going have nightmare visions a bit like the one below for the next 5 years. Great.

And the (gay) best kiss award goes to...

After Brokeback Mountain last year, another gay kiss made it to the MTV movie award for best kiss of the year, this time for the kiss between Will Ferrel & Sacha Baron Cohen in Talladega nights.

Obviously the on screen chemistry was not fake, they just could not wait to make out on stage so here it is for your viewing pleasure...



And the real thing...



Sacha Baron Cohen's performance on Talladega nights was somehow eclipsed by Borat, but I reckon he created one of the funniest and best gay character ever seen on a mainstream film.

His character, Jean Girard, a French gay race driver, was larger than life and a bit ridiculous (he was seen reading Sartre and drinking an expresso at the wheel of his car during a race!), but then again, so were all the characters in the story, he was not the sole butt of the joke (and pardon the pun!)), he was also very likeable despite being the villain, and was presented as a real person, we even got to meet his husband!

Incidently, he was no sissy either as he kicked Will Ferrell's ass, before the final kiss of reconciliation, that was the sweetest thing I have seen in a while! We shouldn't underestimate the kind of influence this character might have had on an unsuspecting mainstream audience

Bionicle pig, the movie!

My boy friend Terry has got me very excited about stop motion.

For those of you who don't know, stop motion is a technique that involves taking stills after stills of a creature, moving it ever so slightly in between each still, and then playing all those stills one after another to give the illusion of movement.

Before meeting Terry, all I knew about stop motion was old Ray Harryausen movies such as Clash of the titans, which had their charm but looked a bit naff. Before CGI, this was the only ay to create any sort of monster! I found this very good compilation of his best moments:



A few more recent examples were the Wallace & Gromit movies and The nightmare before Christmas, and the painfully perfect technique, where it looks like it took a few weeks just to get an arm to move.

However there has been a surged of interest in this technique, due to the modern viewers getting tired of CGI and the relative ease to create your own stop motion short, indeed, there has loads of them in Youtube, my favourite being this beauty, an amateur masterpiece if you ask me

:

Terry, ever so creative, has spent a lot of time creating pasliticine figurines and experimenting with this technique recently. I think he's got a lot of talent. Here are his first attempts, they are very rough around the edge as he needs to get a tripod and polish them but I find them very promising, I am going to help him make some proper ones. Beware reader, the second one is very gory!

Queer & Loathing

I was shocked and saddened by a story I read about on the news recently.

A group of gay rights activists got violently assaulted by neo nazis groups last week while marching in the streets of Moscow to protest against a ban on a gay pride march. The police did nothing at first, then decided to beat up the victims and arrest them. The victims also included some Euro MPs and Peter Thatchel, an unstoppable British gay right activists.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, I have read loads about it since and realised than homophobia is rife throughout the whole of Eastern Europe, anti discriminatary laws are non existents or not respected, homophobic attacks are frequent, the general opinion is totally anti gay, due to a mixture of strong religious beliefs and a strong popular support for family values groups, with Poland being the worse offender. The Polish president is the former mayor of Warsaw and had banned the gay pride at the time, a decision that was overturned by the UE, yet he is now planning to appeal.

I have always been fascinated by Eastern Europe, I love the culture, the architecture in general, the communist legacy... This put me right off going as I was planning on.

This cannot stand! I cannot believe that this is happening in Europe. We mustn't be complacent with this sort of behavior. A recent survey showed that more than 78% of the British public would not mind having a gay child, and more than 80% said more should be done to protect gay rights, we are so lucky to live in a tolerant country, I can't believe some of our close neighbours still have to put up with such horrific intolerance. We must stop the generalised promotion of hate.

Act now! Contact Amnesty International's Russian local office, contact the European parliament, get in touch with Stonewall, a British gay right organisation. I beleive it is especially important that the European parliament puts pressure on Poland to clean up its act, it cannot just enjoy from the economic benefits of joining the UE without having some responsabilities as well, such as the respect of basic human rights.

I wish I knew how to start an online petition, in the meantime, click on those links and make your voice heard!

https://www.secure.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/public/citizensMail/secured/cmRequest.do?language=EN

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/

http://web.amnesty.org/contacts/contact_us/eng-rus

Palm(ares)

What a fantastic result this year, and with such a prestigious jury I was expecting no less.

This might be one of the less commercial orientated result for a while, but with some bold choices from real cinema lovers, awarding prizes to young and rather unknown directors, that's what the festival should be all about!

Sure some critics moaned that the Coen brothers did not get anything this year, but do they really need a second palme d'or, they won one in 1990 at a time when it was more important for their career!

The Romanian film who got the top prize looks fantastic and could well be the new "The life of others".

I am particularly pleased for Naomi Kawase, the ever so charming Japanese director who got a runner up prize, for a film that got showed last in the festival and did not receive much press attention. And the Korean actress who got best actress is absolutely fantastic I'm told!




I really hope that all of these films will have some kind of impact on cinema audience around the world, sadly, for most people, the only memory of the festival will be the Brangelina circus, but I guess that's the great thing about Cannes, it is not just about obscure Eastern European arthouse film, it welcomes all sorts of films.

Right, next year, I'm definitely going!! (with a press accreditation, the proud writer/director of a short movie... who knows!)

I like that picture of that old mommy Jane Fonda, power coiffed to perfection, who seems to be pinching the cheek of Palme winner Crisitan Mungiu like a naugthy schoolchild.

Cannes: countdown to the Palme!

The members of the jury are locked up in a villa above the hills of Cannesc as we speak, deciding on the prizes to award.

I love the idea thaty only 8 people get to decide on the prizes, it leaves the competition more open than the Oscars where thousands of academy members vote.

And with such a distinguished jury, I am hoping for great things.

While the prizes in most of the 90's have generally been given to up and rising, young and bold directors (Sex, lies and videotapes by a 26y old Steven Soderbergh in 89, Wild at Heart to David Kynch in 1990, Pulp fiction in 94 etc...), most of the awards in the last few years have been given to a lacklustre and largely forgotten since bunch of movies.

Who remembers the 1990's winner, Rosetta, the year of All about my mother? How about that snoozefest by Theo Angelopoulos in 98, my last year in Cannes, The eternity and a day (which is about how long it seemed to last)

This year's contender are the Coen's brother latest outing, No country for old men, hailed as a return to form, and a Romanian movie, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, which was called a revelation. Paranoid Park by Gus Van Sant has its chances too.

There could be a few surprises as well, that Persepolis I have writtent about a few times, The mourning forest by the ever so charming Japanese director Naomi Kawase and a Korean film called Secret Sunshine.

I like that the competition is open this year, as much as I like Gus Van Sant & the Coen's brother, I am one to think that the award is best given to a newcomer but we shall see in 2 hours!!

(Shame no one in Britain is even remotely interested, as such the ceremony is not broadcasted on any channels here...)

Persepolis, a surprise win?

I am pressed with time today, however I am pleased to report that Persepolis, that French animation about the Islamic revolution in Iran in the 70's, has had a 20mn standing ovation at its Cannes presentation, the director Marjane Satrapi was in tears.

I talked about it a few days ago so scroll down for that and the trailer, I was predicting at the time that due to its original style and topical subject, the film could be a sleeper hit... We'll just have to wait for Sunday! The new "Triplettes de Belleville", with added political satire?

Obviously this film has attracted the anger of Iran, who has been playing political ping pong with the French governement, accusing him of interfering with the festival to ensure the film was being screened... The Festival is well above any kind of political pressure (or I'd like to think so...)

Cannes last year, gone tomorrow (3)

Following on my previous entry, it is somehow disheartening to think about the fate of the films presented here, even those of the official selection under a (supposedly) intense media scrutiny.

Look at Les chansons d'amour by Christophe Honore, a hip young French director I am told. It might have been presented on the official selection last week, and for a day was the most important film in the world, but who is actually going to see it? It's a musical, it looks ace and got some brilliant reviews (and a few others not so glowing reviews) Where is it actually going to end up being screened?

The trailer is fab



In London, which is not exactly a cultural desert, we only got his previous film released this week, in a couple of arthouses cinema, and a year after its presentation at the Director's fortnight at Cannes 2006!

It's called "Dans Paris" I am supposed to see it on Friday night at one of those tiny arthouse cinema with my lesbian best friend, it's not quite going to be the thrill of seeing it in Cannes, but what can you do...

The trailer looks good though. The realisateur is supposed to be Eric Rohmer meets David Lynch, he did a film a while ago called "Cecile Cassard 17 times", call me a perv but at first I thought it was something naughty.

Cannes yesterday Gone tomorrow (part 2)

Cannes might be the the second most covered media event in the world after the Olympics, I sometimes wonder what most journalists in here actually cover.

Certainly not the films that barely get a mention on the English press, apart from a few lonely pages on the Guardian.

You'd be lucky to get a mention on TV as well, even the BBC. The only thing that got a few more mentions on the British press here was the Brangelina circus (sorry I hate this word too actually). Speaking of which, look at Brad Pitt on this picture, he spookily looks more and more like Louis he played in Interview with the vampire (Deep blue eyes stare and immortal looking but still hot).

Anyway that was a few days ago and the press has already moved on, nothing in here seem to last more than a day no matter how important.

Ocean 13 and the wonky tooth

A persistant rumour claims that Celine Dion is playing herself in Ocean 13, which is getting its world premiere in Cannes...

When I saw Ocean 11 I got so bored I stopped the dvd halfway through...

When I saw Ocean 12, I got so bored, even though I watched it on a plane, I felt like walking out

Now Ocean 13 with Celine Dion.... As if I needed any more reasons not to see it.

The beauty, the glamour, the wonky tooth sticking out of her mouth when she was younger (watch the old footage of her below)... we need more of that glamour on the red carpet in Cannes...

:-) is in Cannes!

Smiley Face is at the Director's Fortnight!!

The director of this:



+ this actress



= Smiley Face!

Greg Araki's new film is a comedy called Smiley face. It's about an aspiring actress (Anna Faris) who unwittingly eats her flatmate's space cakes, gets really stoned and ends up in all sort of misadventures! Sure if you want emotional depth, watch Kim Ki Duk new film instead. But Greg Arakis + Anna Faris! Like Gena Rowlands & John Cassavetes and Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, some directors and actresses are just made for each other!

Cannes today, gone tomorrow (Who's Hou?)

A few days in and we can already say this is one of the most exciting edition for a long time, the frustration of not being there is growing!

There have been a couple of disappointments, from 2 Chinese directors making a film in a foreign language (Won Kar Wai with My blueberry nights in English and Hou Hsio Hsien with The red balloon in French with Juliette Binoche) and who seem to have lost their touch in the process.

Funny how, for a day, My blueberry nights, being the film opening the festival, was the most important and talked about film in the world. A few months from now, it might do well at the French box office, get a limited release in London and New York and then vanish in the history of cinema as a minor part in the career of a great filmmaker.

But apart from that, some strong contenders for an award have already emerged.

No country for old men is showing the Coen's brothers back to form after the godawful Intolerable cruelty and the average Ladykillers, a dark film in the vein of Blood simple.

And coming out of nowhere, a Romanian film called 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days describing the trials of a young woman and her quest for a clandestine abortion during the Ceaucescu reign took the festival by storm. It social realism is likely to have tickled the fancy of the president of the jury Stephen Frears.

I love the way, without Cannes, this film would simply not have existed in the eyes of the media and got released in a handful of arthouse cinemas and largely ignored. Instead, it got into the spotlight for a day, caught the eye of critics along with film buyers even before picking up a prize. Its young actress has already been snatched up by Francis Ford Coppola for its long awaited new film.

So much more to come in the next days, the hip Asia Argento is in no less than 3 different films, by such varied directors as Oliver Assayas, Abel Ferrara and Catherine Breillat. The later is back with a period drama which is preceded by a great buzz, proving what a great director she can be, freed from pretentious sex scenes and without the need for an actor hung like a donkey.

Here is Asia looking very glam on the red carpet



I am personally getting very excited about a French animation film called Persepolis about the rise of Islamic extremism in Iran in the 70's, with the voices of Catherine Deneuve and her daughter Chiara Mastroiani. The film looks fantastic and with such a topical subject, I am expecting great things! Here is a short teaser

CocoRosie, pimps and queens and criminal queers

Completely unrelated to Cannes and cinema but I've been listening to that song a lot recently, Noah's Ark by CocoRosie.

It is from one of the favourite bands of my boy friend Terry, who got me into their music, when I knew nothing about them.

I always think about him when I listen to their songs, they are so melancholic and it reminds me of his creative and sensitive side. The 2 female singers don't exactly have the strongest voice to say the least, but theirs is a very unique one.

He prefers Beautiful boyz whereas my fav is Noah's ark so I've put both videos on.

The Noah's ark video is interesting, not very polished but unusual, I like the gender bending moustache twist on such a pretty girl too. The Beautiful boyz video is shit so only listen to the song on that one!

Noah's ark:



Beautiful boyz

Cannes: "The Brits are (not) coming!"

Another year and another chance for British journalists to moan about the lack of British films presented in Cannes and being denied awards.

Blame the French, according to them, who year after year share the big prizes between them and the Americans.

What a lot of rubbish and how disappointing to see even the Guardian jumps on the bandwagon, getting all their facts wrong in the process.

For the record, Britain has won the Palme d'or twice recently, in 1996 and 2006, and their actors routinely pick up awards more often than any other nationalities. In comparison, France last win was in 1984 and the one before that more than 40 years ago.

Belgium won twice in the recent years, and that was good enough for even serious British papers to claim those as a French victory?!?!

Also the result is decided by an international jury of about 10 members, with no external influence. In 1999, a Belgium film, Rosetta, won the top prize, and there was accusation in the British press of the French taking over, when in fact, it was later said that this was the result of the pressure of the then members of the jury David Cronenberg, Holly Hunter and Jeff Goldblum. (What a stupid choice by the way, the year of All about my mother and Mulholland drive!).

In fact, while the French have always been supportive of British cinema, its biggest enemy is the British public itself, which is simply not interested in it in the slightest (unless it's set in the magic world of Richard Curtis' Land, and features Hugh Grant as a loveable toff) (Can I just say "Love, actually" made me want to projectile vomit, it had to be said).

Secrets and lies won the Plame d'or in 96 and was a huge success in France, yet no one bothered going to see it in Britain, same fate for last year's win, The wind that shakes the barley. And what about Red road from the young and promising British director Andrea Arnold (also the recipient of an oscar for a previous short movie). It got a prize in Cannes last year and might have been a darling of the British critics, yet it did not make a penny in here!

So heaven forbid should France win this year (even though the president of the jury is British!), there will be the usual accusation of a rigged competition in the British press (mind you they thought the British entry should have won this year's Eurovision.

On a lighter note I have been watching Striptease with Demi Moore tonight, I have been thinking about it for a while but my mind is made up, I am taking a pole dancing class this summer

Smut at the Cannes film festival

It didn't take too long for the first mini scandal at the Croisette...

Today at the director's fortnight, which has a reputation for its edgier's selection, a film was shown portraying a man enjoying the romantic attention of his horses, with a short clip of a horse bursting in the man's musky treasure (nice). It's based on a true story apparently and it's called Zoo!

Truth is, despite its somehow arty and stuffy image, gore and smut have been longtime companions of the festival.

And not being one to shy away from those, I have my fair share of memories of both while attending the festival. The great thing is, as an audience there, you see films before anyone else, so no risk of the critics spoiling the fun for you!

My favorites moments over the years include the worldwide premiere of The idiots by Lars Von Trier, about a bunch of, well, idiots!, who get together and act like mentally retarded... It was all very boring and mildly irritating in a way only the Danes can be (I should know, I lived with one for 5 years) until they started an impromptu and very graphic orgy that had the very grand audience of the Grand Auditorium Lumiere gasping for air!

Here is the trailer in Danish with no subtitles (I am sure we're not missing much)




Also how can I ever forget watching on the biggest screen in the world the gold dust sprinkled sodomy scene between Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale in Velvet Goldmine (blink and you'll miss it on that clip)




But my best memory was catching Bent on a 8am screening, the story of the persecution of the gays by the nazis. There was a noisy bunch of schoolchildren in the audience led by their well meaning teacher who really should have made more research on the film she was taking them to see. The opening scene scene shut them up completely:

Mick jagger in drag singing "The streets of Berlin" in some kind of louche derelict cabaret/bomb site, followed by a scene with Clive Owen (when he was still hot) being brutally taken from behind by some hunky aryan soldier. Who said History was no fun? That clip does not show that second part sadly, but you get the idea.

David Lynch's ABSURDA

David Lynch's new short movie called Absurda was presented as a gift to the Cannes film festival at the opening ceremony yesterday.

For those of us who weren't there, here it is for your viewing pleasure, I think it's bloody fantastic!!

The Cannes film festival!!!

Starting today, I am so excited!!




The above amateur film might not look like much, but this is the pre credit presentation before each film in Cannes... Memories... Well done to whoever managed to take that given how strict security had become over the years!

I have had a love affair with the Cannes film festival since 1992, when I skipped school to attend as I lived nearby in Nice.

I realised that attending screenings during the day was not all that hard when you're young and cheeky and was close to wetting myself when I managed to get in the screening of Twin Peak, the movie adaptation. I got expelled from school for a week after that, but in retrospect it was all worth it.

Over the years I managed to see more and more films and to get a pass, met an ageing singer that took me under her wings for a few years and got me into even more screenings.

So many good memories over the years, being among the first audience in the world to see Pulp Fiction in 94, bumping into Pedro Almodovar, John Waters, who was very amused by my request of an autograph, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver (looking very gloomy after the tough afternoon screening of a long Australian movie about the trials of a quadraplegic woman), Gary Oldman (who was my hero at the time in 93), trying to get in the Armageddon party with a very glamorous friend but armed with only one invitation (we lost the second one was our feeble excuse, it worked, Bruce Willis had already gone though), and meeting that American journalist (sorry, Talent Executive) on that same night...

I loved discovering films before reading anything about them and make your own opinion... The last film I ever saw on my last year there in 1998 was Colazon Illuminado, an Argentinian film by Hector Babenco about a mystical love story. It was probably one of the best thing I have ever seen, yet this film never came out in any country... I loved the way every film is given the same chance by the festival, on the same day, you can have the screening of the latest US blockbuster as well as some obscure black and white Hungarian movie and they are both treated the same way.

Thinking about all the obscure films I saw on a massive screen thanks to Cannes I would never have seen otherwise, The Baby of Macon, Three lives and only one death, N'oublie pas que tu vas mourir...

It was hard work and tiring, I would sometimes see 4 films a day back to back, run from one place to another to get invitations and get to the screening, having to queue for hours, the excitment the buzz and the madness were palpable.

This year selection is looking promising, it is harder to follow from the UK as no one is really bothered about it but will certainly be keeping a close eye on it.

Starting today is My blueberry nights, the first English speaking film by Wong Kar Wai with Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman... The critics are tradtionally ferocious with the film on the opening night, but it sounds intriguing.

I like the Jury as well, Stephen Frears as president, and among others, Toni Collette (who owes Cannes big time after the all the buzz Muriel's wedding got back in 1994 thanks to its Cannes screening), Sarah Polley, Maggie Cheung, Maria de Medeiros... Sounds like a dream casting to me.

No pictures sadly, my time in Cannes was before the internet, and all the pictures, autographs etc... are long gone and lost, my memories though are as vivid as ever!

Terry

My lovely boy friend Terry...

We've been together for over 5 months and it felt right straight away...

I hate the whole dating process usually, meeting up for dates in restaurants and trying to have meaningful conversations.

He is quite a lot younger than me (22) so we did not do any of this, he liked me straight away and was not afraid to tell me, there was none of this waiting for the usual 2 days before texting and worrying about being too keen.

We love spending time doing not much, chilling out, watching dvds, playing video games and having endless conversations about anything. He is sochilled out, bright, curious, unpretentious. He is also very creative, constantly creating things, short movies, figurines...

We may have the same tastes but we pretty much disagree on everything when it comes to cinema, he doesn't share my love for anything trashy 80's with loads of neon and a dodgy electro soundtrack but we laugh about it. Here is the godwaful trailer for Crimes of passion, probably my favourite 80's film ever with Kathleen Turner as a strict executive woman by day and hooker called China Blue by night. The trailer does it no justice whatsoever but what a great film!



He's had a colourful past, he was a gay porn actor when he was 20 and had a few wild years but he is a bit calmer now...

Another extract of Crimes of passions to cheer us up, watch out for Anthony Perkins in full psycho mode and a brief extract of the dodgy electro soundtrack!!

I'm a 31 y old French cute (hehe) gay guy in London

Things I like:

Movies (fucking love cinema!!)
David Lynch
Inland Empire
Raspberry Reich (best film ever)
Berlin
Travelling
Norway (gorgeous mountains and even more gorgeous healthy looking men)
Indie music
Japan
Video Games (Okami, Onimusha 2...)
Cats (I've always said I'll end up the crazy old person in a house full of cats who smell of pee. Except I can't afford my own house so even that is beyoind my reach)
My 22 y old Essex indie kid boy friend (hehe, more of him later)
The Cannes film festival (more of it later)
San Francisco/New York
Moutains, hiking...
Politics
Segolene Royal!
Gordon Brown
Making short films that nobody watch
The Werkmeister harmonies, any Eastern European film in black and film, with lingering shots if possible


Things I don't like:


John Cameron Mitchell (don't get me started on his latest smugfest Shortbus)
Nicolas Sarkozy *boo hiss
Stratford (which is probably why I live here)
Sydney (overrated)
Indie gay guys that take their music waaaaayyyyyyyy too seriously
Self proclaimed crazy people (or worse, with a bubbly personality, translating as psycho attention seekers)
People who walk slowly on the street, then wobble when you try to take over. For f%$k sake
Group of German/Italien teenagers tourists


Below is a film I did while in Tokyo