Day 1:
My adventure begins before I actually leave home. I run into friend Caitlin Cronenberg who is traveling to meet up with her brother, Brandon, and father (do I need to name?) who both have films playing at the festival (Antiviral and Cosmopolis respectively)l. She is with the star of Brandon's film, Caleb Landry Jones (X-Men First Class), who is wearing a belt as a scarf. Knowing a bit about the character he plays in the film, I can already tell that he's going to be amazing in it. Their group also consists of Matt Hannam, an amazing Toronto editor who I've tried to work with countless times, and Canadian producer phenom Niv Fichman.
They invite me into the Air Canada lounge despite me unfortunately not being on their same flight. That would have rocked as I'd have a isolated environment to share my ideas with Niv. Danny Lennon, the curator of the Canadian Program in Cannes, had said in an earlier conference call that we'd most likely find our most success meeting with Canadian people while in Cannes, that normally wouldn't listen to us while IN Canada. So far he appears to be right.
On the plane I watch Jason Reitman's latest feature film, Young Adult. I was looking forward to seeing it, especially after having met him when I interviewed him for my John Hughes documentary, Don't You Forget About Me. I actually thought the tone was uneven and the script/characters had holes, but the performance were amazing from all the cast.
Before I get to Nice, I have a layover (five hours) in Frankfurt. Not enough time to actually see any part of Germany, but enough time to get to know the airport intimately. There is a leggy blonde girl sitting at my gate who people keep approaching, so I'm positive she's a foreign actress. I notice two other gents that have their delegate satchels from the 2011 festival, so, again going on the captive audience angle, I plan on approaching them with my business card when we are miles high.
Just as I'm about to settle on the flight, Shia LaBeouf walks in and sits next to me.