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Cannes Diary

Entry Seven: Sunday, May 19, 2002

Day Five of the Festival
Movies: Searching for Debra Winger, Dead Room, Punch-Drunk Love, and Demonlover

Today ends up being a gratefully late day considering how late the previous night was. Since we’re planning on seeing Maniacts the following night, there are no big tickets to pick up at the Pantiero, making our usual long wait unnecessary. It turns out to be a pretty lazy morning, with just a quick lunch and a stroll around the beach, writing in my journal and planning out movies for the next few days. I decide to go get in line for Debra Winger based on all of the great reviews I’ve been hearing and my movies for the day begin...

Searching for Debra Winger
USA, Directed by Rosanna Arquette
Riviera 04: 05/19/02: 02:00pm
(*** and 1/2) of four
Time slept during: None.

A surprisingly intimate look at the treatment of women in Hollywood brings together an unprecedented amount of actresses to share their opinions with a refreshing and candid feel. Arquette displays a verve for interviewing and seems genuinely enthralled by the process of making her movie and her interest and excitement rubs off on the final product and on the audience. It’s an illuminating piece of film that deserves to be seen by everyone working in the industry (especially the men), but it should be well-accepted by all audiences. Just another example of how vibrant the documentary scene is and I look forward to seeing more from Arquette in the future.

Dead Room
England, Directed by Ian David Diaz
Riviera 08: 05/19/02: 04:00pm
(Zero) of four
Time slept during: About 30 minutes before I left the theatre.

Bad. Terrible. So bad that I couldn’t laugh at how bad it was because I was too much in disbelief. As it stands, it was the only movie that I simply needed to walk out of in the entire Festival. It tries to be a horror-comedy, but the "horror" is boring and features amazingly terrible special effects and the "comedy" basically means so much overacting that I was amazed there was any scenery left during shooting after the actors chewed up everything around them. The foreign characters apply accents so atrocious that I was almost offended by how bad they were. I did get a good amount of sleep before trying to watch the rest of the film, but I soon decided that I didn’t need to subject myself to this any longer (especially since about 10 of the other 11 people in the theatre had already left). For all of these reasons, we won’t be seeing this one in the US, but let’s count our blessings there. So bad...<shudder>

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