I know it’s been a while since I returned from France, but what can I say? I’m a busy gal! Seriously though, the work didn’t stop while I was in Cannes; it certainly didn’t slow down when I got back…doesn’t the world know to stop when I go on vacation? ;-p Just kidding.
Anyway, attending the festival was an incredible experience, and Nice/Cannes are absolutely BEAUTIFUL cities – check out the pictures if you don’t believe me.
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I think we (Josh Luria, Ye-Jee Kim, Elizabeth Kerin, and I) did a great job promoting our respective films in the Short Films Corner, and we still had time left over to catch a few screenings…by sheer coincidence, I managed to see the much-talked-about “Che,” Steven Soderbergh’s biopic (or should I say biEPIC?) of Ernesto Guevara.
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Not surprisingly, I felt the film was a *little* long (read: really long) because it was repetitive at times; a lot of the second half seemed similar to the first half. However the cinematography, sound, and design were breathtaking (as was the location!) and Benicio Del Toro’s
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portrayal of the humble revolutionary reminded me why I love acting – I empathized with Che, I hated Che, I yelled at Che, I cried for Che, I thought Che was foolish, I thought Che was a genius, and just when I thought there couldn’t be more to Che…there was. The emotional roller coaster lasted the entire 4 1/2 hours.
Overall, I wouldn’t change my first film festival experience one bit. Will I do things differently next time? Well, I was given a Cinephile pass to Telluride Film Festival this August as a graduation present (thank you!!!), so I suppose only time will tell…![](https://lipicashah.com/blog/uploaded_images/France-053-786895.jpg)