With some time to spare and the sun shining I headed off to explore the local market. Being a coastal town there was a huge abundance of fresh fish with its accompanying aroma that threw me back to my days of working as a sous chef. It was not only an olfactory overload but also an aural one as well with the stallholders trying to hawk their wares. In London we love Borough Market but this was the real deal filled with fresh fish, meats, cheeses, vegetables and masses of pastries and sweets that the Greeks love to eat.
Back to the Press Centre for the press conference with John Sayles, Chris Cooper and David Strathairn. Sayles was by far the most vocal and eloquent, giving sage and practical advice on independent filmmaking, such as adapt your script to your budget and what you have available in terms of actors and locations. He also said that budget has a big influence over the media you choose to shoot on. The bigger the budget the smaller the percentage of it film stock takes, but if the budget is really low then digital is a better solution but it is important to learn how to get the best out of the medium.
The interview with Diego Luna went well because he is a charming and enthusiastic young who is passionate about the subject of his movie. The video of the interview can be seen on the Film and Festivals website.
It’s funny how sometimes meeting people you admire can sometimes be a disappointment. As mentioned before, Sam Rockwell is one of my favourite actors who always gives great performances that always surprise in their diversity. He is not someone you would instantly recognise on the street as a movie star, he is very much the actor. Meeting him, he is a really affable guy, totally laid back with an almost stoner drawl to his voice, but he isn’t the most talkative of people which doesn’t make for a great interview – or maybe I just wasn’t asking the right questions. Or maybe he was just feeling a bit jet-lagged. It was definitely one of those interviews that will work better in print and will no doubt appear in a future issue of our esteemed publication.
The evening was a chance to catch a couple of movies I picked two English language ones as I wanted to watch them rather than read subtitles. The first one was a European co-production called Irina Palm, starring sixties icon Marianne Faithful, who must be in her sixties now. Set in a very conservative English village it is the story of how widow Maggie wants to get a large amount of money to send her grandson to Australia for a life-saving operation. Having already sold her house to pay for the treatments to date she goes to London to find a job but having been a housewife all her life she has no experience. When she sees an ad for a hostess in a Soho sex bar she naively applies, until she discovers what is involved. But club owner Mikky (Mikki Manojlovic) is impressed with the smoothness of her hands and offers her a job giving anonymous hand relief to customers of his bar, with the promise of £600 per week. She eventually accepts. The film has some wonderful comic moments and some equally touching ones (pun not intended). It is also a wonderful study of English morals and manners.
After the film I bumped into Alex Holdridge, director of In Search of a Midnight Kiss, who I met in Edinburgh. He had just arrived so I was able to show him around a bit with my four days’ knowledge of the festival. We then headed off to see an American indie film, Hannah Takes the Stairs by young director Joe Swanberg, who was also a friend of Alex’s.
Joe’s way of making films to get a bunch of his friends together, many of them also filmmakers with films showing at this festival, and devise and improvise the film as they shoot it. While this may sound a chaotic way of making a film it actually worked. The eventual story follows Hannah as she goes from one infatuation to another. She describes herself as chronically dissatisfied and this is at the core of her behaviour. It is not great acting in the usual sense, but it is very natural, closer to a documentary. It is all shot quickly on video and constructed in the editing. Some may find this type of filmmaking, with its quasi-Dogme ethic, a bit amateurish, but the director has done what a lot of wannabe filmmakers haven’t and that is make three features that have been shown at festivals around the world and now has a project lined up with some well-known Hollywood actors interested in working in. So a real lesson to all procrastinating directors.
After the film I had an invite to a party for the press, so took Alex and Joe with me for their first night of Greek hospitality. By three in the morning it was time for bed.
