This morning I attended the masterclass with Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron who spoke at length about his career, his association with the other two big names in Mexican cinema, Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro Iñárritu and his views on the new generation of filmmakers, made all the more poignant as his son’s first feature was showing at this festival. It was a lively and entertaining talk that we will show excerpts from on Film & Festival website soon.
As there was nothing on the days film schedule that really grabbed my attention I decided to take a stroll around the city, visit the markets and look at some of the exhibitions. Between the rain, checking e-mail and doing the blog report I didn’t make to the market. But I did catch the end of the William Klein press conference, which showed him as quite an outspoken man (as artists should be), especially with regards to politics and the state of the world, so I decided to brave the weather and take a long, brisk walk to the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art to have a look at the exhibition of his work. Klein has worked in many visual media including photography (for which he is best known), filmmaking, graphic design and painting. Although his name was familiar it wasn’t until I was walking around the exhibition that I recognised so many of his images from my days as a photography student, many of which are classics of art form – if you care to call reportage and fashion photography art.
After hearing Cuaron’s talk in the morning I decided I would have a look at his son’s film, unfortunately it was sold out but I was advised to turn up at the cinema at screening time, flash my press pass for an unoccupied seat. With some time to spare and darkness already descending I headed back to The Pier to look at another photographic exhibition, which was being held at the Thesssaloniki Museum of Photography. This was a retrospective of French photographer Bernard Plossu. Like Klein’s, it featured mostly black and white images of what could be described as travel photographs because the were images from his travels that somehow defy what might be considered interesting shots. As also with the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson (a personal favourite) these images seemed to have captured the elusive “decisive moment” combined with the monochrome film to create intriguing pictures. I found myself wondering if the fact that they were shot on film had some bearing on the overall feeling of the pictures offering something far more organic than what is achieved with digital cameras.
After heading back to the press office for a final e-mail check for the day and to post the latest blog, I decided to skip the movie, have something quick to eat and get an early night for a change. The city guide we were given in our festival bag recommended a restaurant called Meat Me. I had actually tried to find it the previous night but took the wrong street. This time, armed with a map, I found it, overlooking the now closed market. It was eight o’clock and the restaurant was almost empty, I didn’t know if that meant people eat out early or later but I settled in for some simple, tasty Greek food. Then in walked John Malkovich, then five minutes later in came one of my favourite actors, the very underrated Sam Rockwell, then Alfonso Cuaron with his son. It seemed as if all the VIP guests were getting together for a dinner. Unfortunately it was the one time I went out without my camera and a big stack of magazines, but not to miss an opportunity I did give one to Sam and one to Alfonso. Then Georges Corraface came in, recognising me from our lock-in the previous evening and he stopped to say hello before joining the party. Although journalist part of me was slightly disappointed that I missed a photo op, the better part of me felt relieved that I didn’t have to stoop to behaving like a pap. After all, even if they are great actors and directors they are still just people who want to have a quiet meal with friends without being disturbed,
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