fête de la musique vs. fête du cinéma

So far the clear winner is fête du cinéma. I believe it is because FDC is spread out over 3 days while FDLM is just a few hours. There was way too much to see in a short amount of time and too many crowds of drunk and obnoxious people at FDLM. That does not include the company I was with. I ended up checking out the scene with 2 students and a French girl from the Foyer. She took us to meet her very cool and really nice Parisian friends. I thought, bonus, These guys must also know how to do this fest right. Turns out just as lost and confused as the rest of us. At least we started at a decent time. The trick with FDLM is to start early. Most nights in Paris the party wouldn't dream of starting before midnight but not on this night it seems. I think that's what the American students were thinking when they continued to pre-game on the rooftop terrace until at least 10pm. I had warned everyone ... The annoying thing for me is that I did my research and had a plan but what's a plan with no one to follow? So I went with the flow. It's not a bad plan just one that leaves you feeling like you missed a lot of great acts. I must say though that wandering the beautiful Paris streets while the sun is setting (it was the summer solstice so it set around 10:15) was pretty cool. We were mostly around the 4th arr. called le marais. Once the neighbourhood of the nobility, now a very hip area full of artists and a strong gay community.

We caught most of the busking action which is pretty cool in and of itself. Everywhere you go there is music and dancing in the streets and yes the image of Mick Jagger and David Bowie in horrible 80's rock frocks just popped in my head too. So not what I had hoped but probably, had I had no expectations, would have been great.

As for the FDC so far really surpassing my expectations. I've seen 5 films already, all French and all great. I even saw Sophie Marceau's latest flick that she wrote, produced and starred in and was very impressed. It also stars Christophe Lambert (remember him from Highlander there can be only one!) I'm not his biggest fan but he was well cast I think. It was a thriller and I found that at times suspense was lost. They don't have North American distribution yet but they hope to. Maybe it'll be re-cut for that and help the speed. The nice surprise was that some of the producers showed up at the screening. A surprise because these things aren't often announced. It isn't your average movie fest. Almost all the cinemas participate and it is their regular scheduled stuff that you can see for 2 euros a pop after you've paid full price for the first one. It runs for three days and started Sunday so I gotta go get more movies in and finish my work so I can watch them worry free! By the way, I've seen and recommend: "Fragile(s)", "Moliere" (Starring Romain Duris in the title role), "Le Defi: the story of La Fountaine" (saw this right after Moliere and these 2 were friends and even their resting place in Père Lachaise is side by side), "La Disparue de Deauville" the Sophie Marceau flick and "Esemble, c'est tout!" starring Audrey Tautou, my new favorite in the romance department.

Here's a link to the Bande d'annonce:
Esemble c'est tout

But I think it might be a spoiler! Though who knows when it'll be released in your home town? Not that I've even looked into it!