Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom begins with a series of pans across the home of Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward) depicting her daily activities with her brothers and her parents, Walt (Bill Murray) and Laura (Frances McDormand). We see Suzy looking at the world through binoculars, which she describes as her special power, as she can see things in greater detail. We then cut to the camp of Khaki Scouts run by the overzealous, hyper meticulous, Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), where we learn of the disappearance of orphan Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman), the least popular member of the camp.

Sam, as it turns out, had met Suzy, and after a correspondence, the pair decided to run away together. A series of events ensues that leads the Sheriff of the town (Bruce Willis) to lead a search party that encompasses everyone from the other Khaki Scouts to the parents to Scout Master Ward. Oh, and Tilda Swinton plays a character just named Social Services, which really tickled my fancy.

Cannes, Day 1: Begging in Tuxedoes

This morning began with a delicious pastry from a little place just down the road along the beach with two other members of the trip, Rawson and Arthur. We could hardly contain our excitement for the day ahead and the start of what was sure to be an incredible festival. Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson's new film was all set to open and all of us were determined to find our way into one of the two screenings that evening.

We had a meeting with Nicola at noon, in which he described the access that our passes provided us, which is pretty high, considering we are essentially the least relevant people at the festival (according to some). After the meeting, a group of us walked with Nicola into town and picked up the last of the free bags, after which we ran to the MonoPrix, a dollar store type of shebang, in order to pick up white boards to help us in all of our begging needs. Of course, I made the immediate decision that Hayley and I needed to have multicolored pens. Only 4 more euros, but totally worth it.

We split into pairs, and Hayley and I began our trek out into the glamorous lobbies of the hotels housing the film elite. We were a bit confused at first, unsure of how to approach the people casually lounging about, so we decided to casually browse the free Variety magazines on the table. After summoning our courage, we began to approach people, asking them if they knew of any extra tickets lying about. I got to give out my awesome Rear Window inspired business cards.

 While we were unsuccessful in our search, we met a nice artist who invited us to his art show next Thursday, some wonderful producers from Brisbane, and a sound producer from Montreal. Some people were very cold, leading to the following encounter with what we had perceived to be a nice older couple.

Hayley: Hi! I'm Hayley and this is my friend Adam! We were wondering if you knew of any tickets for tonight that were lying around?
Me: We're students from the US, and we're here on a program where we get to go to the film festival!
Man (with some sort of accent): That's very nice.
Hayley: Yeah, it's really exciting. What are you doing here?
Man: Well, I am trying to buy a movie from this woman.
Hayley: Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't want to interrupt!
Man: Yes. Please don't do that .


So... that was mildly awkward.