Tia Carrera was at the Noga Hilton looking tres elegant in her black evening
gown. She told me that she wasn't at Cannes to promote a film but to
accompany her husband and just have fun. But somehow I have the feeling that
scouting projects and networking may have been on her agenda as well. No one
comes to Cannes for fun except the civilians hoping to get a photo or two of
a real movie star.
Tia was headed for the Carlton Hotel so I decided to find out who
else was headed there before I made the late screening of "Jude". Well, he
wasn't headed into the Carlton. He was headed out, and the crowd went wild
as Hollywood legend Tony Curtis walked out of the Carlton's grand entrance.
Looking dapper in a suit and white cowboy hat, Curtis seemed to drink in the
adoration of the civilians who called out to him. He held on to the limo as it backed out
of the circular driveway, taking time for those who wanted photos. It was his hands
that caught my attention. They were the hands of an old man, but somehow Tony
would always be the young man in "Some Like It Hot". In his face, he still
has the look of a man who never took Hollywood or life too seriously.
Off I go into the very serious "Jude" in the Noga Hilton theater which
simply
can't compare to the two sumptuous theaters in the Palais. It isn't in
competition,
and yet the director and primary cast are here to witness its debut. Liam
Cunningham is the schoolmaster who inspires Jude (Christopher Eccelston) to
aspire to university at Christminster. And Kate Winslet is one of the women
who
seems to stand between him and what would appear to be his destiny. The
acting is superb in this adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure".
Hardy is an extreme pessimist, and his characters are nearly always punished
for
trying to improve their lot in life. So "Jude" becomes a soap opera of the
nihilist stripe.
Looking on the bright side, I got a great photo of Winslet, heir apparent to
Emma Thompson, as the thinking man's sex symbol. I'm sure Hardy would not
approve of me in the least.
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