Montpellier

Back from an amazing weekend.
It wasn't the type of film festival with stars, but some professionals (director of photography, music composers, etc...) talked with us.
Having a problem with the photos. But I will work on them later.


So, we left school early on Friday. About 1:30ish. My main cinema teacher drove me and three other students. It was funny, because to get to the hotel (which was directly in centre ville by the way :D ), we walked through a busy mall. My teacher had taken our bags for us and was walking through the mall with all sorts of luggage.
The hotel was really nice. There were 11 students. Two to a room, except for me. I bunked with my friends Chloe and Margot.
Our other cinema teacher was our supervisor, and she stayed at the hotel too.
It was an "Ibis" hotel.
The first day, we watched "The Young and Innocent" by Alfred Hitchcock. It was pretty good. That was for the high school students only. After the movie, we had someone discuss it with us, and we took notes about it. Music, story, symbols... that type of thing.
Then we were let loose to find dinner. My friends, Chloe, Alban, Margot, and I bought some sandwiches. Afterwards, at 8:30, we returned to the Corum theater, but we were in the room "Opera Berlioz". It was amazing! It's a huge opera house, and I've never seen a room that large before.
It was the opening of the festival, and there was a lot of people. I'm stupid for not using my camera that day, because the directors of the film were there. It was an Italian film, called "Il Divo." When the directors walked in, everyone cheered. I should have written their names, because I can't remember anymore.
The next day we watched "North by Northwest" by Hitchcock. And talked with Jean-Louis Bompoint: director of photography (if anyone has seen the Nspresso commercial with George Clooney, Bompoint worked on it), and Laurent Lafran: who works with sound.
They had a lot to say, and it was interesting to listen to.
At 9:30pm, it was back to the Berlizo room to watch "Psycho" by Hitchcock. Really good, I know you've all seen it before.
I was expecting the girl to be murdered in the shower, because it's such a famous scene, but when the "mother" jumped out and attacked the police officer, me and the theater jumped 10 feet in the air. The violence is cheesy, but it was the surprises and the jumping out, and the scary music that got me.
On Sunday Gilles Tinayre, a music composer talked with us. He discussed music in movies, then concentrated on the music we heard in "North by Northwest".
During lunch I had lots of fun with my class. We went on the roof of the theater and everyone goofed around. We took funny jumping photos, and photos of our shadows, and I found it really amusing.
Afterwards, we finished our trip with the projection of "Shadow of a Doubt" also by Hitchcock. It was good as well, and I came home at about 4:30.
All in all, a great festival. Had lots of fun.
I noticed that my french is improving too. During "Il Divo", the subtitles were french, while the language was italian. I got along just fine with the french subtitles. Well, I always fond political and mafia movies confusing, but you get the idea. I'm really glad I'm learning so much.
Everything else is going well
Miss you!