Besides the free Beach Screenings that I mentioned in my last post, free seats for the badgeless are set aside at every film in the Critic’s Week Section at the Miramar, and the general public can also buy tickets for 7€ to the Director’s Fortnight Section screenings at the Marriott theatre.   Check out the film list for the two sections, and for the inside scoop on how to get these tickets, when to get in line, and where exactly they are, click here and scroll down.

The red carpet screenings (day and nightime) need tickets and badges, but the blue tickets are good without a badge, so if someone happens to give you one, you’re in!    And as unlikely as it sounds, this gift-of-a-ticket scenario can happen:  if a festival-goer takes a ticket and it doesn’t get used, they will be penalized for future ticket access.   If someone gives you a brown ticket, click here (and scroll down) to see how to make that work.

While you’re in Cannes, keep an eye out for Sasha Baron Cohen on his camel, Alec Baldwin who is filming his own movie all over the Festival, and Les Guignols shooting live on the Croisette each evening at 8pm.   Take in the surreal scene on red carpet starting around 6:30pm, and if the crowd is too much, jumbo-trons are conveniently located nearby…

If you just can’t be bothered, the Cinematheque in Nice is featuring a whole slate of Cannes Film Festival winners, so for only 2€ you can see all the stars… without the crowds.

Photo credit: Red Carpet by Tangi Bertin, licensed under Creative Commons.

Related Page:  How to do the Cannes Film Festival without a Badge

The easiest and most fun is to attend the free beach screenings at Cinema de la Plage, on the sand and under the stars.  This year’s lineup features several past Cannes winners as well as a Tribute to James Bond.  Here’s the 2012 schedule:

• Thursday May 17th  DOCTOR NO  by Terence Young, followed at 11:30pm by CASINO ROYAL by Martin Campbell
• Friday May 18th  PROJECT A by Jackie Chan
• Saturday May 19th  LE FARCEUR (The Joker) by Philippe de Broca
• Sunday May 20th DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER by Guy Hamilton
• Monday May 21st FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE by Terrence Young
• Thusday May 22nd Repeat
• Wednesday May 23rd ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE
• Thursday May 24th JAWS by Steven Spielberg
• Friday May 25th  RED TAILS  by Anthony Hemingway
• Saturday May 26th   …Surprise film

The screenings are at Plage Mace next to the Palais, and are preceded by a nightly concert starting at 8:30pm, with the films starting at 9:30pm.  Grab a picnic and get in line early, but even if you get there too late for a comfy beach chair and blanket, if you bring your own towel you can still just spread out on the sand.

Want more?  Click here for the Best of Nice Guide to How to do the Cannes Film Festival Without a Badge

Ira Levin’s 1978 award-winning Deathtrap, a play that still holds the record for the longest running comedy-thriller on Broadway, will have three performances in Nice at the Theatre Athena, near the train station at 21 rue d’Alsace-Lorraine.  The curtain goes up at 9pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and tickets are a bargain price of just 20€.  Reserve and buy online here.

South of France English Theatre Company (SET) is a brand new, professional repertory theatre company dedicated to providing high-quality theater to the region’s 46,000 English-speaking residents.  Deathtrap is their second production, following Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park.   Deathtrap opened in Cannes to good local reviews last weekend, and after Nice, Deathtrap will play in Menton, Sophia, Fayence.

Sarkozy supporters watching the election returns on TV last night

In America, ‘Socialist’ is a sneering insult, so how does this bode for France where they just elected a Socialist for President?   Some here are euphoric while others are predicting the worst.  Here are some well-written takes on these new developments:

New York Times’ Paul Krugman takes the positive view on what this might mean for the European recovery in Those Revolting Europeans, while The Daily Mail pulls no punches in going for the more dire take in Au Revoir Austerity!  French Vote for Return to Ruinous Spending.

For a thoughtful analysis of what this all might mean, read The Independent’s Francois Hollande Strikes Fear in the Heart of France’s Rich.

The Telegraph’s Francois Hollande Fulfills his Destiny at Last is worth reading to know more about the man that will be leading France, and to read more about his new nemesis (now that Sarkozy is out of the picture), here is a very interesting piece from the Herald Tribune on Marine LePen and How She Lead Sarkozy to the Guillotine, by Maureen Dowd.  And finally, another one from Maureen Dowd, this one an amusing gossip roundup dealing with the incoming and outgoing president’s complicated love lives…

Scene at Place Massena last night. Photo by Patrice Lapoirie, courtesy of the Nice-Matin

See Related Blog Posts:  Ten ways Sarko has changed France for the better,  Six things you might not know about Sarkozy and Hollande

And now we know: Saleya Live!  Tonight marks the start of this eclectic concert series, with a total of 9 free concerts planned through May and June.  One of my favorites kicks off the festival tonight: Frédéric Viale’s totally hip jazz/tango accordion (don’t worry: no polka allowed!) at 6:30pm, followed by Tribu Plume playing pop/jazz from 7:30pm.  Here’s what’s coming up in the next several weeks:

• Saturday 12th May – Bal Musette with the Riri Biagini Orchestra, 4pm –6pm
• Friday 18th May – Trio Joker jazz at 6.30pm
• Friday 25th May – More jazz with Carte Blanche, 6.30pm
• Friday 1st June – The Crossover Music Festival from 5pm – 9pm
• Wednesday 6th June – World music with Ma Saisara then indie rock with The Kitichies, 7.30pm
• Saturday 9th June – La Croix Bouge Festival (3pm – 9.30 pm)
• Thursday 21st June – Afternoon jazz with Mellow Street at 11.30am, then the Nice Jazz Orchestra at 9.30pm
• Friday 29th June – Pop and rock with Killtronik and HVN, 6:30pm

With the French Presidential Elections coming up on Sunday, the ink is madly flowing on everything that everyone hates about Sarkozy, so I won’t bother with that list…  But in all fairness, here are 10 Sarkozy initiatives that are major positive steps for France that never seem to get mentioned: 

1. Inheritance:  Previously, all the inheriting children/grandchildren/cousins had to unanimously agree in order to sell an inherited home, which meant that a single hold-out could block the sale and cause the property in question to sit vacant and unused… for decades.   The new law lets the majority rule, increasing sales, occupancy, and rentals.
2. Workplace:  Pre-Sarkozy, unhappy employees had 2 bad choices:  Quit (and get no benefits), or get themselves fired (with years of benefits).  This set the scene for a drawn-out workplace war with employer/employee trying to make the other so miserable that they would be forced to quit or fire, and in the process poisoning the workplace for everyone else.   Now, for the first time there is a happy medium in France: the Rupture Amiable, which now accounts for one in ten terminations.
3. Schools:   Kids from poor neighborhoods are no longer stuck with attending a bad school; now parents have the choice of where to send their children and are no longer bound by their school district.
4. Crime:  French criminal justice is a bit of a revolving door, but the new Recidivist Law gives judges the option to put repeat criminals behind bars instead of back out on the streets.
5. Small Business Start-Ups:  Because of the massive paperwork and high charges (paid from the first month, whether or not there is any profit), France was a discouraging place to try to start a small business.  Sarkozy created the Auto-Entrepreneur Statute which streamlines start-up paperwork and waives or reduces the fees, which has been taken up by over 750,000 would-be entrepreneurs.
6. Overtime:  To get around the restrictive 35-hour workweek, overtime is now non-taxable, giving everyone more flexibility and workers the possibility of higher take-home pay.
7. Universities:  The Grande Ecoles are world renowned, but the centrally-controlled regular universities are decidedly underwhelming.  To goose the competitiveness of French higher education, Sarkozy has given universities more autonomy to choose their curriculum, motivate their professors, and  innovate to attract students.
8. Underground Economy:  With employment rules so restrictive and with so much bureaucracy, many households use cleaners, nannies, handymen, and gardeners that work ‘in the black’, for cash.   Sarko created the ‘Cheque Emploi’ where household workers can be paid with checks that also give them benefits, and the extra tax paid by the employer is credited off their income tax at the end of the year.
9. Bloated Government:   There is even a book boasting about ways to avoid work in your French government job.    Now, to reduce the bloat, for every two fonctionnaires that retire, only one will be replaced.
10. Transport Strikes:  Thanks to the new Minimum Service law for public transport, while still incredibly annoying, train strikes can no longer paralyze the country on the whim of train conductors that don’t like their schedule.

But it’s not over:   When the curtain goes down on this year’s Nice Jazz Festival, the barriers will go up around the Jardins Albert-1er, closing off the park for a year until the opening of the following Nice Jazz Festival in July 2013.  (…But contrary to earlier reports, at least the musical kiosk will not be relocated to Cours Saleya!)

Okay, it’s true: the parking situation has become dire… but just as the horrendous years of the tramway construction have faded into a bad but distant memory, the current parking aggravations are the labor pains for the Coulée Verte, Nice’s mini Central Park, due to be delivered in September 2013.

The parking scene should get a little better with the advent of Smart Parking this June, which will allow drivers to find open spaces with their telephone GPS.  But will this backfire when all the circling cars make a mad dash for the one newly freed-up spot, actually increasing the road rage for the losers in this motorized game of musical chairs?

More parking is on the way… just not right away.  The giant pit between rue Saint-François de Paule and the Quai des Etats-Unis will be filled with 6-levels of underground parking with 455 spots, opening by the end of 2013, and next month digging starts at the Port for another 482 places at the Quai de la Douane, opening in 2014.

In the meantime, your only real options are to circle around while gritting your teeth and cussing, or just give up and head straight for the three free tramway-linked ParcAzur Park-and-Ride lots.   And keep repeating:  It’s all for a good cause, it’s all for a good cause…

Nice-Matin: Le jardin Albert-1er va fermer un an pour travaux, Parking Sulzer : on creuse ! and Direct-Matin: 482 places en plus sur le port en 2014

Six things that you might not know about Nicolas Sarkozy:

Despite his tough-on-immigration stance, Sarkozy is from immigrant parents himself: His father (who was mostly absent when he was a child) is a Hungarian Jew and his mother is half Greek Jewish and half French Catholic.  Sarkozy was raised Catholic.

Sarkozy credits his tenacious personality to the childhood combination of being abandoned by his father, coupled with feeling inferior to his taller and wealthier classmates.

Once he got his law degree he specialized in family law and business.  Most people don’t know that he was one of Silvio Berlusconi’s top French attorneys at the time!

It was a crazed bomber taking a kindergarten class hostage in the Paris suburb of Neuilly that capulted Sarkozy onto the national scene.  He was the Mayor of Neuilly, and after the bomber was killed and the children were saved, the photos of Sarkozy leaving the building holding two children when global.

As Mayor, Sarkozy’s duties included acting as Justice of the Peace, and he met wife number 2, Cecilia, when he officiated her marriage (!) to a famous French talk show host in 1988.   They started a torrid affair and she left her husband for Sarkozy within a year, and he soon left his wife.

Cecilia Sarkozy acted as his top aide as he rose on the national scene, but in 2005 the relationship was on the rocks, and Sarkozy found himself running for President while simultaneously trying to save his marriage.  The nearly 20-year relationship ended soon after he took office, and one month later he met Carla Bruni, who coincidentally bears a striking resemblance to Cecilia.

Six things you might not know about Francois Hollande:

Hollande is running as a Mr. French Everyman, but his campaign is strictly American.  His three top advisors are young American-schooled Frenchmen that met at Harvard and MIT, and are duplicating Obama’s 2008 strategy.

Hollande owes his candidacy to DSK, who would have been the front-runner, and probably would have beaten Sarkozy, if he hadn’t had that 5-minute encounter with a hotel maid as he came out of the shower, that she thinks was rape, and he thinks… was completely consensual.

Hollande is the front-runner this year, but in the last election the candidate running against Sarkozy was Segolene Royale, Hollande’s  life-companion for 30 years and the mother of his 4 children.   As the Head of the Socialist Party, he was somewhat blamed for the failure of her campaign, and now that they’ve split up… he’s running.

Other than heading up the Socialist Party (while they’ve been out of power), he has never held a Ministerial post or anything on a national-level, other than being a one-term representative for the department of Correze on the National Assembly.

As opposed to Sarkozy’s Energizer Bunny reputation, Hollande’s nickname is Flamby, after the pudding.

Brigitte Bardot was quoted last weekend as saying that having a French President named Hollande would be as bad as if the French President was named Germany.

Watch the one and only televised debate on Wednesday, May 2 at 9pm, which will broadcast with simultaneous translation on France24 English.

Photo Credits: Hollande and Royale by by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Nicolas Sarkozy by the European Peoples Party, both licensed under Creative Commons.

Sources: Wikipedia Sarkozy and Hollande, Nice-Matin, and NPR.

See Related Blog Posts:  Ten ways Sarko has changed France for the better,  What will the new Hollande presidency mean for France?

Update: Click here for How to do the Cannes Film Festival without a Badge

The Cannes Film Festival Official Selection Films have just been unveiled… so who will rule the red carpet this year?

With the opening film, Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson, we can expect Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand.

The real-life Twilight couple will be coming to Cannes: Robert Pattinson with Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, and Kristen Stewart in On the Road by Walter Salles.

Speaking of Cannes couples, Brangelina will surely attend as Brad Pitt  not only stars in Killing Them Softly, but may also be co-starring in an even bigger media event: rumor has it that Brad and Angelina will soon be married in a ceremony at their Villa Miraval, not far from Cannes.

Nicole Kidman, who’s slated to play Princess Grace next year, and Clive Owen are expected with Hemingway and Gellhorn, showing Out of Competition. Robert de Nero will be in town for Cannes Classics …but will Roman Polanski show up for the Special Screening of Roman Polanski: A Memoir?

Climbing the red carpet for Lawless should be Shia LaBoeuf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman and Jessica Chastain for this prohibition-era drama.

Berenice Bejo from last year’s winner, The Artist, is the festival Mistress of Ceremonies, and the jury will include Diane Kruger, Ewan McGregor, The Descendants director Alexander Payne, and oddly, fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier!

Here’s an article from the Guardian with trailers, another from Huff Po with the full list of all the films announced so far, and the official Cannes Film Festival site in English.

…Okay, so that’s all well and good, …but for those of us that don’t have badges, who cares?   While it’s true that it will be difficult to get into Competition Films without the luck of someone giving you a ticket, there are still lots of ways to see the stars, soak up the scene, and even see films in several different film sections, if you have the inside scoop.  So here it is:  Best of Nice’s guide to Doing the Cannes Film Festival without a Badge.

See you there!

Jean Dujardin at Cannes in 2011, by Simon Saunders, courtesy @totallygone.com

Photo credit: Jean Dujardin courtesy Simon Saunders @totallygone.com;  Red Carpet by Rita Molnar licensed under Creative Commons

When you think of a French McDonald’s what comes to mind?  John Travolta in Pulp Fiction explaining to Samuel L. Jackson that a Quarterpounder in Paris is a Royale with Cheese?  Well, technically, it’s a Royal Cheese… er, that is …was.

In a mystifying marketing move, McDonald’s France has eliminated a sandwich that has achieved cult status around the world thanks to Pulp Fiction: just google ‘Royale with Cheese’ and you get 29 million pages!  It’s a burger that has made McDo Paris an obligatory stop for a certain strata of American tourist, just so they can utter the words.

McDo France has decided to ban this iconic sandwich to make way for, um, newer hamburger creations.

Well today, with great fanfare, McDo released the latest and greatest of these new ways to disguise grey meat…

wait for it…

Le McBaguette.   

What would Tarantino say?