| Day 3 - Friday, 15 May | |
| Depp is Hot Stuff/Sinatra is Honored | |
| All of Cannes was saddened by the news of Frank Sinatra’s death in Los Angeles at 82. From Ms Trautmann, French Minister of Culture, to Martin Scorsese, Jeanne Moreau, Johnny Depp and the city inhabitants, the comments were unanimous. He was the king of show biz, a great performer, unique, great American, and will be remembered as both a great actor and singer. Many of the film screenings opened with a Sinatra song or some sort of dedication. | 
Lloyd Kaufman and Super Tromette outside the Carlton Hotel |
| On the Croisette, the size of the hordes was growing:
flaunting trend-setters and starlets flaunting birthday suits, photographers
with an artillery of cameras strapped around their necks and festivalgoers
with badges around theirs. Among the constant stream of strollers, vendors
and street performers was the burlesque Troma parade promoting the latest
film project Terror Firmer and the soon to be released Schlock Schlockability.
Headed by Yale graduate Lloyd Kaufman , Troma Entertainment – parody film
specialists - is showing Tromeo and Juliet and Killer Condom as part
of Troma’s Global Warming Conference and the alternative Cannes You Dig
It? Festival.
Johnny Depp was the most sought after star of the day. In Cannes for the official selection screening of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas directed by Terry Gilliam, Depp is in the running for the Best Actor award. He plays the marginal journalist Hunter S. Thompson who leaves L.A. for Las Vegas on what turns into a hallucinatory voyage under the influence of drugs. This drug state achieved by Depp in the film was only a work of “imagination and collaboration,” he said. The film starts off on a Palme d’Or note, but tends to finish under par. The critics were not impressed. The other two films in competition, My Name is Joe by Ken Loach and Dance Me to My Song by Australian Rolf de Heer were well applauded. Loach could add another award to his collection with this film, which, in Loach’s typically realistic style, mixes unemployment, alcohol and soccer. He won the Special Jury Prize in 1990 for Hidden Agenda and again in 1993 for Raining Stones. Dance Me to My Song is about the trials of a woman confined to a wheel chair and played by Heather Rose. For the traditional ascension of the Palais steps, the handicapped Rose was carried up in the arms of her partner in the film. The Carlton beach was the site of the Fear and Loathing party Friday night. The well-frequented event turned into a squished-body scene and the organizers ran out of glasses for the champagne. One consolation - for once - the bathrooms were very nice and the toilet paper abundant. |
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