Marché du Film

Last year, I went to Marché du Film to explore a dream that I wanted to build on. I learnt a lot and gained much humbleness. There are so many talents out there; even if one is good, talents continuously emerge, thus making learning and keeping an open mind a life long process.

Marché du Film is one of the largest film markets in the world; it is also a part of the Cannes Film Festival. This film market usually happens in March at Cannes, France, and film buyers from all over the world would congregate at the market looking for interesting films to bring back to their  audience. 

I was fortunate to be able to attend it again this year! The best part was my sister would meet me for a couple days in Cannes before she traveled to Venice! The flight was about an hour before midnight. The plan was to (try to) sleep through the flight and reach Paris in a slightly more refreshed state for the transit. Not wanting to take a bet and miss out on the sleep, I bought GabaNite from Guardian Pharmacy prior to boarding. As usual, it worked its magic!

We went in a group of six, and we were supposed to stay at a nice villa at Grasse. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, we needed to spilt into two different groups. A friend who had already checked in at an apartment kindly offered us to bunk in. Nonetheless, I managed to get some quick shoots of the beautiful villa before I moved over to the apartment for the rest of the trip.

Living room

A huge garden just outside of the living room. 

A lovely outdoor sitting area with shade!

An outdoor pool with BBQ facilities and more sitting places

The villa was about 40 minutes away from the film market by car. Not that far, but something nearer that allowed me a couple more minutes in bed and in that the cold weather, that was very much appreciated. Registration at the market went well and we had the rest of the day to walk around. 

Black clouds looming behind Palais... 

Cannes usually has beautiful weather in March; and this might be one of the reason why Marché du Film is usually hold in March. Beautiful weather = good mood = buying spree?

The market was located pretty near to the beach and the skies are beautiful when the weather is good.

However, this year's market had plenty of wet days. We were in Cannes for about five days and we did not have a total dry day during that five days. We got so caught in rain that we gave in and finally bought umbrellas.

It was a short walk from our apartment to the market; about 10 minutes or so. We would passed by rows and rows of shops; Zara, Mango, Gucci, Long Champ, Prada and many more. So much of talk about financial crisis, but the world is loving their brands!

On ground at the market, I felt there is not much of a difference between a wet market and a film market. They were both housed in a big place, the sellers prepared the best products in their opinion and went the way out to get the customers!

There were movie materials such as synopsis, catalogue and movie trailer ready to woo buyers.

There were also sellers who would position their booths outside of the convention hall and book hotel suites or office space which were usually just opposite the convention hall.

For people who love movies, the film market was heaven. Hundreds of screenings were scheduled and movie-manics could drown themselves in the movies. Some of the movies, due to many factors, would not travel to one's countries and it was a good chance to catch these movies during the market. The queues were usually snaking for those listed for the competition, like the one in the below picture.

Cannes thrives on the festival and the film market as the world was down at Cannes. Shops would usually have some gimmicks just to join in the festive fun.

Even the pigeon was joining in the fun! The pigeons were very well fed in Cannes, most were so round and ... "ripe"!

This pigeon almost got ran over seconds after the photo!

As usual, my favourite place to visit during travel was always the supermarket and pharmacy!

Check out the rows of spices!

I was thinking the citizens should be pretty heavily subsided in their daily necessities. Most of the stuff were pretty cheap. We paid about euro 5+ for a big tray of strawberries that should cost about SGD20 in Singapore. Three pieces of the usual 70g snickers cost only euro 1.80!

I liked to use thermal water spray as it helps with the absorption of the moisturiser. I used to pay $29.90 for one bottle, and when they started to retail two bottles started at the same price, I was total elated! And I paid only euro 9.90 for two bottles in Cannes! Mine, did I load up! There were other amazing stuff that we picked up in the pharmacy, but those were mostly housewife's stuff, and I should not bother the readers with it :)

One of the days, it was really pouring and we decided to stay in and had a simple meal instead of fighting the weather. My sister made some soup and we toasted some bread. A simple meal but incredibly warm in the cold weather.

Since I could not make my way out of the apartment, I started to take photographs from the apartment's balcony.

The trip was good; and it was even better 'cos I spent some nice together time with my sister. Coming back to the market always remind me that dreaming is easy, working with the right people takes more than luck and a lot of respect for each other, and to see the dream in front of you takes ton of perseverance.

See you again, Cannes!