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Red carpet, stars, croisette, cocktail dress, limo... this is Cannes. The magic of the festival. But only the magic of it. Most of the professional here are part of the market. Buy and sell, looking at the next success, this is the fist of the International Festival of Cannes. There are not only movies. You can find everything about cinema. Some people sell chairs for theaters, video cameras, posters, everything can be found around here. This unknown part of Cannes looks more like a village market on a Sunday morning than like the perfect shiny dream we see on TV.
Of course, all you thought about Cannes is real too but it's not the main part of it. The inflow of money is amazing and conduces to two opposite milieu. You can meet the first one during the night. Those crazy night birds spend millions euros in champagne, cars, suites, fake breast, drugs and so on. This is the shiny part. From the middle of the afternoon till the sunrise, in this happy-go-lucky wave of parties, rich people come to can to give a chance to the proletarian to have fun with them for the luckiest, or just to look at them for real for once for the most of us. The second milieu is everywhere; it's even part of the previous one. This is the hard-working milieu. 24/7 they meet as many people as they can, spread professional cards all around Cannes, go to the parties, conferences, theaters, everywhere there is someone with something to sell or to buy. Those people who literally make the festival own there headquarter. It's not hiding anywhere; this is here, right in the Palais des Festival. Its location is pretty relevant. Level -1. The only one underground, the one you're not supposed to see but as close to the main entrance as theaters and medias.
How important is the Marché du film? Well, here are some numbers. 8700 participants from 86 different countries (for 8200 from 79 countries in 2005); United States is, of course, the most represented country follow by Asia, and England (with respectively 17%, 16%, 14% and 13% of the participants). 4471 movies looking for one of the 1600 buyers, we can notice that half of the movies are not done yet. The buyers are the roots of the festival and Cannes has scheduled 1500 projections for them. For the 400 exhibitors, the Cannes Festival is the opportunity to make and good money, actually, most of them are doing the main part of their turnover during the festival.
This is the shadow life of Cannes. An anthill of hardworking cinema lovers. It all take place few meters far from the famous red carpet, two levels bellow the stars in tuxedo, but at the time Paris Hilton goes to bed, they are already hundreds to figure out a way to improve their business. On that point of view, the International Cannes Festival is very relevant the paradox of human beings. Around one ion, each one brings his own desire. Cannes is place of freedom of speech (at least officialy), so you find here all the of motivation. Business/parties, day/night, tuxedos/sneakers, palme d’or/marché du film...everything’s here. That’s why le festival de cannes is wonderful, but of course, some part of it is unshowable on TV. C’est la vie. Nobody really care about the working part of the festival, otherwise where would be the dream?
The cinéma workers of the marché du film don’t need any tribute but just the acknowledgement of their work. They make the festival and the city live, they work in a basement distinguished by its lake of windows and sunlight. They don’t complain. Of course not, they here for business and that’s just what they do. But for all the people who reduce Cannes to the superficiality of its nights, I just let you know that this is the tip of the iceberg showed by the medias. Cannes is beautiful cause it’s human, purely human.