Real Cannes

The Winner Stands Alone, Paulo Coelho, 2009

Portuguese writer (The Alchemist) wants to take us into the heart of contemporary European culture and where better to do that than at the annual Cannes Film Festival; in this work, mecca of celebrity, fashion, and wealth. In the novel, no one ever actually views a film; in fact we know absolutely nothing about the year’s film offerings or the plans for upcoming films. No this is purely about the red carpet walk, the very exclusive dinners and parties, the powerful, the want-to-be-s, the watchers.

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Hotel Martinez Cannes

The main protagonist is Igor a self made Russian oligarch (cell phones) whose wife Ewa left him two years previously because, as she has told her analyst, Igor became unstable. Ewa is now married to Arab fashion designer Hamid whose father was a cloth merchant that defied the Sheik in refusing to sell the family lands for the rebuilding of the capital city thus gaining the respect of the Sheik who takes it upon himself to support the son Hamid. Support has included threatening to close the middle east market to French fashion is Hamid is not admitted to the French Federation of Fashion. Hamid is now a very important and wealthy fashion designer.

Hamid is in Cannes because he is interested in financing a new film and because a black model he wants to use will be at a Belgium fashion exhibit.

Igor is in Cannes to try to get his wife back. Reservations at the better hotels require at least a year advance booking so Igor has been planning his trip for some time. Upon arriving in Cannes by private Jet, Igor text messages his wife that he will destroy the world unless Ewa returns to him. Ewa ignores him. Igor was a soldier in Afghanistan and is trained in a variety of deadly killing skills. He brings a wide array of killing implements with him which is possible if you arrive on your own private jet.

Igor will select his initial victims randomly. His first victim was a young girl, a Portuguese street vendor, that he kills with his bare hands. She haunts him for the rest of the book.

His second victim is a powerful American independent film distributor who also travels in his own private jet and who has exclusive control of distribution for 500 American cinemas and 5000 international cinemas. He has a reputation for picking winning films and making money for everyone. What only Europol knows is that the distributor’s whole operation is a money laundering scheme for drug and other underworld organizations. He gets the best films because his underworld backers are prepared to outbid everyone. He is killed with a needle poisoned with a South American native substance. Europol thinks the mob knocked him off.

His third victim is an independent film maker who spent the last seven years developing her film using out of work has been actresses. We don’t know what the film is about or whether it is any good. She has borrowed her last resources to get to Cannes and has a last chance appointment with the now deceased independent film distributor. The depressed film maker is lured to the beach by Igor and killed with a stiletto.

We meet the black model everyone thinks is African but who was born and raised in Antwerp. She was discovered by a Belgian photographer- fashion designer who is currently her lover. The Belgian government has decided to spend money at Cannes to showcase Belgian designers who are shut out of the French fashion world. Hamit has seen the model’s photos and thinks she may be right to present his newest fashion line.

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King and Queen on Red Carpet at Cannes

A 25 year old American actress has borrowed heavily to come to Cannes in a last desperate effort to land a role in some new movie. She has answered many casting calls and finally gets a call to come to one. She shows up and is immediately selected because the casting director thinks she is awful which is perfect for the role. She is sent to a yacht to meet the famous director. Her agent tells her to accept whatever is offered and the contract sounds like indentured servitude. She signs and is sent to a hotel suite to be dressed for her red carpet appearance with her famous male co-star. The clothes are by Hamid and the film is to be financed by Hamid. After styling and makeup she is pushed into a Limousine for her red carpet appearance. A publicist is handing the journalist a flier with the new name given to this undiscovered young actress. She poses for the photographers with the famous actor, enters the theater, and is immediately hustled out the back door and to clothes suites to prepare her for the evening party. She never sees the theater.

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18 Year Old Bridget Bardot Discovered

Around town, we see the beach filled with beautiful young bikini clad women waiting to be discovered 50 years after Bridget Bardot. We see the spectators, some poor, some very wealthy, just waiting for a glimpse of a famous or powerful person. Invitations to parties where the powerful may be present are the currency of the realm. Attendees are bored but their invitation and seating arrangement indicates their current status which they must defend at all cost.

The climactic scene of the novel is at one the most prestigious parties of the film festival. Igor can buy his way in; Hamid and his wife Ewa are celebrities about to enter the film world; the model and the actress are invited because of their new status. The famous actor doesn’t arrive for the party because Igor has slipped a sealed envelope with poison gas randomly under his door and he is dead. Igor shares a table with the two girls.

Well written, entertaining as always, and an awful vision of what was once a center of the revolutionary European film industry. Coelho’s research sources on fashion, film, and celebrity for this work remain anonymous.