DAY 1 : ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH

We are the very first people to arrive for the 9.30 am movie.  It's only 8.30 am but we need to get in line to ensure we get a seat.  There are more Passes than there are Seats because not every single accredited Industry person sees every movie at these special Press & Industry Shows. Consequently some movies play to packed houses where latecomers don't make the cut, and others have a mere handful in their audience. Hence we never take a chance and are in the Marquee which serves as the Holding Area for the Holiday Village Complex Theaters really early.  We get herded into one of the many lines between barriers which is a tad too reminiscent of pens at cattle market, although we are a much more attractive crowd.  I'm clutching my first Starbucks of the day and a muffin i.e. my  breakfast.  

Our first pick is 'CORPO CELESTE' : a very weird Italian cold fish of a movie about  a poor girl going to catechism class in preparation for her Confirmation. The priest however is more concerned with badgering his poor parishioners to vote for the far Right Forza Party Candidate in the upcoming Elections. And meanwhile the church cat gave birth to kittens which they put in a plastic bag and ......!  Did I mention it was Catholic? That should say it all!   

'THE AMBASSADOR' on the other hand is the work of Mads Brugger a Danish documentarian setting himself up as a 'African Diplomat'  and under the pretense of representing Liberia he settles in Central African Republic ostensibly to expose widespread corruption but at the same time becoming a diamond drug smuggler.  This hilarious and completely compelling movie is about being a con man trying to outplay a whole series of local con-men in this latest 'Mickey Mouse' Regime that are now in power in this desperately poor Third World Country.  But on reflection there is also a distinct possibility that the filmmaker has set this whole thing up and is actually conning us too.  Regardless of who is being taken for a ride it is an immensely funny film that takes aim at the farcical machinations in this African State where no-one is technically bribed but they all expect to be given a bulging 'envelope of happiness'.

Poor day for Celeb sighting we just caught a glimpse of William H Macy sporting a band aid across his nose. He was actually born in Miami or so IMDB claims, but it also says that Bill is 5 '9" tall and we swear he seemed no taller than hobbit Elijah Wood from where we were standing.

The next movie on our schedule this day was THE best.  'THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES' is a documentary that followed obnoxious billionaire timeshare mogul David Segal and his pampered blonde trophy wife Jackie as their life of sheer excess starts to crumble around them. The story starts pre 2008 when everything in their Florida mansion was so rosy for them and their seven small spoilt-to-death children and whole menagerie of animals that including countless yapping dogs who pooped everywhere.  However they, and their 19 staff, have outgrown the place so the Segals are now building the largest single house in the US.  Planned to be over 90000 sq feet with some 38 bathrooms alone. It was inspired styled by French Palais, but actually they copied the top three floors of the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.

Their lives are reeling with such outrageous bad bad taste, that they actually make those wretched Kardashians look like a Class Act. Imagine that!  Jackie's breasts also match the size of her house , and she is also The Queen of Fur Coat & No Knickers Brigade (she actually wears one in the Florida heat ... a fur coat that is!). Then when the 'crash' happens and the unfinished 'Versailles' is facing foreclosure, they only have 4 house staff, and Mr. Siegel is fighting hard to hang on to his business, but Jackie is still out shopping.  Not Chanel this time, but actually Walmart where she still manages to fill four shopping carts with more toys that the kids really do not need.  The hilarious film is compulsive viewing and is peppered with some priceless quotes .... like when Jackie is talking about her annoyance that the Stimulus Money that Obama gave to the Banks was intended to pass on to the common people like them without a hint of irony.  And on that basis she would deserve a lot, because she is dead common!  We loved every single minute of it

Movie number four sobered us up sharply as it was another in-depth look at where US Healthcare is going wrong. Then the last movie of the day was 'ABOUT PINK  SKIES'.  It seemed to have been about a japanese schoolgirl who finds a loaded wallet in the streets and then spends her day squalling in a high pitched voice with her school chums.  Forty minutes  later we decide that this movie is going nowhere, but we are.  Home.  It's almost 11 pm.  An early night after our first 15 hour day at the movies.  Can't wait for tomorrow.