On Wednesday, I was scheduled for my last Film Fest volunteer shift from noonish – 11:45 – to 4:00. I put on the work calendar that I was on vacay, but actually worked at home in the morning.
Had a big bowl of cereal for breakfast, and then walked to Sundance at Hilldale.
I had one ticket for Gemma Bovery, and planned to swap one of my vouchers for a ticket for Rachael. We had a fairly elaborate scenario – I gave her a voucher, and took the other three with me, along with my real ticket. I was going to work my shift, have a snack, and then get in the ticket holders line, and go in and save seats. Rach would get in the rush line, and swap her voucher for a ticket, and meet me. Of course, being us, there were multiple texts and check-ins, but it all went fairly much accordingly, although with one big improvement: when the rush ticket sales table was set up at about 4:45, I went and begged, and got a real ticket for Rach (pictured above).
I felt pretty good about my volunteer shift. I got the heat turned down in the theater – the venue manager for that afternoon was a Sundance employee, which helped – and I knew how to turn on & off the spotlights for the introducers. And I finally figured out the damn walkie-talkie. I think I’ll try to do it again next year.
We got perfect seats, and settled in for a pleasant evening. Probably the only downside is that instead of a snack, I got a beer to drink while I waited in line. I kind of nursed that beer until almost film time, and then got another to take into the movie, to drink with the popcorn Rach bought. Which unfortunately put me to sleep – I’m still a little embarassed. I missed the part of the film where Gemma’s husband left her.
I liked it – a gentle French critique of an aging boomer, Martin, (ex-bobo parisien = bourgeois bohemian from Paris) who moves to a small village in Normandy and becomes a baker. He’s obsessed with literature, especially Flaubert. Gemma Arterton plays his new neighbor, who he also become obsessed with. She hasn’t read the classics, and instead has moved to the country to pursue her vision of the good life.
We walked home – it was still light – and I threw a few too many handfuls of salted nuts and couple of dates down on top of the beer to sober up.
Whew – sort of caught up. It’s Sunday morning, time to drive from Indy to Chi-town, so I’ll have to tell you about the digital library conference later.
