Journey's End

We're out of soap and there's only one bog roll left - it must be time to come home.

It's so quiet here now compared to the mayhem of earlier in the week. It's 9:25, and I'm the only one on the computers, and there's hardly anyone having breakfast (I'm in the Euro pavilion - coffee, croissant and juice, free). The market in the Riviera building is like a ghost town - the shells of film company stands lie empty but for cardboard boxes and the odd abandoned wine glass or torn poster. The UK pavilion closes at noon today, and most Brits I know have gone home. Jenny goes this evening, so I think I'll have dinner with Sue - she flies home tomorrow, same as me. I'm hoping to catch Steven today to have a coffee with him before he goes back to LA tomorrow.

Yesterday was a day of contrasts. In the morning I saw "United 93", Paul Greengrass' film about the flight that crashed into a field on September 11th when the passengers tried to fight back against the terrorists. It's a brilliantly made film, showing here in the Out of Competition strand. The pace is quite slow to begin with, but the tension builds inexorably, partly because you supply your own tension knowing the outcome of the day. I came out shaking, it has such a powerful emotional impact.

In the evening I had what I assume will be my final red carpet experience of this trip. I got a ticket to see "Quand J'etais Chanteur", French entry in Competition, a film about a singer played by Gerard Depardieu. I went with a group of friends of a friend of Jenny's, and it was fun to walk in with a big group, all dressed up. I wore the black dress with the jet effect beads, which looked pretty glam. (However it will be last experience of trying the strapless bra - by the end of the evening it had descended far enough to make the wiring feel like I'd gained extra ribs - most bizarre. Give me decent scaffolding any day). The atmosphere outside the cinema was fantastic, masses of crowds, and really good buzz.

Once we were inside, we got to watch the rest of the arrivals on the big screen, and the reception when Gerard D got out of the car to walk the tapis rouge was enormous - he's the local superstar, that's for sure. The film itself was a sweet romance, very French, lots of great songs, really enjoyable and a nice fun film to end on. It's a hugely different film from everything else I've seen in competition. It got a huge standing ovation at the end, but I think that was for the presence of the stars as much as for the film itself.

Afterwards I met up with Jenny, who had been working hard all day, and we went to the Century Club for one last glass of wine sitting on the sunbeds and listening to the sea. Lovely.

Today is shopping, and trying to find people to say goodbye before we all go our separate ways. I must count up the number of business cards I've collected, and number of films I've seen (didn't crack 30, Viv, but I think I got up to 20, didn't I? And yes, I'll definitely go to Scanner with you in August - I have to wait THAT long? Arg!) Mum's right, I'm ready for home - Jenny had some Very Irresistable yesterday and I smelt it and missed Anna terribly. And I'm afraid I haven't sent any postcards - I've bought them - just not got round to writing them. Maybe I could do that this afternoon on the beach!