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Encounter 1 - |
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Just as a drug trip, the day was an upward motion from reality to a dream, with its rise and its flash when I met Johnny and remembering our meeting when I went to bed after a very special trip. THE PRESS CONFERENCE: A bad beginning. For the beginning of the day, I'm not really lucky. The press conference is over-crowded and I couldn't enter the room. Anyway, I didn't have the right pass. The access is only authorized to the journalists with the pink pass and I had the white. But there was another way to watch the press conference. On the first floor of The Festival Palace, there was a place where you can sit on deck-chairs (as if you were on the beach) and follow the press conference live as it is broadcast on TV Festival ! ! ! A lot of people agree with me when I say that's the best way to hear and record a press conference. You're well installed and the sound is better for your recorder. That's how I saw and recorded the Fear and Loathing press conference. Vicki will put some clips from the conference soon with this report. THE MOVIE: Let the delirium enter your mind. SYNOPSIS - The gonzo journalist Raoul Duke is scheduled to write an article about a motorcycle race in Las Vegas. He travels there with his attorney, Dr Gonzo, driving a crimson convertible full of every sort of drug and pharmaceutical product. They begin a savage drug-fueled trip into the heart of the American Dream. REVIEW - The most interesting part of this movie is Gilliam's choice to dedicate the entire movie to his characters, by the cinematography, the special effects and the editing, to make the audience live the trip of the individuals from inside. Sure, Gilliam uses too much moving animals for the hallucinations. But the choice of the frames, the deep focus, the colors, the filters, the design – Las Vegas is absolutely fabulous – the acting a little exaggerated from Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro but exactly right for their mad characters. The editing which follows the trip exactly, slow or fast depending of the characters' mind, give the film wealth, which make the hallucinatory trip of the two individuals almost palpable. Terry Gilliam tells a story showing the trip at the good and bad moments, without any morality about drug-addiction in his filmmaking. People may regret his no-engagement against drugs, but it's an artistic choice depending on his interpretation of the novel upon which the movie is based. The two characters don't care about the consequences of their behaviour. They just enjoy their journey in Las Vegas, experiencing with drugs the limits of their bodies. That may be shocking for our 90's eyes, but we have to remember the spirit of the 1971 Hunter Thompson novel. Gilliam's filmmaking gives a light and humorous but finally realistic description of the perception of drugs in the early seventies. Finally, the only reproach we can address to Terry Gilliam is having lost his idea by giving a sort of morality in two sentences about the drug consequences at the end of the movie, granting to the American morality at the end of a great movie which was just a glance without any message on the story of two individuals. THE PARTY: The apogee of the trip. In spite of my invitation, it was hard to enter the party. The guards made me wait about 20 minutes. The reason was Johnny Depp himself. He was inside with Kate Moss so the organizers didn't want too many people around them. After this long wait during such an important moment in my life, I finally entered with friends. First we went to the bar to have some Champagne. Then I went to the area for dancing just to prove to my friends that I'm not there only to see JD but also to have fun. I was very surprised to see Johnny just one meter in front of me, seated at a table with Kate Moss. Arrrrgggghhhh! That's not a dream : he is there. As I looked again, I saw him talking to someone I knew. So I went over to them, to say hello to my friend and of course to Johnny. Very politely, he talked to me and I answered him stupid stuffs like "Hi … How are you … Good Champagne … Enjoy your party …" I didn't want to disturb them anymore. Johnny was touching Kate's hands for a while and he didn't seem to enjoy the party very much. So I went back to the dancing area. A few minutes later, he left to attend another party for "The Ninth Gate". Around three o'clock, I decided to go to bed, my mind full of pictures of the coolest man I've ever met. Sure he said those things to me to be polite. He certainly must have said the same words to a lot of people during the party and ours was a 2-minutes meeting that he surely does not remember. Anyway, I was really happy to meet him. He IS really cool. MARIE
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