IFFR Opening Night

Adam Sekuler and I knew we couldn’t get tickets to the official Opening Night film La antena, but I suspected we could get into the opening night party. I asked at Guest Relations if there was anything at all we could get into this evening, lest we spend a day in Rotterdam without seeing any movies. Turns out they had a second opening night film (not quite sure how or why), and there were tickets available. And it was Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn. Hot damn. All that and the opening night party too.

We wandered back to our respective hotels, but not before stopping for dinner at a Tiki bar. Not bad, either.

I meant to finish unpacking when I got back to my dorm room, but I looked at that little twin bed and I knew that I needed a nap. With no alarm clock in my room, I pulled out my thought-to-be-useless-in-the-EU cell phone and set its alarm. When I woke up, there was no time for unpacking. Alas.

Met Adam in front of the Pathé, a giant aluminum box full of state of the art theaters that is situated on a sort of town square/stage that is made mostly of aluminum planks. The sun had set and the water had frozen on the metal, and though that was slippery as all get out, it wasn’t as slippery as those sections of the square that are made of wood. It was slow going across this glacial expanse.

Once inside we were handed glasses of champagne. Nice. We mingled, and by “mingled” I mean we walked around the lobby talking to one another because we didn’t know anyone else there. But we had each other. Another glass of champagne and it was into the theater. Big huge screen, curved so it didn’t lose focus on the edges. That’s how big it is.

The movie was great, and when we got out we headed over to the Opening Night Party. Spoiled by years of free beer and wine at the Seattle International Film Festival, we were surprised to see that we had to buy our drinks despite prominent advertising for their booze sponsor. Ah well. C’est la vie. We wandered the party and still didn’t know anyone, so we headed home to get ready for the first full day of screenings.