Lives from Cannes: Piracy, Studio Beyond & Avi Lerner

by Ashley Wren Collins
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/festivals/article/lives_from_cannes_avi_lerner_20090521/
In the second it takes to wipe persistent flakes of the croissant I wolfed down for the snack substituting for my breakfast, I divert my clipped pace in the direction of the trash can I spot thankfully just outside the Louis Vuitton on the Croisette. As I dispose properly of my pastry wrap litter before running to my next interview, the tres chic Cannes Film Festival badge-necklaced woman crossing in the exact opposite direction a full twelve feet away from me clucks her tongue noisily and disapprovingly. While I realize my decision to multitask—eating the croissant while making sure my tape recorder is set to record in the right place while walking in the most efficient of New York City manners—is a particularly gauche necessity of the moment, it is clear she’s berating me in unabashed disgust. Not for my exhibition of a sheer Americanism, but for my advance audacity to get in her way.