Code de Da Vinci

So, it's Thursday and last night next door to me in Cannes, "The DaVinci Code" opened up this year's Cannes Film Festival. Interestingly, the night before last night, the film had it's pre-premier in Cannes to hundreds of insiders - mostly critics, people in the film industry, etc as a sneak peak to hype up the hype before the official opening last night which coincided with the opening night in regular movie theaters for the tired non-glam masses. All these movie critics and whoever else were ceremoniously brought over from London on a train with the cast and crew of the film - the train was decorated like a big poster for the film - media buzz buzz buzz. But the pre-premier was not all that it was code-cracked up to be: in fact, some say the film was a flop. In double fact, the film was whistled at the end. That's like Americans booing something. I refuse to hear anymore as I want desperately to hope that it will be as good as the book. For 2 hours and 32 minutes, I want it to take me away from my current daily existence of false labor contractions and random strangers coming up to me and touching my belly.
But what I must share, as part of my ongoing "Comment on Culture Corner", is the documentary that was on TV last night about the making of the DaVinci code in Paris. You know things are out of hand when a show about the making of a film is released on the same night as the film itself. This show, aptly called "On the Path of the DaVinci Code", was interviews with all the people who were involved in making the film - cast and crew. The FRENCH cast and crew, that is. So, in addition to Audrey Tatou, Jean Reno and Jean-Pierre Marille, there were all the French production assistants, the curators at the Louvre, the PR people at the Ritz, the Lieutenant of the Police of Paris, etc. All these Frenchies made a similar themed comment in various contexts and fashions throught the show - something along these lines "Wow, they sure work fast, those Americans." or "We had to be on our toes all the time", as well as "they don't waste a minute" and also, with an astonished air "they never say 'no can do' to anything. Anything is possible for the Americans - they just figure it out!". This was almost sadly comical for me, sitting on my couch, hollering at the TV things like "Of COURSE, that's BECAUSE THEY ARE AMERICAN!!!" while my husband tries to calm me with fresh cherries.
But the icing on the cake was the interview with Audrey Tatou, who may be known to certain circles of American foreign-film buffs as "Amelie", and is the Julia Roberts of France (except she is actually critically respected and can play something other than one type of role, furthermore nor would she have ever married Lyle Lovett). Audrey said "You know, it was really a wild experience, shooting this film. It was unlike any film I've done before. Every day, when I got up, I knew what I was going to be shooting on the set that day - every day was organized and scheduled and we knew what to expect and what would happen. It was amazing". I think she meant to say "It was American."