Waiting for Harvey

Of all the film festivals in the world, the one in Cannes appeals most to the imagination. Probably, every young filmmaker has once secretly dreamed that his (prospective) film would be discovered there by the press, the audience and the attending international film buyers. Most important buyer on the scene is Harvey Weinstein, the boss of a major American film studio. Stephen Walker followed four filmmakers during the 1998 Cannes festival: James Merendino from Los Angeles, director Mike Hakata and scriptwriter Stephen Lloyd from London, and French filmmaker Erick Zonca. Merendino is already a veteran; SLC PUNK, a film about the punk rock scene in Salt Lake City is his seventh film and should propel him to fame as the new Quentin Tarantino. Hakata puts his film cans on the TGV seat next to him when travelling to the Côte d‘Azur. His fellow-townsman Lloyd repaints his truck in vivid yellow and puts his sleeping bag in the back; he hopes to sell a script about cannabis. Zonca’s debut (LA VIE RÊVÉE DES ANGES) has already been selected for the main programme, so he is served champagne on the plane. Putting things into perspective, WAITING FOR HARVEY is a comical film about success, money and tinsel.