What to Bring to Cannes (or anywhere)
A tiny list.
I have been at the Cannes Film Festival for about a week, and am heading back to Paris for a bit today. This was my seventh Cannes so I guess I’m a bit of a vet by now, which is helpful at a festival that can be a little Byzantine and weirdly bureaucratic, much like the beloved country in which it is held.
But, I have the hang of it. So I thought I would post five things that make my Cannes, and travel generally, a lot better and easier and just overall less friction-fraught. (None of these are sponsored, obviously, but I guess I have to say that, especially because this festival has become loaded with influencers and aspiring influencers.)
Before we get there, here are some quick things I want you to know I’m doing or have done:
On Thursday, June 5 at 8pm EST, I’ll be over at Five Things I’ve Learned, teaching a little 90-minute seminar on five things I’ve learned about mythmaking — how and why we do it, and what it all means — from my work writing and researching Joan Didion. It will be recorded and you can access it with a pass to just the class or to the whole site, which includes similar lectures by everyone from Rebecca Solnit to Kaveh Akbar to Maggie Smith to Cheryl Strayed and Andre Dubus. I’m excited!
I’m teaching two courses this summer — both of which are repeats of courses I taught last fall — through the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, one in person and one online. They filled up fast last time and there was a lengthy waiting list, so I wouldn’t wait too long.
Online: A 4-week course on Joan Didion’s writing craft — aka, how did she do that? — which I am teaching ON ZOOM on Saturdays, July 12 - August 2. Here’s more on that.
In person (in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, near BAM): An 8-week workshop focusing specifically on the review as creative writing. Everybody gets workshopped, we talk about crafting reviews and the business of writing them, it’s a good time. Monday nights in Brooklyn, June 23 to August 11, more here!
For the Times, I wrote about Nicolas Cage’s nuanced career, about Pope Francis the movie star, and about the many weird and surprising ways that actors on stage, screen, and social video have been playing a lot of parts. I also reviewed “Friendship” (are men okay?), “Love” (gentle, Norwegian), “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” (funny and sneakily deep), “The Legend of Ochi” (for the 80s kids), “The Wedding Banquet” (on chosen families), “On Swift Horses” (Jacob Elordi might be a time traveler, honestly), “Another Simple Favor” (big hats and big martinis!) and “Blue Sun Palace” (exquisite). And I wrote Documentary Lens columns on movies about Pavement (sort of), the 1970s NYC financial crisis, Sophia the robot (but really her creator), Ani DiFranco and “Deaf President Now!”
On to my favorite things! (Oprah voice.)
1. These amazing J.Crew pants
People tend to think of glamour when they think of Cannes, thanks to that red carpet, but as a journalist I almost never have to “walk the red carpet” (instead of just walking on a red carpet, which are everywhere). That belongs to evening gala premiere screenings held in the Lumiere theater, marked out on our ticketing schedules by an icon of a jaunty little bow tie. The dress code, as you may have heard, is pretty strict, though far less strict than previous years, in which you might have gotten the boot (or “c’est impossible” from a guard) for the great crime of wearing flats.
But this year I got an unexpected invitation to the gala premiere of Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” and it fit my schedule, so I had to think fast, because I don’t really travel with a ballgown.
These “Stratus pants” to the rescue! They are absurdly comfortable. They feel like pajamas. They are “hammered satin” which basically means they don’t wrinkle, don’t have any static, and flow beautifully. They have a fully elastic waist. (I am usually a 14 in pants at J.Crew and I bought them in L, and they still are a little big, so keep that in mind.) Paired with a ruffly black top I nabbed at the Zara that everyone goes to a few blocks from the Palais des Festivals and some heels I did bring for my book event in Paris last week, they were entirely red carpet appropriate and I had a great time. They are also on sale.
2. Supergoop Glow Screen
Suncreen a must in the Mediterranean, and while French sunscreen has a deservedly legendary reputation, I brought along my trusty Glow Screen. I layer it on top of (currently) copper peptides, hyalauronic acid, and the Merit Great Skin serum and primer, and it all dries down nicely and my skin feels like silk and everyone seems to think I am younger than I am, which is only sometimes a little annoying. (Obligatory note: Merit is releasing a new sunscreen/primer/color thing today, which sounds nice too.)
3. Two battery bricks
Don’t bring just one external battery, because the sun is super bright here and if you take your phone out to do anything your battery will drain instantly, and unfortunately, you need that phone to pull up your tickets. (This is applicable to more than just Cannes.) Instead, bring a small one you can tuck into a purse and then a larger one that can do multiple charge-ups, in case you forget to charge overnight. My picks are this one that’s about the size of a phone but thinner (and is the pick of my colleagues at Wirecutter), and this one which is roughly the size of a squat lipstick and tucks into any clutch, no matter how small.
4. Lo & Sons Aoyama bag
Speaking of clutches. I own a fair number of bags — for a New Yorker, your bag is your car, and you have to treat it as such — but am not much of a sparkly little clutch gal. However, remember that red carpet? I needed to be carrying a notebook for the movie, my phone, lipstick, battery brick, keys, and a couple of other things.
Luckily I am traveling with my Aoyama bag, which I bought when it first came out as a big Lo & Sons fan, and use a lot. I have it in black. Yes, it’s a little spendy if you’re not a bag buyer, but after many months of hard-core wear, I am convinced it’s worth it. The key to a great bag for me is that it carries everything, can get totally beat up, and puts everything right where I need it, and that’s this one.
The convertible strap means you can wear it as a cross-body, a sling, an over-the-shoulder purse, or, yes, a clutch, which you can see me carrying in the photo above. It is soft as a baby’s cheek and has this very useful pocket in the front into which I usually stuff my phone for easy access. I can also fit my iPad Mini and fold-up keyboard in here, and/or Kindle, and/or a book or two, an extra notepad, an umbrella, a water bottle, and my camera if I want, and it never feels heavy. It’s got a key leash with a long strap so you can leave your keys (and in my case, Airpods) on the leash and use them, thus ensuring you can’t lose them. Has a great inner pocket for passport and money and whatever. Also, when emptied, it packs so flat that I just throw it in my suitcase and use my Cuyama zipper tote as a personal item on the plane. I am coveting, impractically but unavoidably, the cognac version.
5. TripIt app
I have been using TripIt forever, like maybe since it was released, and I couldn’t live without it. Whenever I make a travel plan, I forward it to the app and it populates out all the fields, like addresses and confirmation numbers and departure dates and times. I occasionally have to fiddle with it to combine legs of trips into one big agenda, but it is set up so that I always have access to whatever info I need, plus maps, and it even imports travel plans from your inbox (not seamlessly, but pretty close). It also keeps records of your trip, so you can see how many miles or countries you traveled each year. My record goes back to 2009!