Skin Blog: Are these the biggest fake skins from this year’s festival?

It was always easy to feel uncomfortable in the skin. Understand that you aren’t wearing the right shoes or that you weren’t invited to the right party. But in a hilarious Monday night gathering of filmmakers, agents and buyers in a suite overlooking the cruise ship, wearing a pair of espadrilles that were miraculously comfortable and party-appropriate, I found a new way to feel like A ball.

Of the 80 or so attendees in the crowded suites, the vast majority of whom had just arrived from crowded airports around the world, I was one of three in costume and one was another. THR Co-worker. People looked at us as if we were the strange things of long ago, perhaps wearing powdered skirts or wigs instead of the legally required personal protective equipment until recently in most countries, including France. Before the elimination of the mandate in public transport. One party even asked a colleague why someone was wearing such an “attractive” mask. Now, I also thought that COVID-19 couldn’t infect beautiful people, but then I read that Idris Elba contracted it and I started to take the pandemic very seriously.

So I packed my trusty KN95s and home trials with my espadrilles as I boarded a plane to attend an event that would attract over 35,000 people from all over the world. What I didn’t expect was how dated my mask would be once I got here. At the opening night ceremonies, even when my paper ticket offered me to wear the mask and the voice was announced by the PA: “We recommend that you wear the mask during the show”, I found myself almost alone, less than 5 percent . For this, 2,000 people sat at the Lumiere Theater.

How fast everything changes! Just 16 months ago, the palace itself became a mass vaccination site for the city of Cannes. And just 10 months ago, at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, much smaller than normal non-European attendees had to spit into a tube every 48 hours to prove they were COVID-free before entering the building.

This year the festival does not require proof of vaccines, masks and tests. Our festival certificates have buttons with cheeky quotes in French and one says, “Oh, is that you in 2021? You can’t know me without a mask.” The message is clear: COVID was like this last year.

Of course, I can sympathize with the desire to move forward, especially in Europe, where there is a more dangerous and imminent threat of war in Ukraine. How many possible historical forms of death should a person consider before leaving home in the morning? And with the national vaccination rate hovering around 80%, it’s clear that the French have reason to feel safer than they did last year.

And yet, COVID is still with us and still influencing this year’s festival, whether it’s about masks or not. South Korean actress Doona Bae’s film The Next Sohee is showing at Critics’ Week, but she can’t attend because it features Zack Snyder’s Netflix movie Rebel Moon in the US and the film’s producers don’t want you be infected with COVID in France. . And he is forced to quarantine and miss days of filming. India is the honorary country of this year’s march and Bollywood star Akshay Kumar was supposed to attend the festival, but he just tested positive and had to bow. Festival attendees from the United States will need a negative test to return home after the festival ends, or risk being quarantined in hotels. There are still immunocompromised people among us, parents of children too young to be vaccinated, and caregivers of others at risk, including the workers who clean our rooms and serve our espresso.

Although skin masks are in short supply this year, I will still wear them in the palace. Because taking care of each other will never be allowed.