Jacques d'Azur, please take me to Cannes!

[Photo credit: Popsop.com]

A film festival, a mysterious proposition from a dude with a French name, a digital short set in the 60s - mmmm, I like. Here's the deal: Stella Artois (one of the few beers I actually don't mind drinking) is running an interesting campaign with the Cannes Film Festival. A mysterious French playboy-director Jacques d’Azur, the "King of Cannes" apparently has gone missing and his spot at Cannes is up for grabs - are you the rightful heir to fill Jacques' white boating shoes? *rolls eyes*

Head over to Stella Artois Cannes web site, watch the short film (it's cheap fun, trust me, even if it's cheesy as hell) and complete the form. Why would I proactively sign up for spam? Because I checked NO on the "send me more info' and the form is done in a gorgeous old school typewriter, complete with ink strips and it's interactive - so if you hit ENTER it goes to the next line, if you hold on to a keyboard key, it continues typing. I'm such a sucker. There's more - if you share the campaign with 4 friends, you get a free film, viewable online only and I'm not sure if it's for multiple screenings. If not, what's the point of giving me a "free film" vs "one free screening." Films to choose from below - I went with Dogville, amazing film if you haven't seen it yet, even though Manderlay was better. See film list below.


The next question is: Who is Jacques d'Azur? Founder of Stella Artois? Do I care? Do a quick Google search and you'll realize that he's obviously a fictional character created by Stella Artois. I'm not a big fan of marketing campaigns with fictional characters, but heck, that's what filmmaking is about, the creation of believable fictional characters - so I guess if that's the tie-back to Cannes, fine, Stella Artois is forgiven.

Anyhoo, I got as far as the main web site and completed my name because there was also a promise of a free film - see list below. And, the campaign got me excited enough to blog about it and make my friends watch the view. I guess viral works, the right kind of viral.