Day 12: Faced with the industry's silence, Cate Blanchett's (slightly too) polite activism

Black screen before the final clap. On the Croisette, closed shops and restaurants obsessed passersby and worried authorities. Deprived of electricity since 10 a.m., the interiors of Cannes were plunged into darkness on this last day of festivities. Traffic lights were out, ATMs and card readers were blocked, anger was on the congested roads, as part of the Azur coast emerged late, stripped of network, internet, and trains. On the terrace of the palace, panic took over. Weakened by a more anxiety-inducing fortnight than glamorous for their emails and Word documents, accredited journalists, worried they would not be able to send their articles and content on time, resort to silly jokes, as even the Nespresso shop's coffee machines — the official sponsors of their nocturnal neuroses — abandoned them at that point.Most of the merchants...