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As Sally Potter travels around the world with 'YES'
she is keeping a diary exclusively for this web site
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DINARD - 9 October

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The last time I was in Dinard for the ‘Festival du Film Britannique’ was with Orlando, twelve years ago, when we won the ‘prix publique’. This time, YES was not in competition but was the opening film. Simon and I presented the film, did a couple of interviews, and otherwise roamed the streets in a state of over-excitement at being together again. I pulled his hair, he pulled mine, we plotted, we planned, he made me laugh, I took some photographs of him at the beach, we behaved disgracefully at every opportunity.

I took a short break from such anarchism to give a seminar on screenwriting, from a writer/director’s point of view, to graduates from the National Film School in the UK and their opposite numbers from FEMIS in France. It was, as usual, an intensely rewarding experience to watch peoples faces, at first wary, closed and sleepy, open up…to witness the longing in their eyes when they are able to admit their passion for our medium, and experience the pleasure in articulating for and with them what our work consists of, both in its concrete details and its hidden underlying principles.

Then it was back to more play-work with Simon. He danced at the closing party with Timothy Spall, who described what they did as “eccentric dancing”, a nineteenth century term for improvised movement somewhere between clowning and dancing. Max Wall was the last practitioner of this art that I had the privilege to see on stage. His ‘ballet’ movements were the most graceful, heartbreaking, achingly funny and minimalist  performance moments. Simon and Timothy had some of the same quality. An excellent sight.

Dinard gave the opportunity to talk with other British filmmakers, a rare enough event. I exchanged warm words with Nik Powell, Steve Wooley, Neil Jordan, Charles Dance, Annie Griffin. But the revelation was Nic Roeg, whose modesty and generosity spoke volumes and whose ‘Don’t Look Now’ looked fresh and bold at the same time as being so of its time (1973). Someone should give him a nice fat cheque, no strings attached, to make something new.

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Text © Sally Potter. All pictures © Adventure Pictures unless otherwise indicated