Why Gerardmer?

Another film festival at Gerardmer this weekend, though much smaller than the sci-fi festival in January. Called "Rencontres du Cinema," the festival featured a handful films from around the world that were being projected for the first time in another country (after their own world premiere in their home countries, I'm guessing).

I went with Becca to go see "le film surprise" last night, which turned out to be the world premiere of Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec, the latest film by Luc Besson, director of "The Fifth Element," "Taxi," and "The Transporter." He was there to present the film, said a little bonjour, yada yada yada; he told the audience the film was only finished yesterday, so there might be a couple technical problems. Ok, world premiere, cool. But what he neglected to tell the audience was how loosely-written, poorly-acted, and illogical the film was... maybe he included those in the "technical problem" category.

I'll give away the story since I'm hoping none of you ever see it: Adele Blanc-Sec, writer-explorer woman, travels to Egypt to find a mummy she thinks was an Egyptian doctor so she can carry it back to Paris to bring it to life and command it to cure her ailing sister, who is a vegetable due to a tennis accident. In the meantime, an old professor accidentally channels the spirit of a pterodactyl that's been living inside an egg inside the Louvre, lets the creature loose on Paris and the city goes crazy. The pterodactyl gets shot, and so the professor dies, but not before Adele can force him to channel the spirit of a mummy, who turns out to be an Egyptian engineer and can't cure her sister. The mummy awakens all the other mummies in the Louvre, they cure Adele's sister, and then all go on a grand tour of Paris. Adele, content to have cured her sister, goes off on a cruise, which turns out to be the Titanic, so Adele dies.

Sounds like a "South Park" episode or something, right?