Cannes: Screen at 40 - Colin Vaines, co-editor (1982-83)

Click here for more Screen memories

Biggest Cannes drama?

Facing the wrath of a Very Famous American Director after tracking him down in Cannes and interviewing him about a notoriously troubled production that had yet to be finished, and then being told the interview was off the record.

Very young and very green, I knew nonetheless that I had a scoop, and ambition overcame discretion. Cue explosive appearance the following morning by said director, who screamed, shouted and hurled the contents of my in-tray into my face.

His (completely understandable) rant was only interrupted by one of the sub-editors, whose expertise was in getting a daily paper out, not in the workings of the film industry. His wonderfully bathetic interjection – “Who are you, love?” – rings in my ears to this day.

Favourite Cannes moment?

From memory, I never got to sit in the editor’s chair during Cannes, as my tenure started and ended between festivals; and in any case, the late, great Peter Noble was still pretty much fulfilling the role even in my later years at the paper.

As a hack labouring away in the salt mines, being paid very low wages, it was probably the time I was queuing to interview David Bowie at the height of his fame, when he was in Cannes to promote Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

My good friend Chris Auty, who was working for The Hollywood Reporter at the time, was next in line, and we immediately realised that if we put our pathetic 15 minute slots together, we might get a decent interview out of the man. So we did, and we did!

I think both Chris and I earned more out of reselling that interview over and over to magazines around the world than we ever made at our respective publications.

I could list half-a-dozen other memorable incidents, like the time Isabelle Adjani informed me, after 10 minutes of gushing to her about The Driver, that she thought it was “pitiful”; or even the evening at my first Cannes, when a handful of people worked 24/7 to turn out a massive daily edition, that I literally fell asleep headfirst into my soupe de poissons; or it may even have been the daily cry of horror from the office loo as our leading sub sat within and perused the magazine, fresh from its all night, hot-metal printing, only for him to discover the most goddamn awful howler of a headline.

All that posh stuff going on at the Palais de Festivals tended to pass me by, to be honest.

Proudest editorial achievement during your time at Screen International?

Being part of the Cannes operation in those early years. How such a small group of people managed to write and produce a daily paper under such intense pressure (and remember, we were the only game in town for a number of years), I don’t know.  

Biggest change in the international film industry that occurred while you were Editor?

Definitely the start of home video, and the impact that had on the business as a whole.

Biggest challenge facing the industry today?

As far as Hollywood is concerned, finding a way to keep the lid on the truly insane budgets of movies. When $40-60m is considered a “modest” budget, that’s bad enough. But to routinely see higher end, VFX-driven movies budgeted between $170-250m is bonkers! In terms of smaller movies, I hope the buyers from the traditional distribution end of the business continue to take on board the changes to the business in terms of VOD etc, and look at movies in terms of what can be achieved across a wide group of release platforms.