MCN’s Jake Howell told me yesterday afternoon he’d heard that Serge Bozon‘s Tip Top, a “comedie policier” with Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Kiberlain, was getting good buzz. So I blew off Claude Lanzmann’s Les Derniers Des Injustes, which I was skittish about seeing anyway because of its three-hour-plus length, and trekked over to the Theatre Croistte to catch a 7:30 pm showing of the Bozon.

People in line to Theatre Croisette management: “Kiss our collective ass, s’il vous plait.”

Guy with glasses: “The Theatre Croisette people have fucked me. They’ve stolen an hour from my life and it’s gone forever. All they had to do was take a head count and gives us a heads-up…assholes!”

Mistake. I waited in line for a full hour — from 6:50 to 7:50 pm — and for all of that effort I didn’t get in. Now this happens and I accept that. Part of the rough and tumble of Cannes. But I was angry that the Theatre Croisette management couldn’t be bothered to do a head count of the people in line and tell those who were waiting beyond the fail-safe position that the odds don’t look good. I worked as the manager of the Carnegie Hall Cinema in ’79 — it’s the considerate thing to do.

Even if had gotten in the film started about a half-hour late. I’m on a clock here and have no patience for theatres that don’t respect that.

So that’s it for all Theatre Croisette screenings for the remainder of the festival. In my mind the people who are running it are dicks, and I haven’t got time for this crap. I’m restricting myself henceforth to Grand Lumiere, Salle Debussy (where my pink-with-yellow-pastille badge carries some clout), Salle du Soixantieme and market screenings (Olympia, Star and the other one).

Clouds hovering over my hour-long vigil in line to see Tip-Top. It started to sprinkle a bit towards the end of my wait.