And now, more Devendra...

Dennis Hopper

Apocalypse Now was being given test screenings at Cannes, introduced (in two versions) by Francis Ford Coppola.  I went to both.

At the same time, hoping to regain some recognition,  Dennis Hopper was trying to hawk his post-Easy Rider movie, The Last Movie.  He hadn't yet been "re-discovered" and legitimized.  He seemed desperate.  Not many people came to the screening room to see his experimental narrative movie and he boasted that it had won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival years before, but had bombed commercially.  He was trying to get a new re-distribution deal.  It wasn't working.  I was just a critic.  I tried to listen to him and express understanding for his lack of favor in Hollywood.

Apocalypse Now changed that for him, but The Last Movie continues to be an obscure oddity.  It still isn't on DVD. He made it back into the limelight.  He does television commercials.

Sirio Maccione

The owner of Le Cirque, Sirio Maccione, appeared at the end of our meal at Le Cirque -- to bid us a good evening. Everything about the meal -- the food, the service, the atmosphere, the suspension of time -- was a perfection bordering on the magical, and this unexpected appearance of Maccioni was just the final surprise.

We still talk about that night. The waiters seemed to materialize out of the air, providing for our wants and needs without our having to speak them aloud. When I wrote an article about the experience -- and forwarded a copy to Le Cirque -- Maccione wrote me back and invited me to attend his "circus" again. Many years later, I did just that.

I have never been and will never be rich, but I felt perfectly comfortable dining amid the Manhattan billionaires and their trophy wives, who spoke with us casually, jokingly, letting us into their world. I hesitate to imagine aspiring or becoming accustomed to such a life; some part of me has resisted even middle-class comforts and complacency. But, for a night or two, now and then, it can be an enlightenment.

Here is the caveat. I don't think I would have enjoyed the meal, the wine, and the evening in the same way -- that soaring feeling of unearned privilege -- if I had paid for the meal. I am not driven by money and I make no apologies for this, but I do know how to appreciate.

I have not strayed far from the Abbie Hoffman taunt that everything should be free. And what did Patti Smith mean when she sang about "Free Money"?

Consider the lilies.

Ellen Burstyn

It was always one of my favorite moments of the Cannes Film Festival, when the city hosted the world press at a luncheon on the outskirts of the city. Wild strawberries grew on the grounds; the wine flowed freely; the food was served by three-star chefs. This was a picnic of epic proportions, even though it did cut into our hectic movie-going times.

The world press, however, are gluttons and pigs, diving into the buffet of incredible foods and stuffing themselves shamelessly.

One year, it was the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin's birth and Ellen Burstyn came to the luncheon to actually carve and serve pieces from the Charlie Chaplin cake that was created for the occasion.

I talked to her about "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" briefly. I was a little in awe of her and the formality she maintained, even while acting as a cake cutter. Not every movie star would pass out cake to the press.

Rudolph Nureyev

Nureyev would only count as a sighting, not an encounter, had I not snapped a picture of him which I later sold to some publication.  He was walking alone, glancing about.  I don't know why he was attending the festival.  He exuded a certain sexuality in his gait and glance.