#2,104. All the Love You Cannes! (2002)

Directed By: Gabriel Friedman, Lloyd Kaufman, Sean McGrath

Starring: Lloyd Kaufman, Jean Pierre, Doug Sakmann



Line from the film: "He had a little bit too much fun. Just a little"

Trivia: This movie was shot on-location at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival





You would think that at an event as prestigious as the Cannes Film Festival, Lloyd Kaufman and His collection of Troma fanatics would stick out like a sore thumb. Well, you’d be right, and in the 2001 documentary All the Love You Cannes, we see JUST how far out there that “thumb” truly is! 

Shot on-location at the 2001 Festival, All the Love You Cannes stars Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman, who, along with shooting much of the footage himself, offers advice on how best to save money at Cannes (everything from “stay at an apartment as opposed to a hotel” to “bring your own peanuts”). In addition, the film follows Lloyd and his band of Tromites as they promote the hell out of the company, inviting prospective distributors back to their offices at the Carlton Hotel and sponsoring daily “Troma Parades”, which march through the streets, stopping traffic and drawing attention to the studio and their newest films (in this case, the big Troma release was Citizen Toxie, the 4th installment in The Toxic Avenger series). Sometimes, the Troma gang gets a bit too rambunctious and pisses a few people off (aside from the security at the Carlton, who object to the fake blood that occasionally splatters on the wall, Warner Bros., which occupies the office across the hall, complains about the noise and general mayhem that Troma unleashes on a daily basis). More than anything, though, All the Love You Cannes captures the spirit of independent cinema, while also revealing how difficult it can be for the smaller studios to get their voices heard.

A few celebrities occasionally pop up during All the Love You Cannes, most notably movie critic Roger Ebert, longtime Independent producer Roger Corman (who joins Kaufman on a panel discussing the current state of Indie cinema), and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Reporter John StosseL, doing a piece on self-promotion for 20/20, observes the Troma gang during one of their parades; and even Jean-Claude Van Damme turns up briefly, at what must be one of the briefest photo ops ever (his boat pulls up alongside a dock, and after posing for a few pictures, he instructs the boat’s driver to leave. As you can imagine, the press was not happy).

But All the Love You Cannes is at its best when Kaufman and company turn the cameras back on themselves, revealing, sometimes in shocking detail, how far they’re willing to go to pull in an audience. The parades are an inspired bit of lunacy, with volunteers, dressed up like Toxie and Dolphin Man (among others), handing out fliers and staging little shows for the crowds (one guy, not so amused, tries to push Troma employee Doug Sakkman into a public fountain). There are other promotional gimmicks as well, some subdued (Scott McKinlay of Troma’s L.A. office has a display built that encourages recycling), others wild as hell (women take off their tops and put Troma stickers over their nipples, while the studio’s own Yaniv Sharon strips down to his birthday suit and runs through the streets).

Holding it all together is Lloyd Kaufman, whose running commentary fills us in on every aspect of Cannes, including promotion, deal making, and the various parties that spring up. At times lamenting the difficulties Troma has luring prospective buyers (most of whom are being wooed by the million-dollar studios), Kaufman usually keeps things light, and his observations are both witty and insightful. This, along with some of the hilarious hijinks that occur over the course of the movie, make All The Love You Cannes a must-see for Troma enthusiasts and potential filmmakers alike.