After a long, virtually sleepless week of diving through the riotous choreography of film industry self-congratulation during the Cannes Film Festival, I left the south of France with my perspective of the business intact, even if my judgment felt a little frazzled. Above all else, Cannes deserves attention as a fascinating set of contradictions: Big and commercial, artistically inspired and enhanced by European lyricism, it works however you want it to work. As with any conflicting situation, there are valuable lessons to be learned. Here are a few that I picked up, with some notes from some of the enterprising personalities I encountered along the way.

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