CANNES, France (AP) ā Welcome to Cannes. The annual film festival is always a spectacle, but in years. The red carpet unfurls against a backdrop of war and protest. The #MeToo movement, so is now quickly tearing through Festival workers have threatened to strike.
And yet, the usual from around the world are descending upon the French Riviera over the course of two weeks. And so is This year, we're keeping a running diary of life at ā and in ā Cannes. Follow along for an
SUNDAY, MAY 19
Kevin Costner premiered the first part of his Western epic āHorizon: An American Saga,ā the buzzed-about āEmilia Perezā had its press conference and the body horror thriller āThe Substance,ā with Demi Moore, debuted.
ā Accepting the Kering Women in Motion award, Universal chief Donna Langley noted she was not like past recipients, such as Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom were among the attendees Sunday night. āIn many ways, I'm the killer of art,ā joked Langley. āI'm the suit.ā The dinner, held beside a former monastery atop the old part of Cannes overlooking the whole city, is one of the swankier affairs of the festival. Part of the fun of this year's gathering was that it reunited, as Cannes president Iris Knobloch noted, the two women behind Langley, who greenlit āOppenheimer,ā and āBarbieā director Greta Gerwig. The Cannes jury president fittingly wore pink for the occasion. At a Cannes where , it was a moment to celebrate. Langley, the widely respected studio chief, noted roles like hers āhave the power and the privilege to say āyes.āā
ā At the premiere of āHorizon,ā Costner was visibly moved, tearing up during the standing ovation for the first installment of what the actor-director hopes will be four feature films. Surely that emotion was partly due to how much Costner has invested in āHorizon,ā financing some of its $100 million-plus production himself. When I , Costner said he was essentially āan independent filmmakerā in Cannes. "I'm here by myself.ā
ā Cannes isn't well known for gory genre movies, but it's gotten a bloody pair of standouts in the last 24 hours. First was NoĆ©mie Merlant's āBalconnettes," which she scripted with her director . The midnight section entry, a kind of #MeToo āRear Window" if it was a horror comedy, is a delirious romp about sexual assault and revenge. Then came the body horror of Coralie Fargeat's āThe Substance,ā in which a middle-aged Hollywood star (Demi Moore), spawns a younger self that her older body must trade places with every week. It's not a subtle satire, nor does it skimp on the gore.
LA CITATION DU JOUR: āTo get into this kind of film by Jacques, you have to be like Jacques, whoās a bit mad." ā Karla SofĆa GascĆ³n, star of on director Jacques Audiard.
SATURDAY, MAY 18
The big premieres Saturday were Jacques Audiard's āEmilia Perez,ā Jia Zhang-Ke's āCaught by the Tidesā and āRumours,ā co-directed by Guy Maddin. Meanwhile, the casts of Yorgos Lanthimos' āKinds of Kindnessā and faced the media.
ā Standing ovations may be commonplace at Cannes premieres but press screenings here, like in most places, usually pass with without a single clap. That wasn't the case for āEmilia Perez,ā which drew a hearty round of applause from even cynical critics and journalists. It's a movie that, on its face, has no right to working. Zoe SaldaƱa stars as Rita, a Mexico City lawyer hired by a the kingpin of a drug cartel to help him flee Mexico to have gender confirmation surgery. This turns out to be just the beginning of a relationship that will continue between Rita and Emilia Perez (Karla SofĆa GascĆ³n), whose wife (Selena Gomez) is also in the mix. Oh, and it's a musical. Here, finally, is a film that can be compared to both āSicarioā and āMrs. Doubtfire.ā Odd as that may sound, the unabashed audacity of āEmilia Perezā is tough to resist. Cannes might have had its first breakout hit from the competition lineup.
ā and were speaking to a reporter at the Carlton Hotel when the news broke on their next movie together. It's been just a few months since āPoor Thingsā was at the Oscars, and their latest collaboration, āKinds of Kindness," . But they'll reunite again in āBugonia,ā for Focus Features, described as being about a kidnapping by a pair of conspiracy obsessives. Joining them this time is Jesse Plemons, a standout in āKinds of Kindness.ā āHe's become part of the family,ā Stone said.
ā The year's festival has seen some very famous veterans of Cannes back on the Croisette. . Cate Blanchett. None, though, could hold a candle to Baby Annette, who made her triumphant return at the premiere Saturday of Leos Carax's 41-minute āIt's Not Me.ā Carax's āAnnette," which in recent memory, opened Cannes in 2021. Baby Annette, you might have thought, would never be seen again. And yet she's back, like Chucky. Carried aloft into the premiere, actor Denis Lavant greeted her by gently kissing her hand.
LA CITATION DU JOUR: āI embellished it myself with a magic marker. I think the wardrobe people were a little afraid to do too much so I took that burden off their shoulders.ā ā Paul Schrader, speaking to reporters about who wrote āpeace and loveā on the jockstrap worn by Jacob Elordi in a scene during Schrader's āOh, Canadaā
FRIDAY, MAY 17
Francis Ford Coppola colorfully faced the media the day after Yorgos Lanthimos debuted his follow-up, āKinds of Kindness," and his Russell Banks adaptation, āOh, Canada.ā
ā A mere three months after āPoor Thingsā was , Lanthimos and Emma Stone came to Cannes with their third and most provocative collaboration in āKinds of Kindness.ā This film, a triptych of subversive head-scratchers, uses much of the same company of actors ā Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Willem Dafoe, Mamoudou Athie, Hong Chau and Stone ā across the strange tales revolving around controlling relationships. There are connecting threads and color schemes, but it's striking how, for 167 minutes, Lanthimos and company are emphatically not in awards-movie mode anymore.
ā It's been a grand festival for bird movies. After Thursday offered Andrea Arnold's gritty, warm-hearted fable āBird,ā on Friday, I caught Zambian-British director Rungano Nyoni's āOn Becoming a Guinea Fowl,ā an even more beguiling work of avian-themed cinema. Nyoni's first film, was a Cannes standout in 2017, and her latest confirms her as a thrilling filmmaking talent. āOn Becoming a Guinea Fowl,ā which A24 is distributing, is again deftly playful and darkly comic about quite serious things. In it, arranging a funeral in Zambia unmasks plenty about sexual abuse, patriarchy and family.
ā For at least a few hours Friday, both Coppola and Schrader were across from each other on the rooftop terrace of the JW Marriott, separately doing interviews. Rub your eyes and you could rewind 40-plus years. Neither of the New Hollywood legends are much for waxing nostalgic; though. Their focus was on their latest films, or maybe even the one after that.
NOTABLE NUMBER: Four. During the festival, Screen Daily always publishes a daily grid of star ratings from a dozen film critics, providing a good snapshot of how the competition lineup is unfolding. But four days into Cannes, not one of the critics has given a top score ā four out of four stars ā to a single film. That's unusual this far in, but it probably confirms what most have been saying on the ground here: The quality of the movies is down this year. Things can change fast, though. I'd wager the best is yet to come.
LA CITATION DU JOUR: āThereās so many people when they die, they say, āI wish I had done this, I wish I done that.' When I die, Iām going to say, āI got to do this.ā I got to see my daughter win an Oscar and I got to make wine and I got to make every movie I wanted to make. Iām going to be so busy thinking about all the things I got to do that when I die I wonāt notice it.ā ā Francis Ford Coppola, at the
HONORABLE MENTION: āI donāt think I dance. Iām a bad dancer. I think the beauty of dancing on screen is the effort to try.ā ā Barry Keoghan, post-"Saltburn," on his moves in āBird.ā
THURSDAY, MAY 16
Just as the first full day of Cannes was dominated by 79-year-old George Miller and āFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga,ā Thursday belong to 85-year-old who unveiled
ā There is much more that can be said about the āMegalopolisā premiere, but one thing worth noting was how much family was central to As he walked the red carpet, he clung to the arm of his granddaughter, Romy (daughter . With him at the premiere were four more family members, including sister Talia Shire. After the screening, as the crowd cheered him, he introduced each. But Coppola, whose last month, left the audience with the message that we are all āone human family.ā Flop or not, it was moving.
ā As it turned out, āMegalopolisā wasn't the only fable premiering. Also debuting in competition was āBird,ā a bleakly naturalistic coming-of-age drama with touches of magical realism. Nykiya Adams stars as Bailey, 12, who encounters a strange drifter (Franz Rogowski). too, but for different reasons. She typically fosters an exuberant collective, mixing professional and non-professional actors. When the cast of āBird,ā including several young kids, hit the carpet, they had a grand time together.
NOTABLE NUMBER: 45. That's how many of films are now digitized, with a touring retrospective coming this year and next to Paris, London and New York's Lincoln Center. The was in Cannes to screen the restored version of 1969's āLaw and Order,ā in which he observed the routines of Kansas City police officers.
LA CITATION DU JOUR: āThereās certainly other stories there. Mainly because we wrote, in order to tell the story of āFury Road,ā we had to know the back story of Furiosa and Max in the year before. But Iāll definitely wait to see how this goes before we even think about that.ā ā Miller, at the press conference A film about Mad Max in the year leading up to āFury Roadā has been written for some time. Now, we'll see how āFuriosa," which cost nearly $170 million to make, does when it arrives in theaters next week. The very well received Cannes bow (and a secured release date in China) should help.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 15
Cannes properly kicked into high gear with a full slate of films and the high-wattage premiere of The movie's afterparty by the beach was fittingly adorned with both sand and fire, but thankfully no War Boys. (Or is War Boyz?)
ā The Cannes red carpet has the potential to mint a glamorous young star, and that was very much the case for She perfectly matched the moment at the āFuriosaā premiere, posing stylishly and playfully saluting her director. But as much has been made of Taylor-Joy inheriting the role from Charlize Theron, it's worth noting that for a substantial amount of the two-and-a-half-hour film, Furiosa is played as a child by a younger performer, Alyla Browne. And, she, too, is very good. So cheers for both Young Furiosa and Even Younger Furiosa.
ā A few standout films premiered in different sections. In competition, Magnus von Hornās āThe Girl with the Needleā is an imposingly grim, expressionist black-and-white film about a heinous crime in post-WWI Denmark. It's bleak stuff, but the way the film reserves its most damning judgment for an uncaring society is impossible to shake. Another standout in Critics' Week: Jonathan Milletās āGhost Trail.ā It's an engrossing, mournful detective story about exile, starring Adam Bessa ā a strikingly potent screen presence ā as a Syrian refugee hunting his former torturer in France.
ā Something you might not know? The is replaced ā or at least the main bit in the middle ā every few days. Because it's been rainy, the first costume change was Wednesday. That's, undoubtedly, more often than many Cannes journalists clean their formal wear.
NOTABLE NUMBER: 6. No, 7. Nope, 8. Those were the trade report counts for the length of the standing ovation for āFuriosa.ā This whole enterprise is and best dismissed as any kind of real metric. But if we're going to do this, let's at least get an official stopwatch.
LA CITATION DU JOUR: āFor me, itās quite a bizarre time. Thereās so much hate and weird fantasies projected at me. People are looking at me like Iām a radioactive thing.ā ā Judith GodrĆØche, , who premiered her short āMoi Aussi.ā
TUESDAY, MAY 14
is relatively calm and straightforward, as far as Cannes days go. Just one movie premieres. Under gloomy skies, Cannes kicked off with āThe Second Act,ā a French comedy about a group of actors filming a movie directed by artificial intelligence. was given an honorary Palme d'Or. And the jury headed by was introduced.
ā Cannes opening ceremonies are brief but singularly surreal. After a clip reel, Gerwig was serenaded with David Bowie's āModern Loveā by Zaho de Sagazan, an homage to Gerwig's āFrances Ha.ā As the singer made her way from the audience to the stage, Gerwig seemed to be choking back both laughter and tears.
ā is talked about with hushed tones because of how good it was ā for the terrific lineup and for the That made Messi, the dog from last year's Palme winner āAnatomy of a Fall," an The border collie, who's been enlisted to shoot daily videos for French TV, frolicked up and down the carpet ahead of the opening ceremony. Cannes has strict rules about formal attire ā women without heels were once turned away. But Messi went
ā It's been just over two months since but Gerwig wasn't the only one stepping back into the spotlight. A fellow juror is who said of the Cannes invite: "I thought I just got over my imposter syndrome last year."
NOTABLE NUMBER: Zero. The amount of times Messi soiled the red carpet.
LA CITATION DU JOUR: āMy mother, who is usually right about everything, said to me: āMeryl, my darling, youāll see. It all goes so fast. So fast.ā And it has, and it does. Except for my speech, which is too long.ā ā Meryl Streep
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
