Cannes Diary: Behind the scenes of the 2024 film festival
The Cannes red carpet has the potential to mint a glamorous young star, and that was very much the case Wednesday for Anya Taylor-Joy.
AP
BTS Picture of Cannes Film Festival (AP)
CANNES: Welcome to Cannes. The annual film festival is always a spectacle, but 2024’s edition may be the most combustible in years. The 77th Cannes red carpet unfurls against a backdrop of war and protest. The #MeToo movement, so slow to take root in France, is now quickly tearing through the country’s film industry. Festival workers have threatened to strike.
And yet, the usual cavalcade of celebrities and filmmakers from around the world are descending upon the French Riviera over the course of two weeks. And so is The Associated Press. This year, we’re keeping a running diary of life at and in Cannes. Follow along for an insider’s view from the festival.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 15
Cannes properly kicked into high gear Wednesday with a full slate of films and the high-wattage premiere of George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” The movie’s afterparty by the beach was fittingly adorned with both sand and fire, but thankfully no War Boys.
The Cannes red carpet has the potential to mint a glamorous young star, and that was very much the case Wednesday for Anya Taylor-Joy. She perfectly matched the moment at the “Furiosa” 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.
A few standout films premiered Wednesday in different sections in Cannes. In competition, Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl with the Needle” 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 Millet’s “Ghost Trail.” It’s an engrossing, mournful detective story about exile, starring Adam Bessa a strikingly potent screen presence as a Syrian refugee hunting his former torturer in France.
Something you might not know? The Cannes red carpet is replaced or at least the main bit in the middle every few days. Because it’s been rainy in Cannes the first few days, 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 “Furiosa.” This whole enterprise is a bunch of manipulated stagecraft 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: “For me, it’s quite a bizarre time. There’s so much hate and weird fantasies projected at me. People are looking at me like I’m a radioactive thing.” Judith Godrèche, the actor at the center of Cannes’ belated #MeToo movement, who premiered her short “Moi Aussi” on Wednesday.
TUESDAY, MAY 14
Opening day in Cannes is relatively calm and straightforward, as far as Cannes days go. Just one movie premieres. Under gloomy skies, Cannes kicked off with “The Second Act,” a French comedy about a group of actors filming a movie directed by artificial intelligence. Meryl Streep was given an honorary Palme d’Or. And the jury headed by Greta Gerwig was introduced.
Cannes opening ceremonies are brief but singularly surreal. After a clip reel, Gerwig was serenaded with David Bowie’s “Modern Love” by Zaho de Sagazan, an homage to Gerwig’s “Frances Ha.” As the singer made her way from the audience to the stage, Gerwig seemed to be choking back both laughter and tears.
Last year’s Cannes is talked about with hushed tones because of how good it was for the terrific lineup and for the post-Cannes success of some films. That made Messi, the dog from last year’s Palme winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” an especially welcome presence on the red carpet. 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 women without heels were once turned away. But Messi went bare paws.
It’s been just over two months since the Oscars, but Gerwig wasn’t the only one stepping back into the spotlight. A fellow juror is best actress nomineeLily Gladstone, 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: “My mother, who is usually right about everything, said to me: ‘Meryl, my darling, you’ll see. It all goes so fast. So fast.’ And it has, and it does. Except for my speech, which is too long.” Meryl Streep
