FjordRomanian director Cristian Mungiu’s seventh film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival may have just opened the Palme d’Or race.
Throughout the engaging family drama, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Rensef as evangelical religious figures and parents of five children caught up in a nightmare with Norwegian children’s services, the fascinated audience at the Grand Théâtre Lumière barely made a sound. (Although during the press screening two hours earlier, reporters could be heard gasping and laughing in disbelief as each new roll of bureaucratic tape threatened to bury the couple.)
Then, as the final frame began, the audience burst into applause and were on their feet for nearly 10 minutes, the most enthusiastic reception any competing film had received yet at Cannes.
The standing ovation was filled with chants of “Bravo,” with Stan, in particular, vacillating between shaking his head in disbelief and holding back tears. The applause will probably last longer. Twice, when festival director Thierry Fremaux handed the microphone to Mungiu, the audience clapped and cheered even louder, as if they were daring the festival to stop.
And when Fremaux gently led him and the actors towards the door due to the premiere of Nicolas Winding Refn Her perfect hell Needed to start, the crowd shouted chants of “Bravo!” Again (and also “Free Palestine!”).
“I want to thank you because this is the moment of truth in every movie,” Mungiu said, switching to English for Stan after giving a speech in French. “Then we will know in 20 years that the movie is good.”
The party included, along with the director and actors, Sharon Stone, Carla Bruni, Cannes jury member Demi Moore, and Jordan Firstman (fresh from the $17 million sale of his first film). Kid Club to A24) and Stellan Skarsgård, there to cheer on Rensvi, who played his daughter in last year’s Cannes Grand Prix winner (and international Oscar winner) Emotional value.
The concert premiere was one of the hottest tickets yet. Students with Three Days in Cannes badges handed out for the second half of the festival have been queuing outside in a last-minute line in their gowns and tuxedos since 10 a.m., huddled under the umbrellas of new friends in the festival’s first rainstorm.
Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for his first feature film, a drama about abortion in the Communist era. 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 daysHe returned to the Cannes competition with three more films, and won the Best Screenplay Award in 2012 for his film Beyond the hills And the best way out for graduation In 2016. With Fjord, he will like his chance to join the Palme d’Or club twice when the awards are handed out on Saturday.
