But breathing, of course, is a loaded topic at Cannes 2021. COVID-19 caused the cancellation of the 2020 edition, and this year, the festival looks somewhat different. Masks are required in all theaters. Entry into screenings is timed. The old accreditations pickup site is now a vaccination center. And let’s be clear: I’m only here because I’m lucky enough to be fully vaccinated. Spending this much time in theaters with strangers would be terrifying (and probably foolish) otherwise.
The new protocols have had their hiccups. Cannes has replaced its fractious, crowded queues with an online ticketing system that, by crashing when the masses log in at the same designated time, offers the virtual equivalent of the old Cannes bottleneck experience.
But it’s Cannes, and attending the world’s most prestigious film festival wouldn’t be the same if there weren’t hurdles to jump through for the love of cinema. If the circumstances of this year’s event have thinned out some of the crowds, they haven’t, judging from the auteur-packed lineup, dimmed the festival’s luster, or made the weather in the South of France any less delightful.
It also wouldn’t be Cannes if it didn’t deliver challenging, sui generis movies—and “Annette,” the long-awaited musical from director Leos Carax, working with an original story and songs by the band Sparks, would be strange enough on its own to keep the fest chattering for the next two weeks, even without 23 other features in competition.
In “The Sparks Brothers,” Edgar Wright’s recent documentary on the band—the musician siblings Ron and Russell Mael—the brothers discuss dream projects for Jacques Tati and Tim Burton that never came to fruition. And while “Annette,” which grew out of Carax’s use one of their songs in “Holy Motors” (2012), technically isn’t one of those what-ifs, it has the feel of one. Carax, whose own movies take a broad-minded attitude toward popular culture (“Holy Motors” was an ode to the infinite plasticity of movies and of the actor Denis Lavant), seems perfectly in tune with their sensibility. He—or rather, “LC”—is also co-credited with the lyrics.
You can view the original article HERE.
