Cannes Diary #1: Adam Driver singing, journalists spitting, and other minor inconveniences
Wednesday, July 7, 2021 at 4:55PM TFE is thrilled to have a correspondent on the ground in Cannes this year. Please welcome back Elisa Giudici.
by Elisa Guidici
It's my first day of my first year as a press pass holder at Cannes Film Festival. Let me tell you that as an Italian, I am so proud of how Venice Mostra handled their Covid-19 edition last season. Cannes had an extra year to plan how to be efficient, safe and as Covid-free as possible. How did the organisation spent these months?.The ticketing system to avoid long queues before screenings? A hot mess. The website? Almost always down. Covid tests? Bizzarre, but at least free for pass holders...
You are required to spit 1 ml of your own saliva into a small container every 48 hours. If test results don't arrive via email, you have to return to the test area and kindly ask them to print the results for you. The queue outside Palais? Still there, in order to check the results of the test before entering the screening. A small but important detail: in France it is not mandatory to wear a mask outside anymore... I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
At least summer in the French Rivera is as spectacular as expected. On my first day the temptation to leave the pass at home and go swimming in the blue Mediterranean was strong. The curiosity of seeing Adam Driver singing proved stronger.
Annette
Adam Driver is a tremendous actor but a mediocre singer. I was annoyed to see the (usual) power of his acting undermined by his vocal limitations and terrible jokes written by Carax (watch out for the one about babysitting, which is already a strong contender for "the worst scene in the 74th edition of Cannes"). Annette is a love story and a musical: in both scenarios, Carax is unsure how to procede. He tries to ridicule the musical genre's worst tropes, but the movies falls right into the genre's conventions.
Driver's character, the stand up comedian Henry, is presented as a man consumed by his own toxic masculinity, hurting people around him in such a crescendo that it felt dishonest. Carax addresses the #MeToo movement and appears ready to deliver a gritty take on it, but Henry proves too perfect an embodiment of the manipulative man who is unable to handle love that there is no surprise or risk in turning him into a symbol of the dark side of masculinity. It is too a safe choice for a director like Carax.
More complex and powerful is the depiction of fatherhood. The movie is dedicated to Carax's daughter Nastya. She also makes a brief appearances as herself at the very beginning of Annette, where the titular character is a daughter with a strange appearance and a miraculous gift. The film suggests that being a father was and maybe is not an easy role to play for Carax.
I expected a sort of deconstructed La La Land with Annette: a french musical about a love story between two ambitious people in LA, but with Carax's impressive vision of cinema and human nature. It remembered me of Vox Lux instead: good ideas, strong scenes, but a lack of a clear direction.
Related:
All our Cannes coverage
Opening Night Fashion
Second opinion: Cláudio's take on Annette
Elisa Giudici, reporting from Cannes, is originally from Somewhere in Northern Italy since 1987. Cinemagoer, everyday reviewer, SFF & book lover. [Official Site (Italian) | Letterboxd]
Adam Driver, Annette, Cannes, Cannes Diary, France, Italy, Leos Carax, Reviews, film critics, film festivals, musicals
Reader Comments (12)
Thank you for your contribution Elisa! I'm just curious as to your last name since it appears with three different spellings in the post: GIUDICI, GIUDUCI, and GUIDICI. Qual'e'? 😉
Hello Davide,
Sometimes I make mistakes myself while writing because u and I are close sisters in the QWERTY world.
my last name is Giudici. Fun fact: it's the Italian word for judges, plural.
Wow, the level of entitlement is off-the-charts, just resign your pass, go home, wear a mask and stay in forever, what a silly joke of a society we are heading to.
Elisa -- Immaginavo! A proposito dell'altro commento, ricordati della canzone della Caterina Caselli e del tuo cognome: 🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵 Nessuno ti puo' giudicare. 🎵🎶🎵
Davide & Elisa -- that was my bad, i'm sorry. the spelling is fixed.
Elisa -- thank you for doing this. It's so exciting to have someone on the ground this year.
Very excited to read your coverage. Sad you didn't enjoy ANNETTE nearly as much as I did, so I hope the next few days of Cannes films treat you better. Keep up the great work.
Raffaella Carrá will be sorely missed.
LMFAO Real Margo Channing was never that rude.
I haven't seen the film or even know what it is about, could it be that it is Driver's character in Annette that is a mediocre singer who tells bad jokes?
This reminds me of the difference between Cabaret's stage play and the movie. Many thought that Liza's Sally was too good a singer.
Best Actress winner Liza Minnelli gives a marvelous performance in Cabaret. Critics at the time complained that the singer was too strong to believable as basement chanteuse. I believe that is the key to understanding Sally Bowles. She is talented enough for a vibrant career but so inhibited by her insecurity and self doubt that she will never escape the bottom of the entertainment world.
@James. I fully agree with you. You have a strong point there.
@ James and Marcos
When it comes to musicals—not plays/films with music—you want great singers who can carry a tune and handle often difficult scores. The character being a mediocre or bad singer is no excuse for actual bad singing, because we are almost never hearing the character sing (Adam Driver in Marriage Story,) but rather the actor (Adam Driver in Annette). Now, of course, some great singers are terrible actors, but I'd rather see a movie with the singing dubbed or with less than virtuosic acting than hear a beautiful score ruined by bad singing.