CANNES DISPATCH Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Camille Cottin calls the particular bewilderment of a film festival ‘the vortex at Cannes,’ when Hollywood Authentic sits down with her at the JW Marriott on the Croisette, which is teeming with delegates and film fans. ‘Here, time is no more!’ she jokes, ‘Everything is completely changed – all perception of reality – when you’re here. You take big cars to go about 10 metres. You no longer talk in distance, it’s just ‘Majestic to Martinez’. Night is day, day is night. You talk about money as if you’re talking about love…’ Cottin has arrived in Cannes ahead of walking the red carpet of the premiere of Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard’s Karma alongside her fictional ASK agency team from global TV phenomenon Call My Agent!, to announce that the feature film of the show is arriving on Netflix in September. The show was a success in France before becoming a belated global hit and nearly six years after the final season, will return with George Clooney, Vincent Macaigne and Laetitia Casta playing themselves.
Fans of the show will remember discussion of the Cannes Film Festival in season two, when the whole agency wanted to attend such an important event, so it’s only fitting that the team should kick off their promotion in this storied place. ‘The show is about our industry, so I think it makes sense. And also, there’s going to be something a bit meta, regarding the script, the fact that we’re here. We’ve added a piece to the puzzle, I would say. I don’t want to spoil things…’ she says. What we do know is that Cottin’s spiky character, Andréa Martel, will be directing her own movie in the film, so perhaps Andréa will be climbing the famous red steps herself? ‘Of course, when you direct a film, being at Cannes is something that I suppose every director dreams of,’ she teases.
She’s not giving plot or guest appearances away, but the actor will discuss why the team is returning to the ASK offices after the show finished. ‘I think it came from a deep attachment to the characters and the relationship between them. There’s something quite generous and tender to that show regarding the humour, regarding the perception of our contemporaries in the industry. And I think it was the desire to continue this communication with the fans. The funny thing is that when we stopped filming and COVID happened, that’s when people outside France discovered it. So it’s maybe about bringing it back to the present.’ With its insider, meta comedy the show has spawned international remakes and, some might say, inspired The Studio. Not bad for a project that Cottin admits wasn’t an immediate hit. ‘Even in France, they didn’t want it at the beginning, because they thought it was too niche.’ She hasn’t watched the other versions of the show, but thinks that her character is such an intriguing creation that it translates across language and culture (though Andréa’s queerness was changed to heterosexual in the Turkish version).
‘It was great the way she didn’t try to be loved. I think it’s incredible, not only for the gay community, but as a woman, being completely free from the perception of others, and from the need to seduce or to be loved or to be approved. It’s something that is terribly cathartic and empowering and juicy to watch. And she’s absolutely not nice, which is quite funny. You could hate her, but she has a lot of integrity. That’s why she’s not a toxic person – because she is what she says she is, and she does what she says.’
Though she’d been a success in France, the role gave Cottin access to a wider range of work, and she’s since appeared in Stillwater with Matt Damon, then Allied, A Haunting in Venice and Golda. ‘That was something I dreamed of,’ she says of expanding her canvas. ‘I spent five years in London when I was a teenager, and I’ve spent a lot of time in Spain. I have this desire to work in other cultures. Working in a foreign language with another culture – it really turns me on. It excites me. I find it thrilling and exciting and interesting. I would be sad if I had to stay in one place, in one surrounding, in my four walls.’ She enjoys the discipline of acting in another language, she says. ‘Normally when you act, you really focus on how you feel, rather than how it sounds. When you’re acting you hope to lose your awareness of how it looks and how it sounds, and you’re just going through the beauty of how it feels. That’s the thing we’re all searching for. But in another language you have to have that awareness.You have to be aware of the shape of your tongue, your mouth. There are certain sounds that after some time you will not be able to imitate, because it has a certain shape…’ She smiles. ‘I’ve got the French mouth.’
She will be using her Mother tongue in the upcoming sumptuous French adaptation of Les Misérables.‘I think we have now, in our French industry, lots of appetite for putting on screen some of our best classics. And obviously it’s fun, because when I was cheeky to the director, he said, ‘Victor Hugo, what a showrunner’.’ She’s also filmed Edward Berger’s The Riders with Brad Pitt. ‘I loved working with Edward Berger. He gives you a lot of freedom, and at the same time he’s very precise. And even though he’s focused on what he does, he’s warm. And Brad is so kind.’ Now she’s worked with Pitt, Damon and, with the new Call My Agent! film, Clooney, it feels like she’s working her way through the Ocean’s 11 team. She laughs. ‘I’m desperately in need of Julia,’ she says before she disappears back into the vortex of the Croisette…
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Interview by JANE CROWTHER Call My Agent! The Movie arrives on Netflix 10 September 2026
Photographs & interview by GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER
Actor Ellie Bamber visits Lucian Freud’s former studio with Greg Williams to discuss channelling Kate Moss, finding peace and the confidence her latest project has given her.
Kensington Church Street is buzzing with commuters and shoppers when I meet English actor Ellie Bamber outside a Georgian grade II-listed townhouse. She has been here before, like the woman she plays in her upcoming film, Moss & Freud. This address was the former home and studio of Lucian Freud, from the ’70s until the artist’s death in 2011, and it’s where Kate Moss sat for Freud over a series of evenings between 2001 and 2002. The duo talked about perception, identity and art as they collaborated on Moss’ portrait during a tumultuous time in the model’s life. By the time she finished her sittings with Freud, Moss was pregnant with her daughter, Lila Grace. The resulting life-sized nude, Naked Portrait, sold for £3.5 million to an unknown buyer.
Bamber, blessed by Moss to play her during this period of her life, also spent time at this house, retracing Kate’s steps and emotional journey before she began filming. ‘She was painted by him in this studio for many, many months in the evenings,’ Ellie tells me as we enter the property, now owned and looked after by David Dawson, a landscape artist and Freud’s longtime assistant for two decades.
I can’t believe that we’re in here. It’s the craziest, craziest thing, there was such an amazing interplay between artist and muse, and what that means, and what that relationship is, and how involved she was in the piece as well
Dawson’s photographs of Freud at work in this house are in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, and he was the subject of a number of the artist’s portraits including Sunny Morning Eight Legs [1997] and David and Eli [2003]. As a fan of Freud’s work, it’s a thrill for me to step inside; the space is just as he left it, the way it would have been in those evenings when Moss lay on the bed and he painted.
‘It’s so incredible. It’s really a sanctuary,’ Ellie says as she moves through the paint-splattered rooms. ‘I feel like when you’re in here, it has such a powerful effect. And it reminds me so much of the headspace I would have to get into, to think about being painted by someone like Lucian Freud.’ Ellie didn’t film in the space; the studio was recreated as a set inside a similar house, the flicked paint on the walls and discarded rags recreated in painstaking detail. The studio is still a working room – David paints there and lives upstairs. ‘I’ve turned my paintings around so that it doesn’t distract from today,’ David explains modestly. ‘It’s not a shrine or anything. I was in here every day for 20 years. So I didn’t want to get rid of it.’ David was the artist who recreated the Moss painting seen in the film (‘We used Lucian’s painted image and then did some clever handiwork on it’) and this first floor area is the studio where two titans of British culture met, complete with the bed where Moss lay during her sittings. I encourage Ellie to sit on the bed as David leaves us to talk.
‘I can’t believe that we’re in here. It’s the craziest, craziest thing,’ Ellie marvels and considers the nine months that Moss was in the same place. ‘There was such an amazing interplay between artist and muse, and what that means, and what that relationship is, and how involved she was in the piece as well – like, bringing herself in that moment, you know? And the fact that she decided that she wanted to be nude for the painting as well – I think it meant there was a certain intimacy. It revealed a lot of herself, and I think that him trying to get to the heart of a person is so fascinating. One of my favourite paintings of his is called Hotel Bedroom [1954]. It’s a painting of a lover of Lucian’s. And just the emotion that it evokes, and the tenderness…’
In James Lucas’ film, Freud is played by Derek Jacobi and the duo explore the role of persona in fame, who the real person is behind the celebrity and what is at the truth at the core of an artist. Freud famously turned down painting Princess Diana and the Pope during his career, but was intrigued by Moss after she said in a Dazed & Confused magazine interview that one of her ambitions was to be painted by him. Freud invited her to dinner via his daughter, Bella, and then insisted Moss sit for him consistently, between 7pm and 2am – without being a minute late. The pair discovered shared commonality and, as imagined by writer-director Lucas, forged a unique relationship that transcended either of their worlds. ‘It’s interesting being watched by someone like that, and being painted,’ Ellie says of reconstructing the sittings with Jacobi. ‘The thing that I started to realise is that it’s so different to being photographed, and I feel like I’ve been photographed quite a bit in my life. But being painted is an entirely different thing. I think it was after I finished shooting, my friend asked me to sit for him. Him staring at me, and looking at me so intently… It’s quite affronting, you know?’
The thing that I started to realise is that it’s so different to being photographed, and I feel like I’ve been photographed quite a bit in my life. But being painted is an entirely different thing. I think it was after I finished shooting, my friend asked me to sit for him. Him staring at me, and looking at me so intently… It’s quite affronting, you know?
Knowing Moss now, as she exec-produced the film, I ask if Ellie feels that Freud found the supermodel’s soul in the process. ‘It was quite complicated for both of them. I think I’m right in saying that neither of them were totally happy with the painting. Because Kate was going through so much in her life during that time, that it was such a transitional period of her life – and also his – that I feel like maybe he didn’t say everything that he wanted to say, and maybe neither did she.’ I ask her to pose as Moss did, with me taking Freud’s place and we look at the painting on my phone. ‘We had to experiment in the film, like figuring out the best position for you to stay in for a really long time – just practically staying comfy, and being able to hold a certain position. Do you feel like you’re trying to get to the heart of a person when you photograph them?’
I tell her that I do, but l’m not trying to uncover some dark truth. I’m interested in the journey of my subjects, how it shaped them as a creative and as a person. I’m not into celebrity. I’m into artists. I ask about getting to know Kate for the role. ‘She’s a total one-of-a-kind human being. She is so effervescent. The thing that I was so intrigued about when I met her, actually, is that she is just the most amazing storyteller. So spending time with her meant hearing a lot of incredible stories, whether it be about Lucian or about her life. But she has a way of telling a story, which I think she does within her images as well that is so exceptional. She’s a total enigma in that way. She was so generous at letting me step into her world. She’s very funny and very naughty, which is so fun. She’s got the best laugh.’
In the film, Ellie captures Moss’ distinct laugh to a tee. I ask if she can do it now, conjure it up in this hallowed space. ‘I haven’t done this in ages. By the way, with the laugh, this was quite funny – my brother had to sit me down and have a word with me. After I finished filming, he was like, “I noticed that your laugh is a bit weird now. It doesn’t feel right, and I’m not happy with it.” She pauses and does a pitch perfect Moss laugh. I’ve shot Kate a few times and can confirm it’s good. ‘The laugh was the thing that I became quite obsessed with.’
I wonder, having examined artistic truth, persona and identity in the film, what the project has taught Ellie. ‘I think, honestly, it gave me a bit more confidence in myself, because Kate’s such a smart decision-maker. She’s got such a confident energy. But she also has a total vulnerability too, which I think is the conversation within the piece as well. The film is all about a woman understanding her place in the world as an artist. Through discovering that conversation, and through Kate’s journey, I think it gave me a lot more confidence in myself, and my decisions, and maybe how I see myself as an artist. Everyone has doubts, and I definitely have doubts. It allowed me to maybe say a little bit of a “bye bye” to some of them, rather than letting them fester, you know?’
We had to experiment in the film, like figuring out the best position for you to stay in for a really long time – just practically staying comfy, and being able to hold a certain position
Ellie recalls that she had met Moss before getting the role but when discussions got serious she bumped into the model at a mutual friend’s party. ‘It was a whole meeting where we were both like, “Whoa, I can’t believe this is happening right now.” There’s a picture that Jasper [Conran] took of us on his bed together, just lounging about. It was such a coincidence and such a funny meeting.’ Bamber used the photo to announce her casting on social media. ‘It feels like a milestone,’ she says of the project in a career that began with her being scouted to play ‘young Jenny’ in Trevor Nunn’s Aspects of Love at the Menier Chocolate Factory when she was 13. That landed her an agent and opened her up to opportunities in theatre before she moved to film with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals. She played Cosette in the BBC’s Les Misérables, Mandy Rice-Davies in the The Trial of Christine Keeler and led The Serpent for the BBC, as well as Disney+ show, Willow. She’s exec produced a short, There Will Come Soft Rains, and has a packed slate coming up. She’ll appear in family film Animal Friends, IRA drama Stranger With a Camera, Anna Biller chiller The Face of Horror,and is currently filming A Christmas Carol with Johnny Depp. ‘I felt like I had a responsibility to Kate to make it truthful, and show her in a way that was truthful. That was really important to me. And I wanted to handle it with a lot of care.’ She’s anticipating the film’s release with what she describes as ‘excitement slash terror’. ‘But I feel like I’ve made peace with how I feel about it.’
We start to read some of the scrawls on the walls of the studio, left by Freud. The masseuse on Thursday. Portrait of the hand. Celibate. Naproxen. ‘There’s a phone number. It might be quite interesting to ring it up and see who it is,’ she suggests.
I grew up in theatres with parents who worked in the industry myself, so I’m interested to know how Ellie’s theatrical background taps into her work now. ‘This did feel like a play,’ she nods. ‘Working with someone like Sir Derek Jacobi – I mean, when we first met, we had lunch together, and he mentioned Laurence. And I was like “Wait, are you talking about Laurence Olivier?” He’s such an amazing actor, and to be opposite him in scenes where we were just talking in a studio – it did feel like a play.’
As a girl from a small town near Reading, she always dreamt of moving to London and got her wish when she landed a role in High Society at The Old Vic as a 17-year-old. ‘I was quite young and I think at maybe quite a rebellious point of my life,’ she laughs. ‘I think I was figuring it out.’ I ask when she first knew she wanted to act. ‘I was quite young when I really knew, because I would get all of the members of my family to do little shows with me all of the time, and most of the time they would roll their eyes. I did a lot of it when I was younger, and then forgot about it for a while. And then I had this amazing drama teacher who basically convinced me to audition for the school play, then after that, I knew. I didn’t finish school, I didn’t finish my A-levels – I had to do a bit of convincing of my dad. But then there was a conversation as to whether I wanted to go to uni, and I very much knew that I didn’t want to go to uni. But I didn’t have a plan B, because I just knew that that’s what I wanted to do.’
The film is all about a woman understanding her place in the world as an artist. Through discovering that conversation, and through Kate’s journey, I think it gave me a lot more confidence in myself, and my decisions, and maybe how I see myself as an artist
It sounds like she almost manifested a career, willed it into existence. ‘I think there’s a certain amount of fate that I believe in. But also I’ve started doing some producing myself because I feel like I want to be able to try to create the roles that I might want to do, and maybe also other people might want to do too. So I’m really enjoying being on that side of the camera, and creating something from a conception. But I definitely of course have dreams of working with directors or with actors that I love. That’s a big dream for me.’
She considers what might have motivated her to keep pursuing her dreams. She thinks the drive to find agency is born from working from young age. ‘Kate also started working at 15. That was a similarity that I think from the beginning going into it. How can you drive your own journey? Particularly when you’re young, and you’re thrown into a creative environment, how much choice do you have? How much control do you have in your own path? I think that’s been a learning experience for me. I would roll with it to begin with, and go with things, and be quite hopeful. And now I’m quite driven by my choices in what I want to do and where I want to go. So I think maybe that’s where I’ve been on that journey with Kate. It’s feeling more empowered, and having more agency…’
Photographs & interview by GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER Moss & Freud is in cinemas from 29 May Thanks to David Dawson
CANNES DISPATCH Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Words by JANE CROWTHER
2026 TROPHÉE CHOPARD ‘I’ve never been here before and never thought in a million years that this would be happening the first time that I came here,’ Marty Supreme actor Odessa A’zion told the audience at this year’s Chopard Trophy ceremony, presented by French icon Isabelle Huppert. Photographed by Greg Williams at the Martinez Hotel’s Chopard terrace before festivities, the American actor was recognised alongside Connor Swindells as a next generation talent at the jeweller’s annual festival award.
‘Cannes is a place of memory, but it’s also a place of birth. Every year, new faces appear,’ Huppert said in her welcoming address. ‘Tonight, we celebrate two singular presences, two sensibilities, two paths that are only beginning to be written and that we already want to follow’. When she took to the stage to accept her gold and silver film reel trophy, A’zion said, ‘I don’t know why you guys chose me, but I’m so grateful. There are so many actors that I admire who are part of this lineage of this award and this is so crazy. This is really cool.’
A’zion hit big this year as Marty’s childhood sweetheart in Josh Safdie’s award-winning film but has risen to prominence in I Love LA, She Rides Shotgun, Sitting in Bars with Cake and Fresh Kills. She has a packed slate ahead with Justine Triet’s psychological thriller, Fonda opposite Andrew Scott and Mia Goth, as well as Mother Courage with Sarah Paulson and Naomi Watts.
Having awarded new talent since 2001, The Trophée Chopard has a long list of previous recipients who have consolidated their wins with stellar careers including Marion Cotillard, James McAvoy, Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Florence Pugh, Jessie Buckley, Gael García Bernal, Anya Taylor Joy and Naomi Ackie. The celebration, co-hosted by Chopard’s Caroline Scheufele, festival president Iris Knobloch, and general delegate Thierry Frémaux, was attended by a glittering guestlist who ate dinner by Michelin-starred chef, Bruno Oger, and enjoyed a performance from pianist Gina Alice Adlinger at the Carlton Beach Club on Cannes’ golden sands.
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Words by JANE CROWTHER Trophée Chopard (Chopard Trophy) is awarded by a jury of professionals to two young actors in order to recognise and encourage their career
Jordan Firstman is a knowingly bratty, provocative presence on social media and one might expect his first film to debut at Cannes to be a baiting, meta, Marmite affair that courts controversy. What’s unexpected is that his queer, specific take on Chaplin’s The Kid is universal, warm, funny and full of soulful hope. Like Anora (also produced by Alex Coco), Club Kid transcends its sweary, druggy NSFW settings with vibrant characters and hell-for-leather performances. One doesn’t have to know what being grundled is or the details of Clare Danes’ connection to the Philippines (though ‘normies’ will learn) to understand or fall for it.
Firstman is front and centre as New York party promoter Peter, who enjoys his events as much as his punters. Collabing with party girl Sophie (Cara Delevingne, excellent), Peter gets the right people, and drugs, in a room – and he does all of them. An intoxicating pre-title sequence literally tags us along for this ride, starting with an Uber ride and descending to the strobing rooms and glitter cannons of Club Labor. For a decade, he exists in a blur of MDMA, GBH, coke and sex, until Sophie tires of his chaos and a figure from his drug-hazed past arrives on his doorstep with the product of an orgiastic night in tow; a 10 year-old British kid, Arlo (Reggie Absalom). Like Three Men and A Baby but with more queens, fisting chat and inappropriate slogan tees, Peter must learn to be a father and, in the process, learn the value of a created family.
That sweet through-line is constantly juxtaposed with salty bitching, inventive swearing and laugh-out-loud moments (a dairy intolerance vomit, the unlikely May-December romance between Peter’s houseguest and the OAP downstairs, a UK lawyer who likes Drag Race). And paternal love isn’t the only tenderness nurtured. In trying to gel with Arlo, Peter meets child psychologist Oscar (Diego Calva, emitting pure warmth) and discovers a relationship doesn’t have to be limited to one night stands. The two men have incendiary chemistry; a fizzy moment where they decide not to kiss in Central Park is magic while Oscar’s embrace at a point of emotional turbulence for Peter will prompt tears. There’s also strong solidarity from Peter’s ‘freak’ friends group which is heartwarming to watch; especially DJ Saffron (Saturn Risin9) who teaches Arlo the decks and his ex Devon (Nigil Whyte) who mixes parental advice with sex suggestions. Even bitchy coke queen Sophie operates with a morality code, albeit one of being strung out around the clock.
Club Kid may open a window of a super cool NY community (and their slang) but it also has something to say about Peter Pan lifestyles and responsible parenting, there’s a moving earnestness at play amid the snark. And though Arlo seems something of a fantasy child (he’s not messed up by a family tragedy, accepts Peter immediately and is just so damn cute), the lack of character depth here can be excused by the authenticity elsewhere. Sincere, saucy and loaded with tunes (from Rihanna to Ethel Cain), Firstman’s film was understandably snapped up at Cannes. Like last year’s Pillion, this is a filthy-gorgeous crowd-pleaser with immense heart.
Words by JANE CROWTHER Image courtesy of A24 Club Kid premiered at the 79th Cannes Film Festival
CANNES DISPATCH Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Words by JANE CROWTHER
2026 TROPHÉE CHOPARD ‘This is surreal,’ Sex Education breakout Connor Swindells admitted ahead of being presented with the Chopard Trophy by French icon Isabelle Huppert. Photographed by Greg Williams at the Martinez Hotel’s Chopard terrace pre-ceremony, the British actor was recognised alongside Odessa A’zion as a next generation talent at the jeweller’s annual festival award evening at the Carlton Beach Club attended by many established artists. Huppert said the award ‘recognises a movement, a promise, something that is already there yet still in the process of becoming.’ For Swindells that promise began with Sex Education and gathered pace with turns in Emma, The Vanishing, SAS Rogue Heroes, William Tell and Barbie. His upcoming projects continue that trajectory – he’ll appear in Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down and Kayleigh Llewellyn’s The Dreamlands.
The Trophée Chopard has form in recognising talent destined for the stratosphere: in the past it’s been awarded to to the likes of Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Florence Pugh, Jessie Buckley, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Mike Faist and Gael García Bernal. All have seen their careers soar but Huppert cautioned Swindells and A’zion as they moved forward in their path. ‘Success is uncertain, capricious, and sometimes deceptive. I wish you something else — I wish you freedom. The freedom to choose. The freedom to refuse. The freedom to explore unexpected territories. The freedom to be yourselves. The freedom to dream. And above all, the freedom to remain faithful to that mystery that brought you here, because that mystery is what makes great actors.’
In accepting his award Swindells thanked his late mother, who tragically died of bowel cancer when he was seven years old. ‘My mother’s name is Phoebe. She died when I was very young and sadly, she didn’t get to see any of this, but this definitely would not be possible if not for her. She’s been an amazing spirit that’s been with me all this time.’
The celebration, co-hosted by Chopard’s Caroline Scheufele, festival president Iris Knobloch, and general delegate Thierry Frémaux, is in its 26th year and Swindells took home a gold and silver film reel trophy from the luxury jewellery house after a dinner by Michelin-starred chef, Bruno Oger, a performance from pianist Gina Alice Adlinger and dancing til the small hours.
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Words by JANE CROWTHER Trophée Chopard (Chopard Trophy) is awarded by a jury of professionals to two young actors in order to recognise and encourage their career
CANNES DISPATCH Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Words by JANE CROWTHER
Diego Luna’s return to directing – and his premiere of his fourth film, Ceniza en la Boca, at Cannes Film Festival – became something of an Y Tu Mama Tambien reunion. The film that made him a global star also gave him a lifelong friendship with director Alfonso Cuaron and co-star Gael Garcia Bernal. Both were present when Luna bowed his latest project in the Cannes Palais, Cuaron cheering on his protege and Bernal as executive producer on the film. Greg Williams captured him at the Martinez Hotel before he premiered his project.
A timely character study, his film tracks a pair of Mexican siblings abandoned by their mother (Adriana Paz) when she departs to Spain to escape the violence of her hometown. Eight years later, the children, 21 year-old Lucila (Anna Diaz) and teen Diego (Sergio Bautista), follow her to Madrid where a life of economic hardship and xenophobia awaits. Based on Brenda Navarro’s 2022 novel, the movie follows the numerous low-paid jobs Lucila must take to scrape her rent together, the sly ways in which she is disenfranchised by her employers and how a dream of safety (financially and emotionally) is so often out of reach.
Though it may not be Luna’s own experience of working abroad (he’s appeared in Star Wars films and TV, found success and happiness), the story is somewhat personal. ‘It’s a beautiful story, hard and difficult, about migration from a perspective we don’t see much,’ Luna told Cannes. ‘My mother died when I was two, so the subject of parents not being around hits me profoundly.’ He told Variety that ‘often, we have to grow up to understand what our parents did for us or didn’t do for us’.
The film touches on a hot topic as Spain has become a gateway for Latin Americans into Europe during the Trump administration. It also explores the concept of home, how to mourn or honour a family member and the gig economy. Cannes is a familiar place for Luna to debut his film; he first attended in 2003 as an actor in Soldados de Salamina, and has returned for Mister Lonely in 2007, as director of Abel in 2010 and as a Un Certain Regard jury member in 2016. Ceniza en la Boca has been bought by Netflix for Spanish-speaking territories and will bow in 2027.
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Words by JANE CROWTHER Ceniza en la Boca premiered at the 79th Cannes Film Festival and will debut on Netflix in 2027
CANNES DISPATCH Photographs & interview by GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER
Vincent Cassel admits that his first time visiting Cannes film festival was by hitchhiking. These days the celebrated French actor need not thumb for a lift and he returns to the Croisette with award-winning Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales, premiering at Cannes’ Grand Théâtre Lumière on Thursday night. Farhadi’s exploration of voyeurism is playing in competition at this year’s festival and stars Cassel in a dual role alongside French icons Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve.
Huppert plays Sylvie, a novelist who starts spying on two men (Cassel and Pierre Niney) and a woman (Virginie Efira) living across the street, hoping for inspiration for her next book. Hiring an assistant (Adam Bessa) to help her sort her thoughts, Sylvie begins to blur reality and fiction as she writes alternative existences she sees through her telescope..
Loosely inspired by the sixth episode of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Dekalog, Parallel Tales premiered in the famous Lumiere Theatre at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. Cassel told festival press that the dual role he played was ripe for playfulness and that he might have been tempted to act ‘less well’ as the fictional character; ‘but it’s not something I was able to do!’
Greg Williams photographed the actor at the famed Carlton Hotel before the film premiered to a five minute standing ovation.
Photographs & interview by GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER Parallel Talespremiered at the 79th Cannes Film Festival
CANNES DISPATCH Photographs & interview by GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER
‘The importance of the festival is not only to celebrate good films,’ says Stellan Skarsgård when Greg Williams meets him in his suite at the Majestic Hotel ahead of his Cannes Festival jury duties. ‘It’s mainly important because it puts the light on these films that don’t have any money for publicity. They don’t have money for billboards. And they get seen by a lot of people at festivals. They get noticed by awards; by festivals in general. I think that cinema needs to be preserved as cinema, in a cinema – so we don’t think that it’s the same experience to watch it on television. Because it’s not. It’s another art form. Cinema is supposing that you’re watching it all the time. That you’re concentrating on it. That you’re following the film in detail. And that means that you have a lot of things that are without words. That are unsaid, because it’s all on the screen. And those things are immensely valuable.’
Skarsgård would know. A veteran of the festival and an actor who has known the industry for years as well as watched his actor sons, Alexander and Bill, chart a course through it, the Swedish artist is thrilled to be spending ten days watching cinema under jury president Park Chan-wook. His own work has previously come under such scrutiny.
‘Breaking the Waves was my first Cannes Film Festival. I’d been to Berlin before. But it was overwhelming because it was also a great success for the film. It was insane. I was totally unprepared for it. Not as unprepared as [co-star] Emily Watson. She was very unprepared. It was her first film. I felt like I had to protect her,’ he laughs. ‘But, of course, it was beautiful. I came with several Lars von Trier films, and ended up with Melancholia. Every film was like reinvented cinema, and every film was something new; something people hadn’t seen before. It was always exciting to be here with a Lars von Trier film.’
Being a jury member is a special privilege, he says.And a very different experience from attending the festival as an actor.‘Nobody’s watching you for what you’ve done, and nobody’s demanding anything of you, except that you watch films. And that’s easy – compared to having the pressure of wanting to win, and having to win for the success of the film. But now, I’m just going to watch films. I’ve never seen a film at Cannes before, except for films that I’ve been in, because I’ve never had time….’
Photographs & interview by GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER Stellan Skarsgård is a jury member of the 79th Cannes Film Festival
