Current:Home > ScamsFrom ‘Anora’ to ‘The Substance,’ tales of beauty and its price galvanize Cannes-InfoLens
From ‘Anora’ to ‘The Substance,’ tales of beauty and its price galvanize Cannes
View Date:2024-12-24 07:11:06
CANNES, France (AP) — “Beauty is like war,” says Gary Oldman, in character, in Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope.” “It opens doors.”
“Parthenope,” in which Oldman plays the author John Cheever, premiered Tuesday in Cannes. It’s just one of the films at this year’s festival to consider beauty: its disruptive power, its cost and the sometimes dangerous portals it might pry ajar. After the competition lineup — the films vying for the Palme d’Or — got a lackluster start last week, Cannes was enlivened by a string of films both fleshy and carnal.
Foremost among them was Sean Baker’s “Anora,” in which Mikey Madison stars as a 23-year-old Russian American stripper in Brighton Beach-Coney Island section of Brooklyn. Baker, the director of “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket,” has a keen eye for the way social stratification seeps into even the most intimate relationships of his protagonists.
“There’s a million stories to be told in the world of sex workers,” Baker told reporters Wednesday in Cannes. “It’s a livelihood, it’s a career, it’s a job and it’s one that should be respected. In my opinion, it should be decriminalized and not in any way regulated because it is a sex worker’s body and it is up to them to decide how they will use it in their livelihood.”
“Anora,” which will be released later this year by Neon, the indie distributor with an enviable Palme d’Or record, has been arguably the breakout of this year’s Cannes. It begins with writhing slow-motion bodies in the strip club where Anora (Madison) works. It’s there that “Ani” meets a young and goofy Russian client named Ivan (Mark Eidelstein) who quickly becomes enraptured and hires her to sleep with him for a week.
On a ketamine-induced Las Vegas escapade, they impulsively get married. Ivan is the son of a Russian oligarch so Ani thinks she’s hit the jackpot. But soon after they return, Ivan’s father’s loyal henchmen — themselves working-class underlings — arrive to secure an annulment. What follows is farcical and funny until it’s devastating, with a final act that expresses something tragic about transactional sex, and maybe even love.
It’s also a fierce and fiery tour-de-force performance by Madison, for whom Baker wrote the film, and who might just run away with Cannes’ best actress prize.
“What happened here?” asks the goon squad’s head honcho upon arriving at the helter-skelter scene after the frantic and barely successful entrapment of Ani.
“She happened,” one answers.
Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” perhaps the most debated film of Cannes, is a blunt and gory body-horror satire about beauty standards. It, too, is a showcase for its lead actress. Demi Moore plays a middle-aged Hollywood star, Elisabeth Sparkle, who senses her status slipping. To rekindle her youth, she begins taking a mysterious serum that spawns a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley.
The rub? They have to trade places every seven days. Any overage — getting too hooked on youth — will dearly cost her. What evolves is an extended and increasingly gruesome metaphor for a male-dominated movie industry (Dennis Quaid plays a misogynistic, over-the-top executive) and for the self-inflicted obsession of trying to stay superficially young. It’s Botox as a monster movie.
“I don’t know any woman that doesn’t have an eating disorder or some other thing that they do that does violence to their bodies,” Fargeat told reporters in Cannes. “I think this violence is very extreme.”
“The Substance,” which was acquired for distribution by Mubi after its premiere, was divisive — hailed by some as an instant body-horror classic and derided by others for its hyper-stylized and ironically superficial characters. What’s more certain is that “The Substance” is a triumphant film for Moore, 61, who throws every bit of herself into the role, with seemingly none of her character’s self-consciousness.
With its megawatt red-carpet pageants, the Cannes Film Festival, itself, is not immune to shining a harshly objectifying glare over all those that enter its cauldron of celebrity. (Elisabeth could easily be imagined having the same pangs of insecurity before coming here.) But it’s part of the festival’s grand contradictions: what it exalts inside its cinemas is often in direct opposition to all that’s transpiring just down the Croisette.
Sorrentino, the Italian director of “The Great Beauty” and “The Hand of God,” has long been a regular in Cannes, and beauty has in many ways always been his primary subject. It’s more explicitly so in “Parthenope,” which stars newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta as the title character, a woman of such beauty that helicopters hover above to get a closer look.
“Are you aware of the disruption your beauty causes?” asks Oldman’s Cheever, a brief and melancholy acquaintance.
But while Sorrentino is clearly beguiled, too, his movie follows Parthenope on a more existential quest. She resists many of her suitors and instead devotes herself to academia and inner life. The definition of beauty in “Parthenope,” which A24 will release, continually broadens: to its Naples setting, to cinema, to something achingly soulful.
“During the journey I made in making this film, it was as if I had to get rid of a younger side of me, that carefree one,” said Porta, “and enter the world of grown-ups and focus on what I want to do in life.”
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
veryGood! (6)
Related
- World War II veteran reflects on life as he turns 100
- Fort Campbell soldier found dead in home was stabbed almost 70 times, autopsy shows
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword, Right Over There (Freestyle)
- Woman swimming off Japanese beach was swept into the Pacific, but rescued 37 hours later and 50 miles away
- Monument erected in Tulsa for victims of 1921 Race Massacre
- TikToker Bella Brave's Mom Shares Health Update Amid Daughter's Medically Induced Coma
- Deion Sanders and son Shilo address bankruptcy case
- US appeals court says some NCAA athletes may qualify as employees under federal wage-and-hour laws
- The Stanley x LoveShackFancy Collaboration That Sold Out in Minutes Is Back for Part 2—Don’t Miss Out!
- AT&T 2022 security breach hits nearly all cellular customers and landline accounts with contact
Ranking
- Special counsel Smith asks court to pause appeal seeking to revive Trump’s classified documents case
- Miracle dog found alive over 40 feet down in Virginia cave, lured out by salami
- 2 more officers shot to death in Mexico's most dangerous city for police as cartel violence rages: It hurts
- Beastie Boys sue Chili's owner, claiming 'Sabotage' was used without permission
- Minnesota man is free after 16 years in prison for murder that prosecutors say he didn’t commit
- Man plotted electrical substation attack to advance white supremacist views, prosecutors say
- Duchess Meghan makes surprise appearance to support Prince Harry at ESPY Awards
- Report: UFC's Dana White will give last speech before Trump accepts GOP nomination
Recommendation
-
What happens to Donald Trump’s criminal conviction? Here are a few ways it could go
-
Ammo vending machines offer 24/7 access to bullets at some U.S. grocery stores
-
Marathon Oil agrees to record penalty for oil and gas pollution on North Dakota Indian reservation
-
Home insurance costs — already soaring — are likely to keep climbing. Here's why.
-
Zendaya Shares When She Feels Extra Safe With Boyfriend Tom Holland
-
National safety regulator proposes new standards for vehicle seats as many say current rules put kids at risk
-
Social Security recipients could see the smallest COLA increase since 2021. Here's what to expect.
-
Nordstrom Anniversary Sale 2024: The Best Beauty Exclusive Deals from La Mer, Oribe, NuFACE & More