The new Hollywood hasn’t said its last word yet: The presentation of the latest film from Martin Scorsese, 80, which brings together his favorite actors DiCaprio and De Niro for the first time, caused a stir on Saturday’s red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.
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After Harrison Ford Thursday and his “Indiana Jones”, it was the turn of another legend of American cinema and proved on the famous steps that he is still alive: the Palme d’Or in 1976 with “Taxi Driver”, the president of the Scorsese, who as one of the biggest names in world cinema, presents “Killers of the Flower Moon” in 1998.
Even without being in the running for the Palme d’Or, this feature film drew a large crowd around the Palais des Festivals to catch a glimpse of the many stars climbing the steps ahead of the official screening earlier in the evening: Cate Blanchett, Naomi Campbell, Isabelle Huppert.
The arrival of Scorsese and the two actors got the crowd clamoring for selfies and autographs.
This feature film was kept top secret until its official presentation, with the exception of the first images that the director revealed in Las Vegas at the end of April and its trailer, which has just been put online and which promised a complete film full of suspense and sophisticated photography.
Scorsese brings together for the first time two of his favorite actors, Robert De Niro, 79, (“Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull”, “Mean Streets”…) and Leonardo DiCaprio, 48, (“The Wolf of Wall”) Street “, “Shutter Island”), in a new universe, that of a Native American tribe, Osage, owners of a country rich in black gold and suddenly the victim of murders and disappearances.
DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, a man in love with a Native American (actress Lily Gladstone) and involved in a conspiracy hatched by cattle magnate William Hale, played by oil-hungry Robert De Niro. An FBI agent, played by Jesse Plemons, is tasked with solving the murders.
The director wanted to show how some Americans “were able to rationalize violence – even against those they love – by simply saying, ‘This is civilization. One group in and another out,'” he explained in Los Angeles.
Out of competition
The film explores “a forgotten part of our past,” said Leonardo DiCaprio, who was initially cast to play the FBI detective but settled for a darker role and spent time with the Osage Natives. About 40 of them joined the cast and some climbed the steps on Saturday.
The film was shot in the actual locations where the Osage live. “It was about immersing yourself in that world,” the New York director insisted, despite the heat and the coyotes roaming the Oklahoma prairies.
The screening of this event film in Cannes is a powerful symbol of cinema and dark spaces: Martin Scorsese chose Netflix and the small screen for his previous work The Irishman, starring De Niro, Pacino and Joe Pesci.
This new 3:30 film, which costs $200 million, also carries the colors of a technology company, namely Apple. But the apple giant has agreed to bring it to theaters (October 18 in France), opening the doors to the Cannes Film Festival, the defender of the big screen.
Until the end, the festival dreamed of including this Scorsese in the race for the Palme d’Or, but the producers preferred to keep their place outside the competition.
There’s a big gap on the competition side Saturday: a first film, Banel and Adama, by French-Senegalese Ramata-Toulaye Sy, 36, and May December, the last by Todd Haynes (“Dark Waters”) . , “I’m Not There”…) with a duo of female stars, Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.